11/7 Doing good 6-weeks postop

Time flies, and time heals.  It's been 6-weeks since I had my vitrectomy operation to repair retinal detachment in my left eye.   I am off the eye drops now, though, and am also no longer required to wear the flourescent green bracelet warning folks of the gas in my eye.  While looking straight ahead, I look like I just have tired red eyes, especially on the side of my left eye.  The redness on the incision point at the left side of my eye is very slowly going away.  I saw Dr. Regillo from MidAtlantic Retina on Tuesday, November 7 at Newtown Square for my 6-week appointment, and he said I was healing really well, no scarring, and that the redness in my eye should eventually disappear.  I am still not allowed to bounce and jump up and down, not until the gas is completely gone from my eye, so Zumba and running are still out. I have returned to dance classes and am bowling about as much as I used to before, so I can't complain. 

The vision in my left eye is pretty good, I can see better with my left eye than my right eye when I take the contact lens out of my right eye.  Dr. Regillo had indicated that Dr. Siepser may need to do a procedure with a YAG laser to clear up the vision from the new Crystallens in my left eye - the lens appears to have been affected by the vitrectomy.  Since I already see quite well out of that eye, it is exciting to consider that my vision can get even better.  It is good to be able to look forward to better things.
 
My gas bubble is greatly reduced in size, maybe a little bigger than a quarter now. There are still distortions in my vision from the gas bubble but they are not as pronounced.  There is still some misalignment and double vision, but it is much improved, such that I have not needed to use my eye patch to drive to work this week.  It was a gloomy and rainy day today, and just a few weeks ago, the psychedelic starbursts would have driven me crazy and made driving quite dangerous without the eye patch, but today there were no more starbursts so this is a great improvement! 

The days of my gas bubble are numbered.  It's current size reminds me of the size of the "dark shadow", the "little friend" out of the corner of my left eye, that eventually ended up to be a retinal detachment.  It is so small now that when I am driving, it is lower than the lights of the dashboard and does not obscure my field of vision  - I hardly realize it is there! 

Not sure if I will miss the gas bubble, but I may miss rocking the rhinestone eye patch.  I found a Halloween costume that matched the eye patch, figuring I might as well keep the darn thing on and have fun with it!  It was a good excuse to indulge my love for sparkly things.

My next appointment with Dr. Regillo is a month from now in early December.  Until then, take things easy, be well, and never take your vision for granted.