Day 4 of Recovery

Here it is Day 4 of Recovery already. I have been “testing my limits” and each day I am a little stronger and a little braver. The eye is still fuzzy, but it only hurts in the morning before I put in the first set of drops. I slept better last night and woke at more of a normal hour for me - about 7 am. Yesterday I slept until 8:45 and that’s just being lazy! 

I am able to work on my computer with my old glasses on and see pretty well for relatively long periods of time and then my eyes get tired and I have to switch to something else. So I go for a walk; the distance I can walk now is nearly up to my usual mile and a half. Sometimes Amy goes with me; she will say “see the bunny”. Nope, don’t see the bunny, but if she describes where he is, after a few seconds I can see the two blurry ears sticking up. My post-op eye is still fuzzy but the left eye and the glasses do a good job of compensating.

Had an interesting thing happen a couple days ago. All of a sudden about 4:30 in the afternoon I began to feel really weak. My daughter quizzed me “what did you have for lunch?” Salad, yogurt and crackers with peanut butter. No fault there. She thought it might be loss of electrolytes due to the surgery; Barry thought it could be low blood sugar. They suggested I eat a half banana which would help in either case, and within 20 minutes I was feeling normal again. That was a strange experience. Thanks to the excellent care I am getting, it did not last long.

Yesterday Amy learned there was a Greek Festival at a near-by church and I thought I could manage an hour or two and would enjoy it. I wore my glasses plus the Solar Shades the surgery gave me, plus a visor to shade my eyes. I got along fine getting on the shuttle bus from the parking lot. But when I got off at the church parking lot I felt disoriented by the large unknown space and people moving in different directions. Once we were in the church itself I was okay again. The best part for me was the room where they had two areas of Greece highlighted on the wall with 8x10 pictures of different scenes from Thrace and Macedonia. It was fun to point out to Amy the pictures of places in Macedonia that I had visited just last June: Vergina Museum with King Philip’s golden crown, the harbor and huge arch in Thessaloniki, the Agora, Aristoteles Square.

While there I began to get a headache and the ladies were really nice, gave me some Advil and got me a glass of water. Then Amy and I listened to a gentleman explain all of the icons and parts of the church sanctuary. But the headache would not give in. I was not worried it was from my eye because I’d had this particular headache before - right at the bridge of my nose. The first thing one wants to do is take off your glasses, but that never helps. This time I was suspicious it was allergy related and remembered that there are sinuses both above and below the eyes. Once home I was confirmed in my diagnosis. As soon as I laid my head back I could feel my sinuses draining. I took an antihistamine and it all went away. That was illuminating; now I will know what causes it next time I have that particular pain.

This morning I went to church with Amy and got along okay, just slow on the stairs, being careful. Afterwards, though, downstairs having coffee I was far more comfortable sitting down then standing up, again where there were people moving around made me feel less secure. Probably because I am partially blind on the right side. Two days ago I bumped into the corner of a wall because I did not realize I was so close to it on that side. No harm done. Just clunked my glasses good.

I made a large potato salad yesterday while Amy was off to church for some Religious Education training. We are eating well and healthy. I have dropped a couple of the pounds I put on while in Greece. Yay!

Aunt Lucy, brother Phil’s wife, says Amy should hang out a shingle: “The O and O Clinic”, from her experiences with orthopedics and ophthalmology.

Be “seeing” you soon.