A brief update on the status of my left eye’s recovery from retinal detachment and the surgery to repair it. Briefly, almost a week ago I saw the first symptoms, and on Thursday of last week, underwent surgery to repair the retina and remove the vitreous humor (vitrectomy). On Friday I had a follow up with one of the two surgeons, who declared herself satisfied with the workmanship, and sent me off with a small packet of instructions and prescriptions for 5 eye drops and a lotion.
As of last night I still had a black spot in the vision in that eye, apparently inactive retina. This morning it was significantly smaller, and shaped like a crouching cat. By the afternoon, while I was walking on the beach it was still dark purple but images could be made out through the aura. I take that as a sign the the attached retina is starting to reconnect to the nerves
I have one more day of the full eye drop regiment, eye shield at night, and strict positioning requirements. The next follow up appointment with the surgeon is on Monday, and I hope the Doctor will be satisfied with progress so far.
The vision in that eye is still blurry to near the point of uselessness, and will remain so until enough gas from the bubble has been absorbed that most of the light goes through eye fluid and not the gas before we will see how close to normal focus it is. The gas is expected to last a total of six weeks. I think I can see some small decline of the size if the bubble, but that may just de wishful thinking. I’m pretty sure my old prescription won’t be right any longer, but that’s Okay, I was 2 days from getting a new one when this whole affair started
A bill requiring the placement of tampons and tampon dispensers in men’s restrooms inside public buildings is currently being debated in the Maryland legislature.
The bill is sponsored by Howard County Delegate Terri Hill, D-District 2A, WBAL-11 reports. The measure has received mixed reactions from Marylanders.
“I see no reason for it,” said Mark Esposito, via WBAL-11.Others think the new law could be convenient for them.
“Sometimes people get embarrassed to ask and tell their partner, ‘Hey, I don’t have any tampons, I ran out.’ And you have a loving boyfriend or husband, ‘Wait, there’s some in the men’s bathroom. I’ll go get them,'” said Anne Arundel County resident Marla Henderson.
One person who has no mixed reaction is Baltimore County Delegate Kathy SzeligR-District 7A. “There is some conversation about transgender women using men’s bathrooms,” Szeliga said. “So, I’ve dubbed this bill ‘Tampons for Timmy’ because it explains what this bill does. This bill puts tampons in men’s bathrooms across the state in Maryland — including the Ravens’ stadium, Oriole Park, men’s prisons. I just think it’s very, very expensive — and most importantly, totally unnecessary.
“Tampon Wes “ doesn’t have quite the cache that “Tampon Timmy” does, but if the glove fits…
Wombat Socko’s In The Mailbox: 03.24.26
JJ Sefton’s The Morning Report — 3/25/26
There will be a short quiz next period.
The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: August Blues ready on time and under budget at The Other McCain.
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Fishing and hunting license sales have been declining in the Chesapeake Bay watershed since the 1980s, which means less state funding for conservation. So, some states have created programs to recruit more people, especially women, to take up the sports. Only a year old, the Virginia Outdoor Women program is the latest program to help women find community and become leaders in these male-dominated spaces.
“If [hunting] is something that has been calling to you and that you want to do, there is room for you,” Jackson said.
According to data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, since 1980 the number of hunting license holders has fallen by almost half in Virginia and a third in Maryland. This decline is due to a myriad of issues — the most often cited is the attrition of male Baby Boomers. Once the dominant demographic in hunting, they are now aging out of the sport. Younger generations still enjoy nature, but they focus on other activities, such as hiking.
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The nationwide “recruitment, retention and reactivation” movement emerged in the 1980s to address this issue. States built programs to engage more people in hunting, fishing and shooting sports. More people in these sports means more license and equipment sales. Taxes on those sales go toward
Taniya Bethke, director of operations at the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, said it’s important for people to have a relationship with wild spaces for their own health and for the health of wildlife. Hunting is important for managing a deer population whose browsing can have a serious impact on forests.
“Unless a whole lot of folks are paying very close attention to how we steward those spaces, there will be irreparable damage done,” Bethke said. “That is something that we and those wild spaces cannot afford.”
Ciera Strickland, Virginia Outdoor Women program manager at the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, helped launch the state’s program in February 2025. It teaches hunting, fishing and outdoor skills with certification classes in all three areas.
Women can also attend weekend camps, virtual meetings and social events that include activities such as archery before a happy hour at a nearby brewery. Strickland just has three rules for every event: Have fun, learn something new and meet someone new.
The program is open to women of all ages, identities and skill levels. All courses are free, but the weekend-long event will have a fee starting this year. Those interested can check the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources website for upcoming events. The most recent was a women-only hunter education course in Montross, VA, on March 28.
In at least one eye. A short update on the progress of the recovery of my left eye from retinal surgery detachment and vitrectomy surgery last Thursday. Healing progresses. The eye is no just barely sore at all, although it is still red and angry looking. It can see; I can even count my fingers if necessary. However, it’s extremely blurry, except for the dirt on my glasses and my shaggy eyebrows. Curiously, having the eye mostly filled with perfluoropropanate makes it extremely nearsighted. I suppose I could have worked that out from first principles.
I can see the fluid level, a line a the top of the vision. Since the eye’s vision is upside down and backwards, that indicates a little bit of eye fluid in the bottom of the eye.
The big black blob in my lower right vision is still there, somewhat diminished, surrounded by a translucent blue and purple aura. It also looks a little rotten, ragged and with holes that apparently perceive light. I can see all the way around it now, it used to be solid to the edge of vision. Hopefully with time this will continue to fill in with light.
