This Lyin' Eye

The weekly update to my recovery from the second retinal detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye. This is now the sixth week of the "six week" freon bubble that was installed at the surgery. The bubble shrinks daily, but not very noticeably; the top of the bubble appearing just below the rim of my glasses when looking forward. When looking down I see the bubble as a distinct circle that nearly matches the outline of the glasses lens in that eye. I would guess I'm still facing a couple of more weeks with the bubble present. The worst thing about the bubble now is that it reflects images down to the retina (which appear in my upper vision).

So, otherwise? As I hoped would be the case, the two eyes are getting along a little better. The left eye is, as I was told it would be, more nearsighted than it was, thanks to the 'rubber band' aka  scleral buckle around it. But for near vision, reading, TV etc, the two eyes both achieve some level of focus. The left has a tendency to cause my total vision to be a bit blurry out beyond arm length, but the right eye provides a clear image within the blur. The left eye still produces an image that slants to the right, and has a bit of waver in it, but the brain is starting to merge the two view and produce a basically straight image. At the beach, however, I still tend to see two crossing horizons, one sharp and one blurry. I eagerly await getting glasses that sharpen both equally, to see if my brain can force them to align also.

As far as the rubber band, the pain is totally gone. I do have a sense of something odd I in there, but it's hard to separate from the bubble and blur. The eye still has some redness, and I keep applying the ointment they dispense with the ordeal, axel grease and erythromycin, which I use religiously, which is to say, without knowing if, or why it works.

My hope for next week's report is continued improvement in the cooperation of the two eyes, and that the bubble will be high enough not to reflect light most of the time. I'd dearly like to see a single horizon.