Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Another Eye Operation

Yesterday, Tuesday, July 29th James had another eye surgery. The gas bubble in his right eye was removed. The macular hole was found open. (Apparently fluids were leaking through that hole behind the retina and causing detachment.) Part of retina was cut and reattached to eye wall with laser. (Good news: No buckle was needed since the cut already relax the retina.) Then silicon oil was inserted into his eye. The operation went smoothly from a surgical point of view. We were released by the hospital before 3 p.m. James had a bad headache for a few hours after we got home but he felt better in the evening and was able to sleep after taking one tablet of Motrin.

This morning, at the post-op, his right eye pressure measured at 20. Doctor checked him out and reported, "No bleeding. Oil stayed in the back. Cornea a little hazy and will stay that way for a few days. Will the silicone oil close the hole? Unlikely because gas did not close the hole twice."

From the doctor's perspective, it was a successful surgery to save the overall vision of James' eye. Ever since his condition was diagnosed, the doctor's number one concern is to keep the retina attached. During the last few weeks, he tried everything to help the retina reattach and stay attached. Even on Monday, he warned us that unless the retinal detachment was taken care of in a timely fashion, scar tissues could develop and would negatively affect the overall vision in the future.

From my perspective, I wonder how well James could see. Doctor reiterated that the operation might not close the macular hole but definitely would save the overall vision. Today, the doctor explained in details what he did and why buckle was not put in. He cut part of the detached retina out to relax the retina and used laser (at the bottom and some mid area) to reattach the retina to the eye wall. There is now a smile on James' retina! The cut would affect James' peripheral vision on the top. The doctor joked, "That's not too bad unless you are a squiral eating some nuts and worried there are a hawk preying above."

He told James to keep moderate level of facing down in the next few days but confirmed that he could fly (without the gas bubble). While the two of them were joking around (both have great sense of humor), I was wondering "So could he see (well)?"

As if he could read my mind, the doctor told us most people would ask "can he see? can he see?" but this is a question without an answer for at least the next 4-6 weeks!

The process of diagnosis, treatment and recovery of both James' left and right eye taught us to appreciate what we have, not taking anything for granted. We know God has a plan for each and all of us. All these complications are due to high near-sightedness and the shapes of James' eyes. Now that we experienced what else could go wrong, even the high eye pressure on his left eye last year seemed to be a blessing in disguise.

The doctor said James' left eye recovery (from surgery on 11/13/07) was exceptional and the right eye struggles (from surgery on 6/10/08) are more common. And I thought the left eye was the tough one because of high eye pressure, vomiting, severe headache etc. Imagine us being able to board a plane for Europe last Christmas Day, only six weeks after vitrectomy on his left eye! And now James could see far with his left eye. Would induced high pressure in the right eye fix the right macula as the left? We would never know. But we are thankful for the recovered vision whatever that might be.

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