Saturday, June 2, 2007

Scary Surgery for Mark - Written by Mark!

So I’ve had this ‘thing’ in my eye for a few weeks now. After becoming increasingly irritated by it, I dialed up my optometrist and made an appointment to get it checked out. Luckily, I had already picked up Spanky’s dry cleaning and rinsed out his Crocs so it was no problem to bail out of work.

I went down to the office and they couldn’t see anything so they dilated my eyes and went in for a better look. After 15 minutes of examination which nearly caused me to pass out, they found a tear in my retina. They weren’t all that impressed that I had waited three weeks to get it looked at. “We’re going to get you into surgery today.” Surgery? Holy…

I was off to a specialist (who I never saw), got dilated again and then to the medical center where I met the surgeon. After almost three hours of waiting, I was in the chair. Surgery is a strong term as it’s all done with a laser but it was pretty intense. I liken it to someone arc welding inside my eyeball while they poked me with a pin. I could see my veins and my cornea. From the inside…

Anyway, it was only 5 minutes and while not terribly painful, it certainly wasn’t pleasant. In any event, I’m fine. My eye is sore and I can see the scar but apparently that will clear up.

2 comments:

Trish said...

Eewww! Just the thought of that is freaking me out just a bit! But I'm glad your eye is doing ok. My Emily had a piece of metal in her eye a few years ago and had a surgery like that -- it is amazing what they can do with lasers, and how fast the eye can heal. Hope you continue to heal up quickly!

JeanMac said...

Trish - Mark wrote the piece - he was the one with the torn retina. I hope I didn't confuse you.