Jane’s Eye Surgery Update and the Artemis II Moon Mission

Hello, Dear Readers! Just a quick update to let you know that my eye surgery (a vitrectomy for vitreomacular traction) took place as scheduled on Tuesday, March 31. My son Will drove me in to Munson at the crack of dawn, and Dr. Fiander from the Retinal Center did the surgery. The nurses, doctors and pre-op team could not have been nicer.

It was a full-on surgical operation, and I was completely out for the entire thing (thank goodness). They said the surgery went well, and I was out of there around 10 a.m.

I had a followup appointment at the Retinal Center the following day. They removed the giant bandage over my eye, and Dr. Fiander said everything looked good.

The recovery includes a series of eyedrops every day (steroid, antibiotic and dilator), and at least six hours a day of face-down time. I also have to sleep that way. During the surgery, they inserted a gas bubble into my eye that helps with the healing. The position of face-down helps to keep the gas bubble in place and seal the tiny hole that formed in my macula prior to surgery.

I ordered a special “eye surgery” pillow from Amazon that’s poofy and comfortable and has a hole where my face can rest. Highly recommend for eye surgery.

Right now, looking through the gas bubble is like looking through water. With certain positions of my head, I can see the outline of the gas bubble in my peripheral vision. As I write this, I’m on Day 7 of the recovery, and I can’t say that the gas bubble has shrunk much. But they tell me that it will slowly dissolve over the next few weeks. As it dissolves, I’ll get my vision back in that eye. But boy, is it hard when your main goal every day is to heal. That’s it – to heal.

Interestingly, when I look down through the bubble, everything is magnified, as if I’m looking through a magnifying glass. I can see every line and wrinkle in my hand! I used to tell my mom that her hands signified a life of hard work, so I guess I’ll tell myself that now, looking at my own hands.

With the face-down position basically keeping me immobile, along with only being able to see out of one eye, I haven’t been able to do much at all. I really appreciate NASA launching the Artemis II space mission around the moon the day after my surgery to give me something to focus on.

I’m a space nerd anyway, but the launch coincided perfectly with my recovery time. I’m glued to the live stream of the mission on the NASA app. As I write this, they’re currently on the other side of the moon in their 40 minutes of “loss of signal” time. But prior to this, listening to the astronauts describe the lunar terrain in great detail is nothing short of amazing.

I’m also listening to favorite podcasts and audiobooks, and of course, Freddy the Big Orange Cat is keeping me entertained and looking after me. As a reward for getting through my face-down time every day, I watch an episode of The Waltons at night. My dad and I used to watch that – he said it reminded him of his own childhood growing up here on the OMP. It’s one of my comfort shows.

As luck would have it, my main computer died a few days before surgery, thus throwing a wrench into my plan to pre-schedule some stories. I did buy a new computer from Costco, so that’s waiting in my office for me whenever I can get back to work again. Can’t do much with it right now! (I’m writing this on my laptop during one of my face-down breaks, but it’s putting some stress on my good eye.)

My next appointment with Dr. Fiander is Friday, and I’m hoping she says I can start moving around a little more. Also hoping that the bubble starts to dissolve a little this week! Looking through this blurry eye is disconcerting.

A big thank-you to everyone who’s checked in on me, prayed for me and dropped off food. Love you all! As the astronauts just said to Mission Control in Houston as they traveled to the other side of the moon, see you on the other side!

(I’ve been posting a few things on the Gazette’s Facebook page – check it out here. I can do that on my phone, and it also counts as face-down time.)