Getting my eye operated on
So, today I had my left eye operated on to remove the cataracts that has gone quite bad there.
It was 5 months go they decided to remove it, and I’m glad to finally have it done.
I had to have a pre- procedure physical. My annual one was Monday. I had tried to get it scheduled sooner, but the doctors office was "we don’t care about your surgery with some other health group, your appointment is the 5th and can’t be sooner."
Despite my blood sugar being high, probably due to holidays and cruises, and my blood pressure being high, it is always high in my doctor’s office, the doctor only really seemed to care that I’d lost 18 pounds since last time.
So, I lost weight, who cares about the other stuff?
But, I was cleared for today.
There had been a whole thing about if I was too fat to have my eye operated on. The equipment has a 160kg limit. A year ago I weighed 154. The nurse who got me registered on the phone was very worried I’d have gone over the limit as she knew I just got off a cruise. But, 147 was fine. And, today I measured 146, so even less.
They have you show up 90 minutes early to get prepared. There was a team of 4 nurses getting me ready. At one point one was putting in an IV in my left hand, another taping sensors all over me, a third putting in eye drops and the forth directing.
"I feel like a race car during a pit stop," I said. They seemed quite happy with that comparison.
The doctor who was doing it came in, talked with me for a bit, the made a mark over the eye that was getting the surgery.
"That you," I said. "I was wondering if I should write 'this one' around it with magic marker."
"As it’s your second, I’d notice if I went at an eye where it had already been done."
"This isn’t my second."
"I thought I already did your right one."
"No. This is my first."
"Good thing I checked…"
As they did everything at once, there was a delay in actually getting me into the operating room. In the waiting area next to me was a woman who did not speak English. They had a translator on speaker phone with her to get her information checked. I don’t know about the rules of patient confidentiality, but we heard all her details in both Spanish and English over that speaker phone.
The woman next to her spoke English, but the nurse didn’t seem to like what she was saying.
"Have you had any food or drink since Midnight?"
"No."
"Good, you followed our instructions."
"I did have some orange juice.."
"When?"
"8AM."
"That’s since midnight."
"That doesn’t count."
"Yes, it does."
"What about jello?"
"Jello counts."
"I had coffee and jello at 7AM."
"You had coffee and jello at 7, then orange juice at 8 after we told you to have nothing after midnight."
"But, this is the next morning, so it doesn’t count…"
"Yes, it does."
The anesthesiologist came in and had a long talk with me. She was concerned that there was a high blood pressure medicine I had a bad reaction to more than 15 years ago, and I couldn’t remember the name of it.
"It’s on my phone that’s with my wife in the waiting room," I said several times. "IF you get me the phone, I can get you the name of it."
Another anesthesiologist came over and they discussed it, but decided it wouldn’t be an issue as nothing they were giving me would be remotely like a high blood pressure medicine.
About that time they came and moved me to a "Professor X" chair where I sat up very high and tall and they wheeled me through the halls.
They brought me to the operating room, hooked all sorts of things up to me and told me it would help me relax.
"It is important you don’t move, speak, sneeze or cough," the nurse told me. "We’re not strapping you down or knocking you out, but I am going to wrap you in this warm blanket to remind you not to move."
I have never been tucked in so tightly. The blanket was nice and warm…
"There is going to be a machine in your eye. If you move, talk, cough or sneeze, that would be bad. IF something happens and you have to do one of those things, say 'stop' and we’ll move the machine before you do more."
I agreed and they made the chair fold down to a bed with me facing up to the various machines hanging over me.
I had to wear a mask all the time in the office, but they fitted me with extra oxygen under the mask. That was a strange feeling of a tube up my nose under my mask.
The doctor came in and they gave me the stuff to relax, and I did.
The actual procedure was like some sort of avant guard 60’s psychedelic movie. They had 80’s music playing in the back ground. The medical staff was talking about vacation plans. The machine in my eye was making some sort of electronic sound that sounded like it was singing its own song and I saw a lot of colors and what looked like three skyscrapers view from far above sticking towards me with swirls of other shapes around them. They must also have been putting water into my eye as I felt a steady stream of cool water running down my face to that side.
This went on for what could not have been a long time based on the number of songs played in the background, but it seemed quite timeless to me while experiencing it.
Then, the strange swirls and objects went away and they sat me up. They put something over that eye and started wheeling me away.
The thing over my eye looked transparent when it was being put there, but I couldn’t see anything.
"Is it right I can’t see out of the eye you just operated on?" I asked the person wheeling me around.
"You just had a lot of very bright light shone into it for a fair bit of time," she said. "Give it a bit and it will come back."
And, she was right.
They wheeled me into another room and gave me a glass of cranberry juice to drink. As It had been about 16 hours since my last liquid, I was happy to have that.
There was then a big debate about covering me with a blanket when they took me out a side door. It really did seem like it was a "let’s hide you from the other patients while we sneak you out of here".
But, it was that they had my wife drive around to a closer door to where I was to make it easier for me to get to the car. And, my coat was in the car.
We drove home and had a nice lunch. I was quite hungry.
So far, it seems like all has gone well. We’ll see how it heals. I go back in tomorrow for a check on it.