Strabismus: Day 7-10

If you thought the redness, swelling and itchiness would be gone by day 10, you guessed wrong. However, over the past four days the irritation has progressively improved. I am now to the point I can actually keep both eyes open during the day, although vision is still blurred in the operated on eye.

I actually had to skip several of my children's baseball games, even though I figured by now I'd be able to go. I missed both due to windiness and blowing sand. This is also the main reason I find I'm unable to go to the beach.

When I had this surgery when I was 15 I remember being told to avoid getting your eye wet by swimming for at least a couple months, yet my doctor told me this time on more than one occasion he only wanted me to keep my eye dry for a week. However, I feel much more comfortable not swimming, and not getting my eye wet. Maybe there's been some research that shows it's okay, but until I see it first hand, I'm not swimming.

I still find myself with the urge to rub my eyes, something I'm prone to habitually do anyway due to chronic allergies. And I can't wait until I can rub my eyes at will again.

So everything's pretty much back to normal otherwise. The asthma is considerably good considering the high heat and humidity, the constant sound of lawnmowers, and the pollen of summer.

Tomorrow I get to go back to work, and I'm looking forward to it actually. I imagine I'll be getting a lot of looks and questions about my red eye.

---

Update:

August 28, 2010: By about the three week mark the itching is pretty much gone. The eye feels relatively normal. I'm still tentative to touch or rub it though.

August 19, 2010: Saw the eye doctor today. He said everything looks good, including alignment, and he expects the eye to be good for another 30-40 years. He said there is still some redness and swelling, although minor. He also noted my healing process will take a little longer due to all the eye repair I've had in the past. No big deal. Feeling good. It's really neat as I navigate through life with my new vision. The surgery was definitely worth it.

Strabismus surgery day #6

Ah, if day #1 was the worse for having strabismus surgery, day #6 was the second worse. By now I'm feeling no pain, yet the itching in my eye is downright terrible. The worse part about the itching is it feels as though there are little bugs in there trying to get at my brain through my eyeball.

Although I saw my doctor today and he insisted the surgery was a success. My vision is still blurred in my right eye, but he insists as the inflammation goes down the itching will subside and my vision will be good as ever. His optimism was repeated by the eye muscle specialist.

So instead of having me use antibiotic eye drops, from now on it's prednisolone eye drops. Yes, good old steroids work to reduce inflammation just about anywhere in the body, and for me not only do I take inhaled steroids, it's eye steroids too. Only for the case of my eyes, it's only temporary.

After the 3 hour round trip to my opthamologist's office my eye was so itchy I had to start rubbing my left eye just so I could rub something. That's probably the worse part about having an itchy eye post strabismus surgery is you can't touch the eye. I also have allergies, so that probably doesn't help either.

So there really isn't much you can do for itchy eye. My doctor said the steroids should help, although it will probably take a day or two. We often say in the medical field things can seem to get worse before they get better, and day #6 post strabismus surgery might just be that "worse" they are talking about.

From here on out I'm expecting a downhill ride. The irritation was so bad that I couldn't think, so I popped a couple vicodin pills I had left over hoping it would at least allow me to get through the rest of the day. I'd say it worked.

The strabismus surgery is worth it

Our Journey With Stabismus is a blog that journey's the tale of one family willing to do whatever it takes to help their child with strabismus, the esotropia type, that is his eyes, or at least one of them, are facing in. While I have the exotropia type, one of my eyes faces outward while I'm focusing with the other, I can relate that stabismus can provide some challenges.

For one thing, you can't focus really well. And when the sun is bright you have to close the eye that wants to drift up toward the sun. And sometimes when you come around corners your brain has a hard time deciding what eye to use, and the object you are looking for seems to bob back and forth. You have to stop, close one eye and focus in order to see it.

It can also make you see double at times, especially when you're tired. When you're tired your eyes wander even more; or they become lazy. So, you can see how getting stabismus fixed can really help a person. It will help put you on equal footing with other people. It may help you hit a baseball better, and make it easier to see a football, or the other player once as opposed to twice. And it will probably make you a better learner, as you'll be able to focus on the page
better.

