Buckle Up for Surgery

I'm trying to keep this as narrative as possible without being boring. Sorry if that's what's happening, but anyone reading should be able to skim for the parts they really want to read. 

November 28, 2012: The day of surgery. My first scleral buckle.

The nurse pulls out the IV catheter. I recognize it from my year and a half working at a veterinary clinic and monitoring animal surgeries. I knew what was coming. 

Pinch. 

She was good. Barely felt it. IV in, check. Blankets on, check. Pulse monitor on, check. Now I had the joy of listening to my every nervous heartbeat and knowing what my blood pressure is every five minutes. I discovered if you twitch your finger just slightly while its in the finger clip for the heart rate monitor, you can try to draw pictures with the squiggly lines. 

Before the anesthesiologist arrived, I had every person walking up to me and asking me which eye I was having the procedure done on. This is normal, don't be surprised. That's what I was told. If anything it's reassuring! They can't mess this up. Plus Dr. Grodin came in and initialed above my left eyebrow. 

The anesthesiologist comes over and introduces herself. She was great. I was told that I would be given Propofol. There's another familiar term, not just from the veterinary practice. Ryan and my mom are standing next to my bed, with the anesthesiologist on the other side. As soon as she said propofol, we all kind of looked at each other. About 10 seconds later I blurted out that it was the drug that late Michael Jackson was using to sleep at night. Everyone else was thinking it. They said their goodbyes and then she proceeded to inject my IV with another drug. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, I felt like I had drank 6 beers. 

I vaguely remember being wheeled into the operating room. I was told that the propofol was being injected now and before I knew it, I was asleep. While under the deeper sedation, I was told that they injected a large needle full of a numbing agent into my eye socket area to numb my eye and all the muscles surrounding it. Then I was brought back up to a twilight state of anesthesia. The hour and twenty minute surgery felt like 15 minutes. I was awake for the entire thing. They beat my eye up pretty good, but I felt nothing. Check out the videos of scleral buckle surgery on YouTube if you want to see it cut down to a 7 minute summary. I talked to the staff the entire time. Mostly about Christmas lights apparently. Ryan was a regular ole Clark Griswold this year and we had a light display that could have caused a mild power outage whenever we turned it on. Must have been why. 

Next thing I know, I hear them say they're finished. 

"Oh WOW! You're finished?? That was so quick!" 

I remember saying that. And hearing the laughter afterwards. My perception of time was just so off.

While I was waking up fully, which honestly took about 20 minutes or so, I was insanely thirsty. They brought me water and apple juice. I couldn't touch my eye. It was covered with a big, white patch that was taped on. 

My awesome new pair of shades
with my door-to-door
wheel chair service.

Arrrg, matey!!

Nothing really hurt though. It was uncomfortable but I wasn't in pain. I was sent home with medications and instructions: three separate eye drops, four times a day. One kept my eye dilated. One was an antibiotic. The last a steroid drop. Two oral meds: prednisone and a diuretic.  All to be started the day after surgery. Well at least I didn't need to do it the day of, right?

My Pharmacy

Now here's where it gets interesting: I was told there would be, well could be, minor side effects from these. Due to the large amounts of drops in my eye, it was constantly dripping and oozing. Gross, I know. The prednisone? Can give you indigestion/heartburn. Did I get that? Yup. Vivid, freakishly weird dreams every night? Yup, that too. Complete inability to take a nap? Ugh, yes. The diuretic (to help drain the fluid behind my retina), can cause tingling in the extremities. Did I get that? Oh did I. If I leaned on my arm, leg, hand or foot for more than 3 seconds, boom. NUMB. Dead as a doornail. And I had to pee every 15 minutes because of that med...Again, at least these didn't start until the day after surgery. 

The rest of the day seemed to go by quickly. I ate a small dinner but just could not get enough water. It was really helpful to have my husband and my mom helping out. I ate fresh salad and fruit. It was light and didn't upset my stomach. 

Sleeping was different. I'm a stomach sleeper so in this case, I wasn't allowed to really bend over or face the ground. And so begins the most uncomfortable sleeping position: on my back. I apologize in advance if this gets boring for those of you who don't have to go through this, but for those who do, these are the parts that explain how I felt and what it was like for ME. Some of you may love sleeping on your back! At that time I wish I could have been you. 

I had to sleep with my eye taped up and it wasn't too bad that night. Sleeping on my back wasn't all THAT bad, I think because I knew the strong necessity for doing so. It was helpful having stuff prepared a little prior to surgery. My husband set stuff up on the couch for me for during the day, especially while he was at work. I was laying so that my head was propped up but somewhat flat, with my legs out directly in front of me. This was the most comfortable position for the first few days, since you could lay there and watch TV without having to keep your head in an awkward position. He made sure I had each eye drop and oral med I needed right next to me on the table, as well as the Tums, Advil, Kleenex box, a small trash can, water and granola bars. Blankets and pillows were within reach of the couch. It was also very convenient being on one level in our apartment- not having to navigate stairs made things easier.

Next day- surgery follow up first thing in the AM. Here's a preview of what I looked like the next morning....

The redness is true to color...