Updatery
Some of you already know that my right eye took a significant turn for the worse in Sydney over the weekend. It decided to misbehave again the night before last, so I spent an exciting time at the Canberra Hospital on a way busy night. I went in before midnight and was home around 10 am. The ambulance people didn't know what to do, the emergency people didn't know what to do, but the experts the next day knew their stuff and I'm going in again on Friday for a heart to heart talk with someone senior so that we can make decisions about the future of the eye.
My left eye is 100% fine. My right eye varies from 5% vision to about 30%, depending on where the blood is at a given moment. At this moment it's possibly even a bit better than that, if one discounts the big black spiders sleeping sprawled on my eyeball and moving their legs in their sleep. It's only blood. The retina is perfectly stable. This means there's the possibility that I'll get full eyesight back, but there are potential complications that make it a not-easy decision. The operation that's a no-brainer for most people is actually dangerous to my vision in my case because I'm so exceptionally short-sighted. This is why they didn't even discuss it until now. On Friday we'll know how quickly the blood is clearing by itself and hopefully be able to see where it's coming from, which will give more data to add to the decision.
What's happening with my right eye is strange. Two hospitals have now said so (though my local hospital minces words and RPA doesn't) but it's not life threatening at all. And it's only one eye. Whatever happens, I will have my left eye. If it clears up a bit on its own, the prognosis is that it will take at least 2 months, so if people could refrain from asking "Are you better yet?" it would be a big help. At the very best, I'm going to be exhausted during that time, because the vision will be shifting. At the worst, I'll lose the sight in my right eye.
Friends are being wonderfully supportive. This is the big difference between now and 2010. One of the big differences. The other was, of course, that in 2010 I nearly died - I think that was the toughest three months of my life - I lived on Woollies home delivery and got rather depressed. This time, it's only my eye - the rest of me is doing fine. Instead of being alone, I have friends who are there for me. I even have a mobile, because after 2010 a friend said "You need this" and gave me her old one, and that has made an *extraordinary* difference these last few days.
I've always had help from freinds when I needed it this week. I have food (and will have more on Saturday), and DVDs to watch when i can't see type on my computer and yesterday, when I was walking round (nearly sightless and in public places) in my PJs after a long night at the hospital (for I'd changed for bed when it happened) friends picked me up and got me home.
All this means that the only thing wrong is my eye, and yes, my eye is very wrong. I'm extraordinarily tired because I have to deal with vision that's constantly changing, but I'm otherwise fine. I'm even shaking off that idiot virus that's plagued me for 6 weeks. I slept nearly 12 hours last night.
And that's my update.
My left eye is 100% fine. My right eye varies from 5% vision to about 30%, depending on where the blood is at a given moment. At this moment it's possibly even a bit better than that, if one discounts the big black spiders sleeping sprawled on my eyeball and moving their legs in their sleep. It's only blood. The retina is perfectly stable. This means there's the possibility that I'll get full eyesight back, but there are potential complications that make it a not-easy decision. The operation that's a no-brainer for most people is actually dangerous to my vision in my case because I'm so exceptionally short-sighted. This is why they didn't even discuss it until now. On Friday we'll know how quickly the blood is clearing by itself and hopefully be able to see where it's coming from, which will give more data to add to the decision.
What's happening with my right eye is strange. Two hospitals have now said so (though my local hospital minces words and RPA doesn't) but it's not life threatening at all. And it's only one eye. Whatever happens, I will have my left eye. If it clears up a bit on its own, the prognosis is that it will take at least 2 months, so if people could refrain from asking "Are you better yet?" it would be a big help. At the very best, I'm going to be exhausted during that time, because the vision will be shifting. At the worst, I'll lose the sight in my right eye.
Friends are being wonderfully supportive. This is the big difference between now and 2010. One of the big differences. The other was, of course, that in 2010 I nearly died - I think that was the toughest three months of my life - I lived on Woollies home delivery and got rather depressed. This time, it's only my eye - the rest of me is doing fine. Instead of being alone, I have friends who are there for me. I even have a mobile, because after 2010 a friend said "You need this" and gave me her old one, and that has made an *extraordinary* difference these last few days.
I've always had help from freinds when I needed it this week. I have food (and will have more on Saturday), and DVDs to watch when i can't see type on my computer and yesterday, when I was walking round (nearly sightless and in public places) in my PJs after a long night at the hospital (for I'd changed for bed when it happened) friends picked me up and got me home.
All this means that the only thing wrong is my eye, and yes, my eye is very wrong. I'm extraordinarily tired because I have to deal with vision that's constantly changing, but I'm otherwise fine. I'm even shaking off that idiot virus that's plagued me for 6 weeks. I slept nearly 12 hours last night.
And that's my update.
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