Surgery Results

Here's the mass e-mail I sent out today on life post-surgery:

Dear friends and family,

The surgery went well. According to my surgeon my retina remains attached and all looks good. The new lens inserted for the cataract also did what it was supposed to do.

I'm not lying on my face for two weeks--so that's really good news. I am, however, in a good deal of discomfort at the moment.

In addition to the cataract stuff, they took out the silicone oil which has been holding my retina in place for the last seven months. In its place they put another gas bubble in. (You may recall I had one of these in back in January--but this time I didn't have to lie face down.) The surgeon says my retina is doing what is is supposed to do and the gas bubble is just a temporary thing for safety's sake.What this all means is that for the next 2-4 weeks I'll have the bubble in my eye which means it's like looking through a really distorted fisheye lens. Everything is really blurry. Over the coming weeks it will dissipate and be absorbed by my body and then I'll know how well I can actually see with my retina back in place and the cataract fixed.

I can basically do anything I want in the meantime, except lift things or exert myself in any way--don't want to detach the retina again or blow the sutures from the cataract part. At the moment, I'm in a great deal of discomfort because of the sutures. It's like the worst itch I've ever had but on my eyeball and it's taking all my effort not to tear at it. Also, I'm pretty nauseaus. I'm assuming both of these things will pass.

Thankfully, I listened to my wife and asked someone else to preach tomorrow so I'm taking the next few days to recover.

Some folks have asked about my other eye--the one without all the problems. Since birth, that eye has been pretty weak--corrected it is only about 20/80 and it is a wandering eye that depends upon my right one(the one having the surgery) for tracking and direction. This is why I look at you a bit sideways. So, really, it's not as if I have another perfectly good eye to compensate. If the right eye doesn't get better, then I won't be up to driving, reading, seeing distance etc.

Anyway, that's enough about my eye history. Thank you to all of you who have called, e-mailed, etc. I just haven't been able to respond individually to thee-mails and haven't felt like talking on the phone. I'm appreciate for the concern nonetheless. I'm especially grateful for the prayers and ask that you keep them coming, because the recovery will be crucial.

Grace and Peace,

Chase

P.S. I'm not really looking at the screen--only typing, so sorry for the typos, etc.