Eye Surgery

I haven't written in a while because I had surgery on my eye muscles in Atlanta on April 8. It was my fifth surgery since 1997. My accident caused me to have double vision and the surgeries were to correct this. When I was in rehab, one of my therapist fashioned a patch for one eye made out of black poster board and Velcro. I tried to vary which eye I patched so I would use them both equally. The surgeon didn't want to do surgery on the muscles until later.

The black patch was sort of boring so I decorated it with various stickers. I had hearts, smiley faces, rainbows and flowers so I could match all my moods and outfits. Some stickers came off without pulling off the poster board so I always tried to buy these stickers. Sometimes the patches would rip so I always had an extra one. It became sort of a game to me to select a different sticker to fit the occasion. Sometimes I picked something that made me feel better. Rainbows always cheered me up because they reminded me that God was always with me from the story of Noah.

The first three surgeries were easy. My double vision wasn't corrected completely so I had to wear special lenses called "prisms" and these mostly corrected it. The lenses are difficult to make. Once they were made wrong and I didn't notice until it was too late. I then had to have another surgery. I'm not sure why my eyes changed without incorrect lenses but they did.

The final two surgeries were not easy at all especially this last one. At least I didn't get nauseous this time! My eye did get infected though and it swelled up so I could hardly see out of it. The surgeon prescribed drops which have helped. I guess my case is complicated and the my surgeon has even written about it.

I still have some double vision and my follow-up appointment is this week. Double vision can be three ways:up and down, side to side and tilted. The first two can be corrected with lenses but the tilting cannot. Unfortunately, this surgery was for tilting. There's a chance what he did will affect my double vision in such a way that I'll have to get new prism lenses. I just bought my glasses less than a year ago and two pairs are very expensive. I hope I don't have to have them made again to the tune of $800!

I don't have many physical challenges from my TBI but I understand that many folks do. Tell me about some of your physical challenges by commenting. See upper right for directions or contact me directly at tamara@indylink.org