Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Eccentric Old Lady

I might be the eccentric old lady. You can be the judge.

A couple of years ago one of the wings broke off my favourite old reading glasses. I haven't replaced them because they still work and they still stay in place, sort of - just like in the first photo. Some of my friends thought that that was a little eccentric. But now things have become a little more weird. I am wearing an eye patch around at home. Eye patches are not exactly comfortable, so I 'wear' a handkerchief under the eye patch to stop it rubbing or pressing on the sensitive eye area. I still need to wear my reading glasses for reading and computer work, thus I invented the new sophisticated style in the second photo. The really amazing thing is that Mr Sunshine has refrained from putting a bag over my head making any jokes about my new look.



Why am I wearing an eye patch? Well might you ask...

The eye surgery I had a couple of weeks ago to reroute my left eye's tear duct had a rare complication (fat where there shouldn't have been any fat). Consequently the operation took an extra hour and I have had a lot of swelling and continual double vision. The swelling is going down slowly, but the double vision (if it is going away at all) is much slower. How rare was my fat eye? My ophthalmologist is at least ten years older than me and he had never seen anything like it in his life. That seems pretty rare.

The photos below show my progress at two days post op, four days post op, thirteen days post op and what I (now) normally look like with my eye patch. I cannot not wear an eye patch because the double vision makes me feel very sea sick in about thirty seconds flat. When I go out, I wear my sunglasses with a piece of card covering up the inside of the left lens so that I'm not mistaken for a pirate. I'm not that eccentric yet.

I now have even more admiration for anyone coping with a vision defect than I had previously. How people with only one good eye drive without having accidents, I am mystified if I know. I am not getting behind the wheel of a car until I (hopefully) have two good eyes again.

Another positive is that my ophthalmologist doesn't charge for post op visits and so far I have had two, and have another booked for next week, and there will be more.

Don't read the next bit if you are squeamish.For those who are wondering what the surgery entailed - it involved an incision of about 3 cm between my left eye and nose and cutting a passage through the bony bits into my left nostril. If you look up external dacrycryorhinostomy (or DCR) on Youtube you will be even more edified.

For now, I try not to scare the grandchildren too much (or any children for that matter). 

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1 comment:

  1. Ow! I'm sorry to hear the operation was complicated. I know I would opt for a pirate look over double vision too.
    Hope that as the swelling continues to go down, things continue to improve and your vision goes back to normal.

    ReplyDelete

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Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

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About Me

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Townsville, Queensland, Australia
I have worked as a Biology lab assistant, Pathology lab assistant, geochem lab assistant, land tenure researcher, hospital and prison chaplain, parish care coordinator and part owner of a small business. I have studied some science (no degrees) and have a theology and a chaplaincy certificate. I still love science of all types and enjoy studying theology. Science and theology belong together. At present I am a work-at-home Grannysaurus.

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