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04-11-2021, 03:27 PM #1
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Shouldn't be a big deal, but my guy is trying to get my eye pressure down. Multitude of drops and an eye "procedure" with a laser failed to contain it at the end of last calendar year, so a little more extensive stuff will be done in the morning.
As I said, this is my month of visiting doctors. After this one, I have my podiatrist Thursday, and then I hope to be given a full clean health diagnosis in all respects, and will start back on my exercise program in about one week if all goes well. I need it.
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04-11-2021, 03:31 PM #2
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Location
- Greenville, KY
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- 8,283
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
For someone that can't even watch someone else put in a contact lens...there is no "little eye surgery". Good luck tomorrow!
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04-11-2021, 05:03 PM #3
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Good luck. Hope you don't come out looking like the characters in Total Recall. I think that's what they're trying to keep from happening given your past posts about the pressure.
People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back.
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04-11-2021, 05:45 PM #4
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Good luck
Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.--David Bowie.
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04-11-2021, 06:04 PM #5
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
A little prayer should work for a little problem right?
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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04-11-2021, 06:22 PM #6
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Prayers for you in your procedure tomorrow Mr. C!
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.
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04-11-2021, 09:06 PM #7
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Should be easy, but it is a surgery, so I don't take it too lightly either.
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04-11-2021, 10:39 PM #8
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Good luck!
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04-12-2021, 12:28 AM #9
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
My prayers for a very successful surgery.
My wife Donna has eye surgery in three weeks.
“Before I leave I’d like to see our politics begin to return to the purposes and practices that distinguish our history from the history of other nations,
“I would like to see us recover our sense that we are more alike than different. We are citizens of a republic made of shared ideals forged in a new world to replace the tribal enmities that tormented the old one. Even in times of political turmoil such as these, we share that awesome heritage and the responsibility to embrace it.”
-Patriot and Senator. John McCain
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04-12-2021, 12:12 PM #10
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Location
- Titusville, FL
- Posts
- 9,906
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Prayers for a successful surgery and a full recovery Darrell! 🙏
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04-12-2021, 01:32 PM #11
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
You’ll be in the prayers at the boss household.
No such thing as a little eye surgery, some are just smaller than others.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk"I have touched all the so-called capitals of basketball, but when it gets down to the short stroke, the only true capital of basketball is in Lexington." AL McGuire
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04-12-2021, 06:46 PM #12
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Hope this finds you after a successful surgery and the problem is corrected. When you get the patch off the view port, please punch in a howdy message.
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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04-12-2021, 09:01 PM #13
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Thanks, all. Hopefully it helped. Just been dizzy since being home. It sounds weird, but it's safe, they basically paralyze the optic nerve for up to 24 hours. I'm already doing better. My brain was playing weird tricks. I told my wife if I opened one eye, it was like seeing in portrait mode on your phone, and the other eye was like a 45 degree landscape mode. Keeping it shut is the only way to get over the dizziness.
Tomorrow will be better. Didn't want to not check in, because I'm fine and didn't want anyone to worry, but not a great time to post.
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04-12-2021, 11:00 PM #14
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back.
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04-13-2021, 06:43 AM #15
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Thanks for checking in, and I am truly relieved that everything went well.
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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04-13-2021, 08:23 AM #16
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Posts
- 32,711
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Hopefully the surgery is successful. My wife has battled the eye pressures for years. At one time she was on eye drops to help keep the pressure down.
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04-13-2021, 02:25 PM #17
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
It's a long story.
I was hit in the eye with a rock when I was 9, creating a trauma-induced cataract. Couldn't see out of my left eye for 17 years, until obtaining an intraocular lens implant. All my youth sports were played "one-eyed."
Fast forward many years. My pressure was running high in that eye because of the injury and subsequent surgery. Just always runs high. Eye drops prescribed. I was hit or miss on taking them.
One day I wasn't feeling well. Vision cloudy, dizzy, headache. Not blurry, but cloudy. Don't know how to explain it other than that. Laid down, and late on a Friday afternoon, told my wife I was going to see somebody. Found an optometrist--young Dr. Schaeffer, who may have saved my eye--who was open until 6. It was 5:45 and I hightailed it to his office.
He checked my pressure and it was 74. Highest he had ever heard, read about, seen, etc. Scale only goes to 80. It was bad. He gave me two different eyedrops and said, "get thee to the hospital, ASAP."
I got thee to the hospital, the Callahan Eye Hospital in downtown Birmingham. They admitted me and did all kind of things to save my eye. Again, more eye-savers (thank you, good folks.)
From that day forward, I have been the perfect patient with my eyedrops. My glaucoma specialist has had me on different cocktails of eyedrops and we have struggled to keep the pressure under 30, but when it's close to it, with my annual field vision tests showing my optic nerve is tough and I have not had any substantial vision loss, we've been OK with it.
In checkups in the last year or two, it has gotten worse. My 30 readings turned to 35. And this is with taking 4 different eyedrops a day. So in December they decided to do a laser procedure--he didn't think it would be successful, but it was relatively simple, no anesthesia, nothing invasive, just laser creating more drainage places. We did it and hoped.