I've always been able to read, but I'm not really fast at it. I remember my teachers putting me in a special class for reading when I was a kid, although I bet the real problem that my teachers, doctors and parents never figured out was that the real problem was probably strabismus.

So yes, despite the discomfort, and despite the nausea, and despite the fact that parents have to sacrifice several days to coddle their post operative child, the benefits of this surgery far outweight the disadvantages. And, despite a less than 5% chance of going blind in the eye if an infeciton occurs, the side effects are relatively rare.

I had the surgery when I was 2, 10, 15 and just two days ago at 40. So I’ve gone through the procedure at all stages of development, and I can honestly say it is well worth it. From the patient end, I can say it does feel kind of funny after someone pokes your eye, and there’s always that urge to rub it.

I remember being bothered by this when I was 10, which is why I had to be watched 24 hours afterwords back then. Of course today it’s an outpatient procedure, yet back in 1980 it wasn’t. Or maybe that was just because I was a kid. Well, the last strabismus surgery lasted 25 years for me, so hopefully your son’s procedure can last that long or, better yet, longer. I figure if mine lasts another 25 years I’ll be good to go.

My doctor told my wife as soon as I had the patch off it might seem to me he overcorrected, and that I still have strabismus, but he believes it will correct itself over time. Basically, your brain needs time to make the adjustment.

Pyrotechnics and asthma

As I was lying in the cool grass, a warm breeze crossed with smoke wafted over my shoulders and into the face of my Laney, a warning flashed through my head redolent with the snap, crackle, pop, fizz of the amateur pyrotechnics shows nearly at every angle around us.

Taking my eyes off Laney, and ignoring the chants of my wife and the discordant din of a thousand other voices, I turned to see what was going on around me, and noticed a thick, white cloud was covering the park. In the diminishing light, and peering through my sunglasses I was wearing to prevent Laney from poking my bad eye, the shadow of folks and the lights from each encampment made me think of a civil war camp surrounded by enemy fire. While the "enemy fire" during the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War was real, the enemy fire in the case of July 4, 2010, was the billowing remains of all the amateurs. Man, I couldn't believe how much smoke there was. And it wasn't going away anytime soon.

It was actually illegal to light armature pyrotechnics on the beach, or in the park, or near the playgrounds, or near the condominiums that lined the skyline behind me and to the East (a calm Lake Michigan sat to the West on this 87 degree, hot and humid evening), it was not even remotely possible for this to be enforced.

Moments later, when the real fire works show started, you could hear the bang of the bombs echo as they seemed to bounce off the condominiums. It was almost as though you could see the initial firework, followed by a bang, and then you'd hear the bang echo, and then you'd hear it again, moments later, as it seemed to ricochet off those condominiums.

So, while the other folks were busy entertaining their minds with the light show, or trying to aim Laney in that direction (as her mind was amazed by the light show yet easily sidetracked), I was busy looking around, and enjoying the noise and the smoke. Quite frankly, other than me, or other than the few who have a visual head and a love for history and no need to see any more fireworks, I doubt there were many who let their mind wander in such a fashion -- as they breathed in a puff of stale, humid, smokey air.

Hence, one could only have empathy for any asthmatics who might have been fighting in the wars of our past, where such encampments were common place, and the bangs, and the smoke. To avoid it would be nearly impossible. To avoid the humidity in days of old would have been impossible as well. So one could see, or at least this humble asthmatic, that war would also be a place for an asthmatic to avoid -- as well as the public pyrotechnics displays.

Today, yes today, this asthmatic and all those around me, would get up and wander to their cars, and slowly drive off, or walk away (as was the case with my family) to their cars where they would turn on the air conditioning and enjoy the fresh, cool air. And then they would go home and sleep in the comforts of their own cozy beds.

