Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It is Done

Strange experience..

I'm going to bed now.

....

The anesthesia they use is pretty awesome stuff. You're technically awake, responsive, etc., but your short term memory is shut off. I have a memory of the anesthesiologist pumping the syringe in, and telling me that I was going to enjoy it.. and the next memory I have is waking up in bed at home. John says the nickname for the stuff is "milk of amnesia".

I know I got up off the gurney after the surgery, and went out to the lobby to meet up with John. I know we drove home. I have zero memory of it though.

I don't remember writing the above sentences, about going to bed, just after I got home.

It's almost always my preference to have doctor appointments in the afternoon, that way I can do my work thing in the morning and then take the rest of the day off when I head out to the appointment. I made tomorrow's appointment for the afternoon, just out of habit.

That was a mistake.

I have a bandage on my face now, and underneath that some tape to keep my eye lid closed. It's putting a certain amount of pressure on my eye/face and it's uncomfortable. They don't give you heroin pills when you have a cataract removed, which is unfortunate. Pain killers make everything okay. This is especially true when you combine them with anti-anxiety pills. Trust me.

Anyway.. if I had made my follow-up appointment for first thing in the morning tomorrow, I'd have the bandage off and I'd be seeing out my new eye sooner. I'm super curious to know what it's going to be like, I'm fighting a constant urge to rip the bandages off and open my eye. But, alas, I'm going to have to stick it out until the afternoon.

Not having the use of my right eye has vividly pointed out how bad my left eye is. Clearly it is the worse of the two eyes, and my right eye was doing a majority of the work. It seems the brain uses different tricks with your eyes to get the best visual picture for you. I wouldn't be able to write this were it not for reading glasses and getting my face up close to the monitor.

What that means, of course, is good news. When the second surgery is complete, and a few months down the road when my brain has rewired itself for the new visual input, I should be seeing the world as it really is.. and not this crappy, mist degraded, color-bland, crap that I'm seeing now.

If I end up having to use reading glasses to see fine print on a menu in a dark restaurant.. oh well. That won't fuckin' matter.

I am half relieved and half bummed that I can't go to the gym for the next month or so. I'm not one of those people that get a big hit of endorphins from working out.. or the "runners high". I generally don't enjoy the process, but I do like getting home and seeing the results in the mirror. I like when my jeans feel a little looser. Maybe it'll be more fun when I start working out with John and his trainer. It's just they do it at like 7 am or some shit, and I am very much not a morning person.

As you can imagine, this is one of those years where I actually do the "New Years resolution". I've got a couple other things to do in the next 6 months also. Not sure I'll get to it all.. but getting my eyes fixed and my ass back into a gym are the two biggies for this year.

3 comments:

Kor said...

Pfft 7am, light weights. I start before 6am :D

I would imagine your depth perception isn't particularly fantastic right now either.

Tom said...

I can't see very well at all, period. Riley wants to play the "you rip this toy out of my mouth, then throw it to the other side of the house, and I'll run and get it and bring it back so you can rip it out of my mouth and throw it again" game.. but he's looking at me all weird, like he's afraid to come close to let me get the toy out of his mouth..

You actually start before 6? You must go to bed at like 10 or something. I just can't imagine that.

Kor said...

Yeah pretty much to bed at 10 (heck 9:30 most nights). I was starting at 5:30 for a while to get in a 20km bike ride but that started to take it's toll on my energy level's during the day.

I've since split the ride between my morning session and after I get home.