In his words, "not impressed." I went back and I was at 34. Again, that's taking 4 drops per day religiously. Rather than facing the sun and meditating or praying, I take my drops.
So this procedure is still very safe, but involves putting in a shunt with a drainage sac and hopefully improving drainage. It is designed to work with drops, rather than replacing them.
Something like 50% of people over a certain age have glaucoma, many of whom don't know it, so I am glad I do. There is a healthy percentage of people who, no matter what, will still lose their vision despite all the treatments, medications, procedures and surgeries, but it is usually a very lengthy process.
My hopes are that these procedures will continue to slow the increase in pressure until such time as medical science delivers a "cure" for it. Good chance it will take 20 years or more, although I've technically had a number of those years go by already.
I am fortunate that it isn't a heriditary thing for me. My right eye pressure has never been over 21, and usually in the 16 range. Obviously, I don't want to lose my sight in that eye, but I do have a very important eye that is good and healthy...and also checked out at least four times a year, since I'm checking in with my ophthalmologist anyway.
Right after the surgery the eye pressure was 39, but that could have been *because* of the surgery. In fact, I'd expect it, so I am optimistic that Thursday when I go for the follow-up, my eye pressure will be down. I am still taking 3 eyedrops per day (same kind) right now for the pressure, but he temporarily took me off one.
Anyway, more than you care to know--but I highly, strongly, encourage all to get an eye checkup at least once a year. I think even an optometrist is fine, so long as they check your pressure. If it is high, "get thee to an ophthalmologist" in a hurry so you can get it under control.
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04-13-2021, 03:12 PM #18
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04-17-2021, 12:46 PM #19
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
At eye hospital today. Little setback. Eye pressure 55. Diuretic and 7 different eyedrops given. Probably reaction to steroid drops to prevent infection.
Edit...up to 10 drops now. Pressure still 51.Last edited by Darrell KSR; 04-17-2021 at 01:30 PM.
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04-17-2021, 03:16 PM #20
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Prayers up that the drops get the pressure back to a safe level.
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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04-17-2021, 04:13 PM #21
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Thanks, Dan. One of the doctors who participated in the minor surgery Monday was there and she actually performed another small surgery involving a small needle in my eye to relieve pressure. None of the pills or drops were successful in lowering the pressure below 50. She did the needle procedure once and the pressure dropped to 23, and said it wasn't good enough because she expects it to go back up tonight. So she said did it again and dropped it to 13.
She believes it's an allergic type reaction to the steroids I needed to prevent infection from the surgery. (A different kind of "roid rage," I suppose).
She wants to see me at the hospital in the morning at 10 in case she needs to redo that procedure. I give Dr. White a lot of credit. She was not supposed to be in tomorrow, but I told her that if they needed to do the needle thing tomorrow, I sure wish she would be the one to do it, and she said she would come in for me tomorrow.
Thank you, Callahan Eye Hospital and Dr. White. I don't mind telling you now that I was a little shook by this. Reminded me very much of that first experience I had years ago.
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04-17-2021, 08:06 PM #22
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Prayers for you, Darrell, and plenty of them...
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04-17-2021, 08:58 PM #23
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
God’s speed...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk"I have touched all the so-called capitals of basketball, but when it gets down to the short stroke, the only true capital of basketball is in Lexington." AL McGuire
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04-17-2021, 09:17 PM #24
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
I feel pretty good tonight. I was told my pressure was going to go back up, but I am hopeful.
Wish me luck in the morning. I don't know what happens if I'm allergic to steroids that are needed to prevent infection though.
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04-18-2021, 08:20 AM #25
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
I hope this morning post finds you at home instead of at the hospital with another date with the needle.
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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04-18-2021, 09:01 AM #26
Re: Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Well, I'm at home, but on my way to the hospital shortly. I have a "hospital appointment" at 10. The good news is, my vision is good, which tells me my pressure is fine this morning, which means no needle.
The symptoms of the extremely high pressure are pretty easy to recognize. Eye feels like it is oozing, although that can occur with other things (and does), but it is one of the symptoms. Vision is "cloudy" to the point where you can't see things. I can tell there's a car ahead of me if I'm parked behind it at a red light, but I can't tell it has a license plate, much less see one or a number. The nurse tried a vision test and of course, I couldn't see the chart, much less any of the letters. I am queasy, and I have what feels like a sinus headache behind only my left eye. There's a sharp pain, but it's not a terrible pain--I described it like a "3" out of 10. Just enough to annoy me.
So today, of those symptoms, I have...none of them. I think it will be a good day.
Off to the hospital.
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04-18-2021, 10:35 AM #27
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04-18-2021, 11:42 AM #28
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
Thanks, everything was great this morning. 13 eye pressure. Follow up Thursday at the clinic unless it spikes again (and I am pretty sure I can tell.)
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04-21-2021, 09:34 PM #29
Little eye surgery for me tomorrow
28 today. But that's not the pressure that knocks you for a loop.
Have had 5 hospital or clinic visits in the last 9 days. I have a glorious 8 days off until next Thursday, unless I have a problem. Today was disappointing because we had hoped it would stay in the teens, and if not, with all the meds, they'll have to do something else.
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04-22-2021, 03:05 PM #30
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