During the ensuing months, my brother and I packed and gave away everything in our family home. We settled our mother into an assisted living facility near my brother's home in Michigan, an hour-and-a-half from the home into which my parents and I had moved my senior year of high school, just after my dad's retirement from the Air Force. Forty years on the little lake in southwest Michigan, only memories now. The house was put on the market and sold rather quickly despite a poor housing market and the house in need of upgrades and modernization.
I finally returned home to Minnesota in mid-July, driving a U-haul home with furniture I couldn't bear to part with (my dad's chair, my parents' old double-bed). Now I had to really confront the grief over the year's events. With no job to return to (having had to retire so I could remain in Michigan), I was an emotional mess. For a while I considered staying retired, but that's not my nature... and I missed my income. Living on just my husband's pension, although doable, was not enticing. And sitting home all day gave me too much to think about. I started perusing the want ads and job sites, looking for a good opportunity.
In mid-August I had a follow-up appointment with my opthamologist about the floaters, which he now diagnosed as a PVD. He gave me a referral to a retinal specialist for September to discuss surgical options. A week later, the right eye went. Big honkin' floaters and flashing lights. Back to the doctor. No retinal tears, but another PVD. Now the right eye floaters swoop down from the right to the left, and both eyes together are sort of like old fashioned windshield wipers, where they both go toward the middle and then back to the sides. Over and over and over again.
Meanwhile, a former co-worker contacted me that her current company is hiring; would I be interested? Yes, but will I be able to handle the heavy computer work with all this swooping in and out? I interviewed about the same time in September as my appointment with the retinal specialist.
The RS informed me I was a candidate for a vitrectomy, which removes the vitreous gel in the eye, along with the floaters. Recovery is less traumatic than retinal surgery. The main complication is that it speeds up the development of cataracts; within six months to two years, I would need cataract surgery. So instead of two surgeries, I would ultimately have four. I've always been squeamish about my eyes, so this was a difficult decision. I decided to wait on the outcome of my job interview. No job= surgery. Job = wait on surgery. I got the job.
Fast-foward to March 2013. It's time to have the first surgery. All went well; no more blobs in my eye. Hmmm; I will have to do this on the right eye, too, but we're too busy at work so it will have to wait until fall. Over the summer I can tell my vision is going downhill in my left eye. When I meet with the RS in September to set up my next surgery, I do in fact have a cataract that is now bad enough to operate on in my left eye. Why am I at the fast end of the spectrum for cataract development? However, cataract surgery will have to wait until the second vitrectomy. (I am just about to switch insurance companies, and don't want to take a chance that my new insurance won't cover the vitrectomy. Cataract surgery is much more common.)
I had the second vitrectomy in early October. Slower recovery, very "tippy" and light-headed, quite possibly due to visual problems now that the left eye is worse. Thirty-day follow-up is with my opthamologist since he will be doing the cataract surgery, which is scheduled for mid-December.
Eight days before Christmas, on a Tuesday morning, I had cataract surgery. I was very nervous. One, they told me I would be less sedated and I would be looking at a bright light. Huh? Will I see things coming at me? Hear what's going on? I don't want to know it's happening. Two, and this was my bigger worry, how will I see with one eye needing glasses and the other not? I won't be able to see close up with my left eye, and I CAN see close up with my right eye, glasses or not.
Surgery went well, it really was a piece of cake. An hour after they wheeled me into the surgical room, I was HOME. No pain, just a little scratchiness that was relieved by Tylenol, and that was only for one day. At the next day's follow-up, my vision is 20/40 in my left eye... well enough to drive. However, I removed the left lens from my glasses so I could see the television better. It's too strong, but okay if I don't move my head much. The opthamologist told me it will be 4-6 weeks before my vision stabilizes. Yikes! Will I have to wait that long to get new glasses? I'm already going crazy.
Thursday I went back to work for 6 hours. Trying to see the computer screen is a challenge. Glasses on, glasses off. Cover up my left eye, take the cover off. Driving me NUTS. I called my optometrist (who has given me wonderful prescriptions in the past) and made an appointment for the next day.
To be continued.
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