I woke up this morning and things were not good at all from a visual perspective. Everything was very dark, even inside the house. I thought it was a very cloudy day when, in fact, the weather was clear and sunny. After about three hours of it I finally called my retinal specialist. A little over an hour later, I was in his office. He told me the bad news. There is some new scar tissue pulling on my retina. It is starting to detach again. I saw this same doctor just two days ago, and all was fine then. Amazing how quickly things can change with the eye.

So, tomorrow morning at 9:00, I’ll be undergoing my second eye surgery in less than three weeks. Though the cornea remains in good shape, the retinal surgery will be much more complex this time. Another vitrectomy will be performed, along with membrane stripping and replacement of the vitreous with a silicone oil to insure the retina remains attached. Despite the fact that no cornea surgery needs to be performed this time, this operation will last longer than the previous one. It was an hour and a half last time. This time it will take about two hours.

Coming right up on Main Menu in less than 40 minutes, Larry Skutchan from APH will talk about the Icon, BookPort II and many other interesting topics. Don’t miss it!

Here’s a quick reminder to check out Petro’s Podcasts covering the use of the very accessible Replay A/V and Replay Converter applications.

Hello everyone. This is just a quick update. I’m not doing so great today. I decided to do laundry this morning. It is the first time I’ve ventured outside completely on my own for a significant length of time. Sadly, my adventures resulted in disappointment. Though I do have a great deal more vision in the very right side of my eye, the rest of my visual field is just as cloudy, or maybe even worse, than it was before surgery! The results are just way too distorted to be usable. I feel like this situation is much worse than what I had before in many respects. I hope to get some answers when I see the retinal specialist who performed that portion of the operation. That’s coming up on Tuesday the 13th.

On Monday, Feburary 26, I underwent surgery to transplant the cornea and repair a retinal detachment in my right eye. The cornea transplant, my fifth, went very well and I required less retinal surgery than originally expected. The Vitreous was removed, the retina repositioned and lasered back into place. No silicone or other materials needed to be injected into my eye, so the Vitreous will be able to grow back unimpeded.

I am now healing, but there is one concern. When I look out the very right side of my eye, I can see quite clearly. The vision seems to be clearer than I have ever experienced in the past. Unfortunately, I can’t keep my eye in that extreme position for more than about half a second. Otherwise, my central vision seems much more cloudy. The surgeon who performed the cornea transplant portion of the operation says all is going very well, and this issue may be due to the optical characteristics within my eye caused as the cornea changes shape during the healing process. I have seen the cornea specialist three times since surgery. This coming Tuesday I will have a follow up with the retinal specialist, whom I will also consult concerning this issue.

I was able to stay with Jeff and Keri Bishop down in Tucson for almost a week after the surgery. Keri helped me with administering the ointment four times a day as prescribed. Since my return home, Jessye, a junior student at the ASU College of Nursing has been administering the ointment, which has now been decreased to twice per day in the morning and evening. I am thankful to Jeff and Keri, as well as Jessye and the nursing college for their assistance. That’s about all I have to say for now. The pain is very minimal and, overall, my sight is better than it was before the surgery.