At almost half a week after the surgery, I’m still taking 5 different eye drops 4 times daily and one lotion, wear a shield at night, not lift over 20 lbs, not bend over beyond my waist, and continue to look down as much as possible. After a week I loose most of the restrictions, and go to less eye drops. I have on a green wrist band that warns me, or anyone transporting me, not to exceed 2000 ft altitude to avoid having the gas bubble expand and rupture the eye.
Yesterday we walked the beach for the first time since the operation. Between the shield, dark glasses and no prescription lenses, I was at a disadvantage and only found 2 teeth to Georgia’s 3. Conditions were not favorable. Today I even drove around the corner to the water company to show I was still functional. The never knew I was gone.
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Large flightless bird controls the fate of South American palm trees The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Out Like A Lamb ready on time and under budget at The Other McCain. |
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Yesterday morning was the post-op check up for my retinal detachment and vitrectomy surgery. A tec ripped off the shield that covered the eye overnight, administered a bank of eye drops, checked the pressure (a bit high), and quickly determined that the vision in that eye still sucked. No surprise, the big bubble of perfluoropropanate is seriously affecting it.
The second eye surgeon called me in, peered in, and declared herself satisfied with the outcome so far. Unlike most of the Drs I encountered in this jeremiad, middle eastern or Asian, she was an American Black woman. She prescribed a fine list of 5 different eye drops and one lotion, to be taken on a complicated and shifting schedule and sent us home with an appointment to be seen again in about 10 days.
I don’t have much pain, just a little in the outside corner of the eye from all the toys the used. The eye is sort of working again and I can see some big things through the bubble. I may be optimistic, but I think I see the big black blob of inactive retina in the right lower corner of my eye receding away from the center of vision which it had engulfed.
I’m still supposed to keep my head down and sleep on my right side for the rest of a week, to keep the bubble pressing the retina against the back of the eye. I can’t use my computer and keep my head down, so I have to use my IPad, which sucks at posting, hence the dearth and quality. According to the internet, the bubble is supposed to be absorbed over the course of 2 months so it will be quite a while before the eye sees whatever will become the new normal. On the bright side, no more floaters in that eye, which was formerly plagued with them.
Sorry I have to do it this way, but I can’t really use my computer.
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Late Night With Daisy Dukes and FMJRA 2.0: On An Even Keel up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain. Linked at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama.
So, yesterday’s post was rushed because we were rushing to the eye doctor because I was seeing flashes of light around a big black hole in my vision in my right eye. The regular eye doc confirmed my tentative diagnosis of a retinal detachment, and set us to the regular retina specialist across the street, who that day was working in Waldorf. After a hectic ride across the river and through the woods, we reached him just a the office was getting ready to close. He confirmed the confirmation, but admitted he was unable to treat it in the office, and referred me to Wilmers Eye Hospital, a branch of John’s Hopkins Hospital in Balmer.
We arrived at Wilmer’s after dark, and I was admitted through the emergency department. I was finally seen by a young eye doctor around midnight, where he reconfirmed the diagnosis, said he was concocting a plan, for a repair the next day. Long story short after many changes in location followed by long waits. A little after noon I was wheeled into the operating room, where I received a vitrectomy (removal of the vitreous humor) and a gas bubble (C3F8!) put in the eye to help hold the retina against the back of the eye.
I’m currently wearing a shield over my eye, and have to visit the surgeon again tomorrow morning to have the shield removed and the procedure’s success evaluated. We’re staying in Balmer overnight to Georgia doesn’t have make the round trip so soon. I’m supposed to to keep my head looking down for some as yet indefinite period to keep the bubble in place.
Since I had a vitrectomy back in 2018 as a result a a complication of a cataract surgery, I am now humorless.
Blogging my be sketchy for a while due to visual limitations.
"In September 2024, Lauren Boebert wore one of her most inappropriate outfits yet when she posed with Donald Trump and her three sons. Gladiator sandals with leg straps, a minidress, and a cowboy hat don't exactly scream professional. But what is even more distracting than the not-appropriate-for-meeting-the-boss outfit is the product on her skin, which looks an unnaturally deep shade of tan-in-a-can.
From the Balmer Sun, Maryland sheriffs gain national attention amid push against 287(g) ban
Maryland law enforcement leaders gained some national attention in their fight against a law banning formal agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week. Lt. Col. Allen West, the executive director of the national conservative legal nonprofit American Constitutional Rights Union, met with officials in Harford and Carroll counties Monday to discuss his concerns about the constitutionality of the bans.
The visit coincided with recent progress toward legal action against the state law banning 287(g) agreements, which previously allowed local jails to transfer undocumented immigrants directly to ICE. Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, a Republican who is running for reelection, said that there are “positive indications” of legal action, and the sheriffs will be discussing options at a meeting this week.
“How can they make a law that says that a law enforcement officer cannot enforce a law?” West asked during his meeting with Gahler and Patty Morin, the mother of Bel Air murder victim Rachel Morin, along with other local leaders, at the Harford County Detention Center. “We will make sure that justice is served, and there will be no more Rachel Morins in the United States of America,” he said.
Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was raped and murdered on the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air in 2023, spoke in favor of 287(g) agreements. Morin said her daughter’s killer, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, of El Salvador, entered the country illegally before he killed Rachel.
Democratic leaders have defended the ban. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks called ICE “a murderous organization” and said Maryland is protecting residents from “brutal and unconstitutional policies.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the agency is not focused on “the worst of the worst” and that Maryland is within its rights to refuse cooperation.
Gotta make this one quick, and run to the eye doc. More later?
Trump and the Republicans
The Left Is Going Insane About the Coming Downfall of Cuba – HotAir