Now keep in mind none of the smoke was from the professionally set fireworks but from armatures . And the smoke didn't really bother my asthma, as mine is really well controlled. Although I can remember times in the past where there was poor asthma control, and the inevitable trip to the ER soon followed. I wondered how many asthmatics would be making such a trip this evening.

Stabismus surgery day #4

To peel the eye open in the morning it still takes a warm, wet cloth placed over the eye for about 15 minutes, followed by an eye drop properly inserted into the corner of the eye by my wife while lying in a supine position in the recliner.

However, despite that slow start, this was the first day I was actually able to keep my right eye open all day. I was actually back to my normal, dry humorous self as my wife and I ventured to my parent's to meet my brother who so happened to come up all the way from Detroit.

Today was also the first day I didn't need to take Vicoden to take the edge of the pain off, although my wife did make me take 800 mg of Motrin to reduce some of the inflammation. So, when my dad offered me a Natural Light I so humbly, and graciously agreed to take it.

And after that was gone, two more followed. Since I didn't eat much at that point in the day, the alcohol seemed to hit me hard, and it was there I realized that I got better relief from alcohol than from the Vicoden. I was thinking I should have just stayed drunk and I would have been fine throughout this whole process (of eye surgery).

Yet the down side to alcohol is you drink too much of it your system dries out, and a dry eye is not what I want right now. So I limited myself to the three Natty lights. Although they were among three of the best beers I've had in a long while.

The warm breeze from the southwest was absolutely beautiful to go along with the beautiful son on a clear blue day. And the social company of my brother and father was really nice. It was nice just to get out of the house for a change. It was nice to have my eye feeling good enough to WANT to get out of the house for a change. Hopefully I'll feel even better tomorrow.

My daughter is 20 months, and my brother's daughter is 12 months, and yet my brother's daughter is larger than my own -- although each equally cute. It was neat to watch them play together. While they had selfish goals on this day, I bet soon they will become good friends.

The biggest obstacle was keeping the wind from irritating my eye. Rather, the biggest obstacle was keeping my baby from poking out my eye. And for this the sunglasses came in handy. I also think it was the sunglasses that made me able to keep my eye open outside where the sun was shining brightly overhead. Yet by the tree, the shade and the breeze felt great.

Yet after a couple hours of socializing ache rushed into my head, and it was time to go back home. My eye is still blood shot red, and my wife noted that it looks as though my eye muscles are sitting atop the eye. Then she added, "But it looks better today." That's reassuring, I guess.

It was nice to make it through a day with both my eyes open, although my right eye still feels kind of prickly. It almost seems like it's been a lot of work keeping it open, and thus this seems to make me tire easily. Actually, I think what makes me tire easily is that I can't focus really well yet. I can't look left without my right eye watering or hurting. And I can't look right. So, as my wife noted earlier, I walk around without craning my neck: like a robot.

So I hope my kids are worn out soon, because this humble RT is ready for bed.

First, however, my wife must return with the gallon of Vanilla Ice Cream. This dad has a priority, and ice cream is #1 on that list. Ice cream, and then it's time for bed. The neighbors might offer me a beer, yet I might be forced to forgo it one more night.

Strabismus surgery day #3

Day #3 post strabismus surgery was a bit of a challenge upon waking because it seemed my eyelids were glued shut. A warm washcloth over the eye for quite a while, and some eye drops, and it did open. Although it was easier to keep it shut for the most part.

Once I got it open I was looking in the mirror. I got my first good look at my right eye. It appeared blood red and it also had some spots on it, which I supposed were dried blood. My wife said it was just bloodshot, and it was find. Considering she's a nurse, I took her word for it.

I didn't feel any general pain in my head as I did the past few days after anesthesia, so instead of that type of pain I could feel the eyeball itself. There was a slight ache that seemed to go away with one Valium as opposed to two. Two Valium has a tendency to wipe you out, and so I tried to only take one at a time today.

The problem with day #3 is I actually feel like I want to get back into the normal flow of my life, and yet I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to be taking it easy still, and I'm not supposed to be lifting anything over 14 pounds (although I forgot last night when I tucked my 50 plus pound 7 year old in).

