Member-only story
27 March 2020 (reposted to correct account)
I’d mentioned this before. That the unexpected will occur. As we hunker down here, I have an unexpected medical emergency. I never had surgery for 60 years of and today I had my first as my right eye suffered a detached retina. So excuse my typing as I”m working with one eye and still woozy from anesthesia and have to keep my head inclined in a certain position.
However, there were a lot of positives- first, I was able to get this surgery done, not at UT Hospital, which would have been a nightmare but at a new center here in town- The Tennessee Valley Eye Center. Where a few hardy souls were still working on emergency cases. In a sixty bed operating facility there were just two of us this afternoon this afternoon. A detached retina, if not treated, leads to blindness so to say I am thankful is understating it. My father, later in life, went blind and it had a terrible effect on him.
They were surprised I had self-diagnosed it based on symptoms because you can still see sometimes with a detached retina, quite well in fact, I had to put together the light flashes, floaters, and the feeling of a contact folding in my eye. Plus a friend had told me his symptoms and it rang a bell. But the nurse when I called recognized them and allowed me to come in without a…
