Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Journal - Greetings from Omaha part 4

Well, here it is Wednesday already, and I've fallen behind in my updates. Things got a little busy for us in Omaha. Also, there were a couple of times when I sat down at the laptop to write a little, but had trouble getting my screen reader started. That happens sometimes on the laptop; I haven't completely figured that thing out yet.
Anyway, on Tuesday morning we left the hotel at a little after 10am for my follow up visit with Dr. Feilmeier at his office. We had a bit of trouble finding it. We have a GPS, but for some reason it didn't like his address. Long story, but we finally arrived at his office at about 11:30am.
They had been waiting for us, and took us in right away. The nurse got me seated in an exam room and said, "Are you ready for me to get that bandage off?", and I said, "yep." She peeled off the tape, which was stuck to my face quite securely, and removed the bandage. I had my eye closed, partly because I was afraid to look, and partly because I thought the light would really hurt. I don't think I mentioned that on Monday afternoon, a few hours after we got back from the surgery, we stepped out of the hotel into the sunlight, and the light really shot through my head, even though I was still bandaged. Right away I knew that a lot more light was getting through than had previously.
Anyway, the nurse removed the bandage, and I slipped my eye open just a little bit and then closed it again right away. I saw the room, and saw Joni sitting there in front of me and just to the right. After I gathered myself a little, I opened my eye again and started to look around. I can't really explain what that was like, I just don't have the words. suffice it to say that it was pretty amazing.
My vision was blurry, but it was not cloudy at all, like it had been for the last year before I went blind. The light did not seem to bother at all though which surprised me. It was hard at first to hold my eye on anything, it kept kind of bouncing around. A few minutes later, the doctor came in and put the old eye chart up on the wall. I could read a few of the biggest letters, but with the smaller ones, I couldn't hold my eye steady long enough to focus. Dr. Feilmeier assured me that that was perfectly normal, and seemed pleased at what I could see. Even if he hadn't been pleased, I was pretty okay with it.
We weren't there very long. The doctor went over the instructions for my eye drops, two of them that I will have to use several times a day, and sent a prescription to the pharmacy for some pills that we would pick up later. And that was it, we were on our way.
when I got up out of the chair to leave the office, I was very unsteady on my feet and went stumbling all over. Again, this was normal because my brain would need a little time to adjust after two and a half years of darkness. The nurse took my arm and led me out, while I kept trying to stop and read signs on the wall and anything else I could see.
Then we were back in the car and headed back to the hotel. I did my best to look at everything I could on the way there, and enjoyed seeing the hotel and our room once we got up there.. By the time we got to our room, I was already starting to feel a little steadier on my feet. I looked at everything I could: watched tv for a few minutes, checked out my cell phone which I had never seen before, ditto my mp3 player, out the window, and everything. After about an hour of that I was so exhausted I had to lie down for a bit.
Later on, we went back outside for a few minutes and I went over and checked out my truck. Everything was so amazing. There were some bright purple and pink flowers in front of the hotel that caught my eye. The clouds had cleared away and the sky was a beautiful blue. It's really too much to describe.
And that's pretty much how the rest of Monday went. Watching tv, checking things out, going outside now and then to look around. By the end of the day I was feeling a lot steadier and could walk around for the most part without having to hold onto Joni. She was always there though whenever I needed to grab on.
At bedtime, I taped a shield over my eye, something I'll have to do at night for a while, and we went to bed. I slept better, but still didn't get a good night's rest. I didn't think the bed was particularly comfortable. It had been a pretty exciting day though.
Okay, I'm signing off for now. I'll get this caught up sooner or later.

2 comments:

  1. Hey baby,

    Just for clarification, it was Tuesday and not Monday that you finally saw my beautiful face *cough cough* for the first time in a long time!

    And to be honest, this is just the beginning. There is no catching up!

    ILUTIAB!

    Enjoy this day that God has made!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Neato Burrito! LOL :D

    This is unfolding nicely, Steven. Cool Beans! :)

    Continue! :D

    ReplyDelete