I got out of the house for the first time today, with sunglasses of course. This might sound like no big deal to anyone who didn't have strabismus surgery, but as I was out of the house with the glasses on I observed I was walking around wincing with both eyes open. That was a minor personal celebration.

As I'm typing this right now I have both eyes open, although I feel blind on either side. I can't look left with my good eye because it puts strain on my bad eye. And I can't look right with my bad eye for obvious reasons. So, for those moms and dads out there of kids having this surgery, it's good to know your child can only see what is right in front of him. I suppose that's how most kids look anyway, yet I figure it's worth noting.

So day #3 was sort of an awakening of sorts. It kind of reminds me of when I was in the hospital because of asthma, and yet my asthma felt better, and I still had to stay in the hospital because I needed to be weaned off steroids. You feel good, but you still can't do anything. You almost feel like bouncing off the walls.

I would love to get back to my workout. I feel like running, although I bet my bad eye probably would frown at sweat at this point. And I'd love to hit the weights, yet I certainly wouldn't want the pressure to cause my stitches to pop out. So I'm stuck sitting around. And sitting around makes me yearn for the Popsicles and ice cream sandwiches my mom bought me. Yes, I ate almost the whole box between yesterday and today.

Another thing I missed out on today was my daughters last t-ball game of the year. I skipped it because the park where the game is held is a dirt field, and considering there's a warm breeze this evening I didn't want dust in my eye. Thus, I skipped it.

I'm able to do simple things, like watching my kids and writing. Although I do find myself wincing quite a bit as I'm reading. Typing is easy because I don't really need to see what I type. So if you find a few errors in this post, you know why.

So, I suppose I better get back to watching my 1 YO who's running around nakey right now. She loves running around nakey. Now she's in the bathroom on the "step" (stool) and saying "tee", which is baby for "I want to brush my teeth."

So, see you later. Tomorrow I'm going to try not to take any vicoden because while it does take the edge off the eye irritation, it makes me tired. I can't stand being sleepy all the time. And, this kind of makes me think of all the people addicted to opiates. While it does take the edge off, I'm not sure I could stand feeling tired all the time. Yes it does have it's advantages, yet the disadvantages are there too. So, I bet I wouldn't be a good candidate to become addicted to this kind of stuff. Yet I could be wrong too. I'm feeling pretty loopy as I write this.

And my son just told me my right eye is looking in instead of out. Yet, thankfully, my doctor said this might happen for a while until my eye adjusts.

Anyway, more tomorrow from your humble RT.

Strabismus: day #2

For those of you thinking about having strabismus surgery in the future, I just want you to know that while you'll probably want to lie around with your eyes shut the day of your surgery, day #2 is much better.

I actually woke up this morning feeling normal, except for a slight itch in my right eye. Actually,most of the itch was gone once I finally took the patch off.

I still had a slight headache for a while this morning, although 1 vicoden took care of that. Basically I've taken one vicoden every 4-6 hours today just to make sure my headache from last night, the one that felt like my head was going to implode or explode, from coming back. I don't know if I can handle that kind of headache again.

The neat thing was as soon as I took the patch off, and picked the yellow crusties out, or at least as many as I dared to try, my eyed popped open and I can see quite well. I still do have to do quite a bit of squinting, and I have my operated on eye shut much of the time (especially when I'm exposed to bright light) I can actually get around quite well.

Yet due to the vicoden, I am still a little woozy. Of course that could also be because I've spent the better part of the past 2 days sitting and lying around.

I have actually gotten quite a bit of writing done today. The computer screen must not be to bad for me to tolerate. Although I can see the words, they are still blurry, even if I look through my good eye.

So while I have a ways to go yet to get back to normal, I'm feeling overall quite good. I've been able to play with my kids a little, although it's a bit of a job to discipline them. So I've left that to the wifey poo.

So, day #2, so far, a good day. Although I have my fingers crossed it stays this way, as I can feel that monster in my head -- just barely.