Two weeks ago I went skiing in Colorado with my family. We had a great time and the skiing was better than it was last year, when we tried going over the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, Colorado did not experience much snow this year, but the man-made snow and the little shared by Mother Nature made it OK.
On Tuesday, which was the 3rd day of skiing, I noticed the vision in my left eye was a bit blurry. The eye was also a little dry from medicated eye drops I've been applying from my cataract surgery in January, so I applied some eye drops to moisten it up. At the time, I didn't give it another thought because the drops seemed to take care of the blurriness.
Later that day I also noticed a little bit of "flashes" in the eye, but this has been something I noticed from time to time since the surgery, so I ignored it.
The following morning everything seemed to be OK, as I didn't notice anything that drew my attention. We went skiing again, as planned, and was having a great time.
Around lunch time I started to notice a small black spot in my vision close to my nose when I shifted my gaze to the left. Since this was something new to me I started to take it easy. Meanwhile, the spot grew a little bigger and no longer required me to shift my gaze to the left in order to see it. The realization was starting to sink in. I knew at that moment I was experiencing a retina separation. I heard of others who'd undergone cataract surgery followed by retina issues, so I was not completely ignorant of the risks.
In the late afternoon, I contacted my eye doctor who performed the cataract surgery and shared the details. Since I was in Colorado, I was not able to just drive into their office to get it checked out, so they said I should consult a retina specialist in the area prior to flying home the following evening because it may cause more damage if I fly.
The next morning I called a local specialist and a few hours later was in their office being analyzed. They confirmed my fears of a separation and also said the damage was low enough I should be safe to fly home to Florida and see my regular doctor the following day. So, that's what I did.
Before I left their office they had already called my regular doctor and scheduled an appointment with a retina specialist the following day, and advised me not to eat after midnight because I would likely be in surgery the following morning following the appointment with the retina specialist.
After the specialist confirmed everything they immediately had me go to another office for surgery. The surgery consisted of using lasers to reattach the retina to the eye, and then they drained a little liquid from the eye and injected a gas bubble. I was not able to see anything (just lights and darks) and experienced very little discomfort at the time.
Many people report they are instructed to sleep face down after surgery, but my instructions were different. I was to stack a bunch of pillows and sleep sitting up that night, and report to the doctor tomorrow to check on things. Then after a successful checkup I was told to sleep on my right side going forward. This is to allow the gas bubble inside the eye to push the retina up, and help in healing it in the correct place.
As I shared in my post yesterday, I'm really nervous about how long this will take to heal. I was picked in the NY Marathon lottery to run in November. I hope my eye will heal well and allow me to still run. However, I will know know this until June or July which is when I should start training for the marathon.
Cross your fingers for me.