Milestone

Well guys not much to say on this one. My day started with a 12:30 am  drive to Charlotte and ended 18 hours later with me sick as a dog on a friends couch in Boston. Everything in-between was just a big long blur.

THE PROCEDURE

There I was, sitting in a sterile room, listening to Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Gershwin do what they do best, help me relax.  It started with the doc using "numbing drops" to alleviate the pain. As he poked and prodded at my eye I would unexpectedly twitch or jump each time. He asked if I was nervous and I just said "no, it just might be a little tender". Maybe its just me, but there is something about watching an instrument come towards your eye and when contact is made I would think it would make anyone a little jumpy. Its like watching a gnat fly into your eye and just letting it walk around on your cornea without blinking or twitching........just doesnt seem natural. Anyway, once he started getting deep into the pocket of the lid the pain began. It was clinched teeth and deep breathing from then on out. I would like to think that my pain tolerance is now at a whole new level! "Almost there" he said. Just at that moment he took a needle to the eyelid to numb it enough to place a deep slit to access more of the eye. Out came the piece of silicone and in went a symblepharon ring. This is like a giant hard contact lens with a hole in the middle of it. It was placed there to keep the spacing that was developed between the eyelid and the eye and to keep the lid from adhering back to the eye. This was never an option before. 

the symblepharon ring

As I wiped the blood from my eye I looked up to see that Dr Fay was still in the room. He was not only still in the room but he was giving me a pep talk. He talked about how we had hit a milestone today and that we would be able to move on with manipulating the eyelid itself. We talked about that up until this point if I would have had an enucleation the orbit would not have been able to support a prosthetic and I would have had to have an orbital exenteration. We talked about what other procedures might look like and how much more he can do to help save the eye. We are both uncertain about the outcome but at the end of the day we want to walk away knowing that we did everything possible. 

Whats Next???

He wants me to go back up in a month to see how the ring is working and how the eye is healing. If there is something that he wants to do immediately then he will throw me in the OR the next day. Until then its the continuation of prayer, the saving of money, and the dreaming of skiing as winter nears!!! 

Interactive Part!!!!

 For those of you unsure as to what an enucleation and an orbital exeneration is I would encourage you to look it up on google and defiantly check out the images that are wicked cool. (did I just say wicked? I think I am spending too much time in boston) I thought that if I posted some of the images I might lose some of my readers!

We love to fly and it shows!!

This morning, after crashing at a friends house in Charlotte (stacey "the amazing" backstrom) I jump on a plane and headed to boston for the big results. The people at Dr. Fays office really are a great group. When I arrived I immediately got the general work-up with a new resident and then sat waiting anxiously for the man of the hour to walk in. When he walked in he was his normal self asking questions like "how does it look?" when really he is the only one who will be able to tell. He goes on to tell me that  the spacing between the eye and lid (fornix) looked really good. However the silicone that he sutured to my eyelid never slid out but instead sank back into my eye. The pain to remove it would be to much so he will need to put me under local anesthesia to take it out.  Mixed emotions were flooding around inside of me for sure but this was neither good news nor bad news just news. Dr Fay in his own way referenced his response from the letter. He talked about how he knows I am looking for answers and he is still determined to give it his best shot. It was very comforting to hear those words to say the least.

     So its off to the surgical coordinators office to schedule yet another procedure. I knew that there were going to be a couple more operations done but since I have hit my out-of-pocket deductible I was hoping to get in as many procedures before the end of the year as I could.  After talking with my favorite surgical coordinator she snuck me in a spot next thursday! She said "they might not be happy about it but you are one of my favorites and the real next available is in December!" So for me its back to booking flights and building up those sky miles!!!

                                                      Made it to Boston in a single bound

Rough Recovery

The recovery from surgery was a little tougher this time around.  For the first week every movement of my eye would be excruciating. I spent a lot of time in prayer because my eyes were closed most of the time. My Aunt did the best she could with me under the circumstances. I was unable to enjoy walks on the beach and explore New York so instead my aunt had a little birthday party for me at her place and invited over some of her friends to cheer me up. Percocet did not work for the first couple of days but after a couple of days and doubling the dose it soon became my best friend. The days before leaving went much better and I was able to enjoy some of the time with my aunt and the incredibly cool Fitzgerald family who provided me with some great dinners including the best pizza in New York! The day before my follow-up I went and had an amazing crab and lobster dinner overlooking boston and the harbor with my good friend Jenn Morell. The live music for a tuesday night made us laugh because of how bad it was but the food was great and the company was even better. The next day I hoped on the T and headed to my follow-up. Dr Fay described to me the procedure that was done. Basically he took an artificial amniotic membrane and draped it over a piece of silicone. He then took that piece of silicone and sutured it as high up into my eyelid as possible in hopes that it would keep the eyelid from re-adhering to the eye. He said that it looked good and only time would tell. I got back to Augusta Thursday with minimal pain and work was fine that day. However, the next morning was one of the most painful mornings I have ever experienced in my life. It literally felt like someone had torn off my eyelid, poured alcohol all over it and then took the palm of their hand and tried to push my eyeball into the back of my head. It took everything I had to get in the car and make it to the E.R. I ended up going to a optometrist friend of mine. I was able to be seen immediately and was given multiple antibiotics and steroids. They are not sure what it was but all that really mattered was that the pain had been relieved. I am still taking percocet to take the edge off which has been a huge help.

My New Best Friend

 I am headed back up to see Dr Fay on October 20. We have gotten to the point that if recovery goes as planned then we will move to the next stage, however, if this procedure did not work then there is nothing else he can really do. Either way I am not giving up!!!!