Surprised! Anxious!

On Monday morning, I drove James to have his eye check up. When the nurse declared 12 as his right eye pressure, we were really happy.

Then the doctor checked his eye thoroughly. Surprised! He found a small break (i.e. detachment) towards the bottom of the retina. After explaining different treatment options, the doctor added gas to the bubble (through a hole that he already made before the surgery) and prescribed more eye drops. He told James to stay in the face down position (day and night) for the next 5-7 days so that the retina would have a chance to reattach.

"Now the gas bubble will take longer to dissolve. There is a 70-80% probability that this small fix and face-down rest will work. Otherwise something else (including another surgery) has to happen."

Facing more unknowns, I grew anxious. My heart sunk but James tried to comfort me as we left the clinic. "Thank God we are in the hands of an expert who found the problems in a timely fashion. And he knew what to do."

I worried and prayed. Later, I sent an e-mail to our prayer partners in the afternoon.

Yesterday (Tuesday, 6/24/08), I had client appointments before James' doctor appointment at 4 p.m. To prevent his retina from detaching more, the doctor decided to use laser to weld the retina to the inside wall of the eye ball. Don't ask me how, but I watched the doctor working 360 degree on James' eye for 20 minutes in a dark room. The green laser lines reminded me of the atmosphere of "Laser Quest." Eventually, the doctor added more gas and sent James home with painkillers.

After dinner, James had severe headache and I almost rushed him to the doctor. Good thing we were connected by phone and the doctor explained that the pain resulting from those laser burns would quiet down but any headache caused by severe high eye pressure would continue. He called us twice within the next two hours. James' pain indeed subsided so we could go to sleep.

I rested too but I woke up. Let me just write this down.

Acts of Service

Tomorrow James is going to have vitrectomy on his right eye. This morning he had a pre-op appointment. Since the eye clinic is closer to our son's place, we went there after visiting James' mom and slept over.

Once everyone was up, Scott asked, "Hey Dad, do you want me to give you a haircut? You may not have one for a few weeks." "Sure!" James exclaimed. I'm sure he was pleasantly surprised just as I was. So many things had happened in the last few weeks that haircut was not on our minds. But Scott showed he cared.

One of the five love languages promoted by Gary Chapman is "Acts of Service." How blessed it is to have a son willingly voluntarily giving daddy a haircut! We felt loved as we drove to meet James' eye doctor.

Earthquakes

Just got woken up by an earthquake. It seemed big to me but only shook once. Was I in a dream?

Needed to decide what to do. Check USGS and found latest earthquake in SF Bay Area --

Magnitude 3.5 Friday, June 6, 2008 at 2:02:53 am at epicenter
a few miles from Morago, Alamo, Danville, and Oakland.

Around midnight 26-27 hours ago, I finally published the newsletter that I had been written since the beginning of May. As I wrote about the Sichuan 7.9 earthquake, I thought about the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that was a 7.1 surface-wave magnitude.

It was on October 17. I was in my office when it happened. My tall bookcase fell and blocked my closed door. Thankfully I was not hit. I was able to slowly moved things out of my way and opened the door. Where were you?