Another friends and family update. For the past month, I was learning to wear contact lenses again. It was very different from my previous experience because my eyes are getting dry fast. First, I was freaking out to put the contacts in and to take them out, because the implants are so close to the surface. Also, I started from just two hours, as I was doing thirty-eight years ago, when I started wearing contacts for the first time.

Another problem was that I wore hard contacts for thirty-eight and a half years and the soft ones just for four months. I was having trouble with soft contacts for most of that time, and now, after four months interval, it was even more challenging. It’s only through the past week, that I became more confident in putting the contacts in and taking them off, and that my eyes are not so dry all the time. However, I still do not wear contacts for the whole day. The good part is that with implants, I am -4, not -14.

Yesterday, I went to my next post-surgical appointment. The goal was to check whether I need a removal of the film over my implants, and as expected, I need it. There will be two procedures, one next Thursday, and the second one a week later. After that, I should go to my regular eye doctor and hopefully will figure out a more accurate prescription. She should be open by then. As for my retina, it looks like the problems which were likely to emerge, emerged indeed. Again, not like ai did not know that my left eye is only half functioning, but it looks like fixing it is not an option but rather a necessity. I was scheduled to go to the retina doctor on July 9, but the surgeon asked it to be changed to ASAP, which will be six days after my second procedure. Then, I guess he will schedule surgery.

All of the above make my travel plans even more uncertain because now I need to plan around Brussels decisions, our internal regulations, my medical procedures, and Boris’. Fortunately, the airlines are extremely flexible now, and you can change your flight plans an unlimited number of times as close to the flight as possible. So we will see what the retina doctor will say, what EU will say, and whether there will be flights with less than twelve hours connections.

It’s hard for me to tell whether the problems with my back have returned because I am working from home, or they just returned – after all, last spring, the situation was the same. It started to get worse when it should have become better. This time, it is all related to walking. Standing is fine, but walking started to be more and more painful again. On the one hand, it could be because I do not walk with my backpack anymore (it helps me to stay in balance); on the other hand – it still shouldn’t have been like this.

I do not like to go at length about “how exactly I feel unwell,” so I will stop here. I still had some leftovers from the last year’s prescription, but I had to use it often recently and was running out of it. I was not sure whether the orthopedics is considered essential, but I was hoping that I could get a prescription refill.

When I called the doctor’s office, they told me that they are open and that if I am comfortable with it, they would rather see me in person.

I went there last Friday; there was almost nobody in the waiting area, and I didn’t wait at all. They took the Xrays, and it looks like all the same problems I had a year ago, which does not go away, and which was not supposed to go away.

So I started everything again, as last spring: a steroid pack, already done, which, as usual, caused a short-term relief. On Wednesday, I started physical therapy. My usual place is in business, which means I do not need to travel far. Fortunately, I got my favorite therapist, who has scoliosis herself. Last year, she showed me a lot of great exercises which help me a lot, if done consistently. I already had two sessions with her and will continue for two more weeks. They all wear masks, and I wear a mask when I come in. They also have a box of disposable gloves, so when a patient needs to get on an elliptical or to do some other exercises, they put the gloves on. They also limited the number of patients they treat simultaneously.

Last week, when I was at the doctor, he said I might need steroid shots (which I refused the previous year), and that he hopes I won’t need another surgery. I hope so, too! It’s frustrating that I do not quite understand what causes the problem. All these “narrow exits” do not bear any meaning to me, and I can’t consider steroid shots being treatment, it’s just pain management.
Most likely (and hopefully), I will feel better in a couple of weeks, but most likely, it won’t be permanent. It might become my seasonal activity :).

Once again, tons of details, mostly for my real-life friends.

Probably the worst thing about these eye surgeries so far was these four days before the second surgery when I had to take my right contact lense out. I asked my doctor whether it will make any sense to take out one of my -14 lenses and put my -2.75 in the left eye, and she shook her head and said I wouldn’t be able to see anything. So I had to survive with one eye.

For some reason, when I was talking to the clinic staff in the fall, I believed them when they told me that I would be fine with one eye for two weeks “because people use one eye most of the time anyway.” I should have been skeptical since by then, I already knew they do not understand the severity of my situation, but for some reason, I believed them.

Continue reading “More Details on the Second Eye Surgery” →

On Tuesday, I had my second (right) eye operated. This time my surgery was very early in the day (we had to be there at 8-15 AM) and overall went much better than the first one. Since I mentioned to Vlad that I’d experienced some pain during the first surgery (and the only reason I’ve said it was because of my known high pain tolerance level), Vlad made sure everybody knew about that. He mentioned it to each of the nurses who appeared by me, and to the surgeon. They ave me more local anesthesia, and not only ai had virtually no pain at that time, but I also had fewer effects when it started to wear off in the afternoon.

The fog started to disappear earlier, and I had less “bloody spots” during the first two days.
I ended up being again about -3, which was expected, even with the different lens types.
That was after the surgery that we had ice-cream instead of lunch, and I got more treats from Vlad today.

This morning I realized that the surgeon’s mark was still on my forehead 🙂