The Beginning

November 26, 2012 at 3:30 in the afternoon, I walked into a doctor’s office with both of my eyes wide open, glasses on, vision clear. For the most part. By the time I would leave there 3 hours later, my life would be different forever, with the whole day feeling like a blur. 

In one afternoon, I was diagnosed with a retinal detachment and lattice, put on a surgical schedule for two days later, had a high intensity laser shot in one eye, and was sent off for a pre-surgery physical. What would happen when I left that night was the easy part. The exhaustion from that day was definitely the easy part. It was everything that would follow that would be hard. 

I decided to make this blog to bring light (pun) to what I experienced and will be experiencing long term. It’s a lot different to say, “I had my broken arm repaired” or “my appendix was removed” and have someone else say “me too” or “my friend/brother/sister/mom/dad/etc had that too.” But every time I said to someone “I have a detached retina,” I got blank stares. And then the obvious slew of questions asking what it is, how I got it, what happens now, and so on. So if you have this happen to you, please use this as a resource- I know I wish I would have had something like this. If you come across this for another reason, use it as a reason to be thankful for the health of your eyes. 

I have a lot of information and experiences that I will be organizing and posting in the next week and if even one person who experiences what I have (and what i will soon be experiencing) finds benefit from reading this, it will have served its purpose. 

On January 23, I will be having my second (and hopefully final) surgery to repair my retina. It will be starting then that I will spend two weeks, face down, with a gas bubble in my eye as a start to another round of surgical recovery.