The morning after my retina surgery, I had my first follow-up appointment and the bandage came off. Lo and behold, my surgeon pronounced the procedure a great success, so good that I could forgo the usual positioning restrictions of spending 45 minutes of every hour either face down or on my right side. Yes, I should lie in those positions as often as possible rather than sit up, and I should never lie on my back facing up. But I could use the computer a few hours a day. To be cautious, I ended up watching a lot of DVD’s and Neflix streaming while lying on the couch on my right side, plus reading the newspaper online via my husband’s iPad.
After all, I still had one good eye. The affected eye, however, was useless since it was filled with an air bubble whose purpose was to keep the retina in position while it healed. This meant that looking through that eye was like having my eye open underwater; I could see colors and shapes moving around but not much else. So I kept it closed most of the time or wore an eye patch. My grandson provided me with a cool pirate eye patch [see photo] that was more comfortable than the one Kaiser sent me home with and allowed me to wear my glasses with it on.
Note that I’ve said nothing about pain. That is because I haven’t had any. None when my retina tore and started to detach, none during surgery, none post-op, and none as I’ve recovered. The most uncomfortable part has been dealing with 3 kinds of eye drops at 2 hour intervals, one of which stings and leaves my eye dilated all the time, forcing me to avoid bright light unless I keep my eye shut.
But one week follow-up appt got the drops down to 4 times a day, and that’s a small price to pay for what looks to be an excellent recovery. Even my current glasses seem to still work now that the bubble is small enough for me to see around it.
Next post will be an exercise in magical thinking.
As I left off in yesterday’s post, I was back in LA, heading for pre-op. The good news was that I would have a vitrectomy [google it] instead of the scleral buckle that my other eye had undergone, and thus wouldn’t need the general anesthesia that had previously so debilitated me. Anticipating surgery, my last meal had been dinner in Kalamazoo the previous night, so I had now been fasting 24 hours.
Once in pre-op I learned a more serious emergency was taking more time than expected, so everyone else was in line for the one other operating room. My delay would probably be around two hours. But no problem, other than my growling stomach. My husband had his smart phone loaded with all kinds of podcasts. We tried Science Friday but I couldn’t concentrate, so he suggested Old Jews Telling Jokes of which he had 76 episodes. Talk about relieving my anxiety. The nurses and other patients must have thought we were crazy because we were laughing so hard in our curtained-off cubicle.
Finally the anesthesiologist came to tell me I was next. She also explained that I would receive a nerve block for the pain and some sedation, but I’d be awake while they operated. I’d hear what was going on and while there wouldn’t be pain, I’d feel the pushing, pulling, probing, etc in my eye. OMG, I thought, I’m going to have eye surgery and watch it happening from the inside. At least it wouldn’t hurt, and if all went right, neither would my recovery since that area of the eye has no pain receptors. That’s why I’d felt no discomfort so far.
When I finally got into the OR, I hadn’t eaten for 30 hours. To my surprise, somebody said they had Pandora and asked what music I wanted. I immediately said “the Beatles,” which was received with enthusiasm by the OR staff. Then came the awesome part. As the surgeon did his thing in my eye, instead of seeing him, I saw the most incredible light show. For those of a certain age who saw various Laserium shows in the 70’s, this was orders of magnitude better. It was like fireworks of every color were going off, with shooting stars, rainbows, dancing flowers, and stuff I can’t even describe. I was sad when the images faded away in the recovery room. But boy was I famished. I downed 4 cups of cranraspberry juice and umpteen crackers, then ate dinner when we got home.
To be continued in my next post.
Those of you keeping up with my travels may be thinking: “Oct 28, Maggie is back from her East Coast and Chicago book tour.” You’d be right, but missing the important part, which is that I was forced to return a week early for emergency eye surgery to repair another retina detachment.
Yes – I suffered one in the other eye in Feb 2011, less than a week before my son’s wedding. Other than a post announcing the bad news, my blog went on hiatus for 2 months. While that was indeed a harrowing experience, it doesn't compare to recognizing an impending detachment while away in Kalamazoo, Michigan [my home is Los Angeles] – and on a Sunday no less, a few hours after speaking at Congregation Moses. Obviously this was bad news, but what following was a string of incredibly good luck.
First, my hosts included a doctor on the medical school faculty, who promptly called its hospital to find the ophthalmologist on call. The fellow called back in less than 30 minutes and told us to forget about the ER, but go directly to his office. There he made the diagnosis that I knew was coming, but there was good news as well. My retina had only torn and was not yet detached. He recommended getting back to LA asap, the first step of which was a train to Chicago.
Once back in Chicago, I remembered that I had my LA retinal specialist’s cell number. Hoping he’d tell me I could take a few days to return [and thereby finish my tour], I called him. Instead, he said to get on the first plane back to LA Monday morning, then go directly to the hospital where he was scheduling me for surgery that afternoon. Luck was still with me as SWA had one seat left on the 8:30 nonstop. When I arrived at Kaiser WLA ophthalmology, my doctor saw that though the tear had worsened, my retina was still attached. I had gotten home just in time.
That’s enough computer time for my eye today. Tomorrow’s post will continue my story.
Next week [Oct 14 and 16] I’ll be speaking in New Jersey on Oct 14 and 16. Here’s a nice article in New Jersey Jewish News on what I’ll be discussing.
Interesting that I’m getting a lot more requests for interviews in advance of my upcoming Fall book tour than I did before last Spring’s tour, even though Rav Hisda’s Daughter: A Novel of Love, the Talmud & Sorcery is 6 months older and some of the locations [New Jersey and Long Island] are the same. My publicist says it’s because the sorcery angle is a great hook just before Halloween and I’m now an expert on ancient Jewish magic.
Here’s a great article in the Maryland Gazette, publicizing my appearance next Sunday at Kehilat Shalom in Gaithersburg.
I hope this bodes well for the sequel, Enchantress, which has a pub date of Sept 30, 2014.
The newest episode of The Book of Life podcast, hosted by librarian Heidi Estrin, features an interview with Maggie Anton, author of Rashi’s Daughter series, and of the new series that kicks off with Rav Hisda’s Daughter: A Novel of Love, the Talmud, and Sorcery. This is Book I: Apprentice, with more exciting sequels to follow. Maggie shares the background on how she wrote the book and even recites some actual spells, so don’t miss it!
You can hear the podcast online by clicking this link.