Hello Darkness My Old Friend…
I’m writing this with a tiny bubble of gas bobbling around the bottom of my right eye so please excuse typos. The bubble is called Bob who has been with me for ten weeks and although I’d love Bob to bob off I’ve grown to accept him into my world. I’ve been living in a surreal, scary, fascinating world where I’m now moving from the darkness into the light. It’s been quite a learning experience so I thought I’d share my story, how long it takes, the side effects, and the lessons learned.
Look out for detached retina symptoms. This can happen to short-sighted people like me, I’m used to zig zags, floaters and flashes ahead of a migraine so when I sensed a dark patch in the bottom right of my eye I didn’t react immediately. Luckily after 24 hours I did, my optician arranged an immediate hospital visit and I had the operation early the next morning.
The operation… the thought of a Vitrectomy procedure under local anesthetic sounds far worse than it is in reality. You go through a psychological battle between the understandable squeamish thought of what’s happened compared to the lack of any actual pain. As it was happening I felt I’d been transported into some sort of weird virtual reality video game with a kaleidoscope of light reminiscent of a St Peppers video. I took many deep breaths and had complete faith in the surgeon and his team.
How long does it take to recover after surgery? It is really important to try and get this information at the beginning. For some it is two weeks for other like me more like three months. I didn’t seek clarity at the start and I wish I had.
First few days after surgery. Do what they tell you, I had to lie face down for a week so I did. It was horrible but necessary. Buy a special cushion to help with this positioning and don’t feel guilty for feeling tired and apathetic, you don’t have to radically broaden your mind discovering life changing podcasts and new music. Set an alarm on your phone so you never forget to take your eye drops.
The recovery processes. Think about getting an eye patch earlier than I did. I stumbled around for a few weeks before I put my glasses on with a patch slid over the lens. The brain soon adapts to using just the one eye. I would still bump into things, miss the glass when pouring a drink and struggle with my peripheral vision. The gas will slowly disperse and you’ll get some vision back at the top of your eye as it gradually fades away.
Hope. For those who have the three-month recovery it feels like an age but it will pass. The operations are statistically very successful and you will live a normal life again. I missed doing vigorous exercise but discovered walks I’d never done before. I did in the end discover new music and podcasts, I slowed down the pace of my life, I got lots of mundane stuff done and firstly through necessity then through pleasure started holding hands with my wife a little more.