I had my right eye’s vitreous removed on Thursday. The surgery center is in Chattanooga, which is not Rome. It is, in fact, about an hour and a half away from our house. A long-time friend of my cousin was volunteered by my aunt to drive me. We left our house at around 5:30 AM, a time with which I am only theoretically familiar.

I was told beforehand not to eat after midnight before the surgery, so I expected to receive anesthesia. Imagine my delight when they told me I would only be sedated with Versed, and would be awake while the surgeon stuck sharp instruments into my eye. It was already to late to run, so I just accepted it, probably the way a condemned prisoner accepts that he is being led to the firing squad.

They draped my good eye, and possibly my bad eye, so I couldn’t see the team as they prepared their foot-long syringes and scalpels, or whatever they used. In fact, I couldn’t really see or feel anything they did. They did tell me that Versed induces amnesia, so it’s possible I just don’t remember. But it certainly seemed that I didn’t feel anything. I felt no pain, and my eye has not hurt since, except for a little twinge that feels muscular when I move my eyes around.

I got home before lunch, and proceeded to keep my head facing down as instructed for the rest of the day. This is because they injected a gas (sulfur hexafluoride, if you’re curious) into my eye to help press the retina up against the back of my eye, as I think I mentioned in my previous post. They put a patch on my eye, unfortunately not a black patch, so I was blind in that eye for the evening. As the evening progressed, I began to see a light display in my right eye. There were blue lights that looked like stars, and bright blue lines that looked like refugees from a neon sign. There were also what looked like wrestling black cats around the periphery of my field of view. That worried me a little. Not just the cats, but the whole thing.

Today, Friday, I went back to Chattanooga for a post-op checkup. We left at 6:15, a more civilized hour. More civilized, but not really civilized. They dilated my eye and looked inside, and then the doctor said it was good. They left the patch off and I found that all the literature I had read that said my vision would be very blurry after the surgery was true. I could actually see better with my right eye completely covered than after they removed the patch. The blurry eye’s vision was competing, and pretty successfully, with my better eye’s vision. I now know what people mean when they say they can see only vague shapes.

I also keep seeing someone sneaking up on my right side, but they disappear when I turn to look with my good eye.

The surgeon told me that the lights and lines are normal after retina surgery, so I am just relaxing and enjoying them. They had disappeared by Friday morning, but they have come back this evening as I write this. Now if I close my eyes I see a very pretty Christmas display, with strings of blue and white lights across my chest and a starry heaven above. I saw a big orange pumpkin that went all the way around the periphery of my vision just a while ago, and the black cats were back. At this moment, the residents of the surrounding hills have put up Christmas lights all along the ridge lines, and there is a large spherical ornament above, kind of like the moon, but with white lights inside.

Now that’s gone and I see orange bat wings.

It’s all quite amusing, but I hope not too long lasting. The surgeon said I can expect my vision to improve as the gas in my eye is absorbed. Right now it’s like looking through an aquarium. only worse. If I look straight down, my vision is slightly less blurry, but not enough that you would want me to drive you to the grocery store. They put a green, plastic bracelet around my wrist warning everyone that I have a gas in my eye which could cause permanent eye damage if I’m forced to go on an airline flight or drive to high altitudes. I discovered that if I brought the bracelet right up to my eye, close enough that it probably looks scary to anyone watching, I could read the text. It’s like using a magnifying glass. That was interesting, but the most interesting part is that I had to use the sharpest region of my eye to do that, the part that was damaged by my vitreomacular traction.The part that was completely blind before my surgery.

So, I can now see with that part of my eye, at least a little. It’s enough to give me some hope for a reasonable recovery.

In the meantime, I will keep everyone posted if I see anything more interesting in my bad eye.