Sorry for the gross picture, but I've had some people who've been curious about how it turned out. For those who may not know, I had surgery on my eyelid 2 days ago. It was my fifth, yes that's right, fifth. Everything went as it should. It took me quite a long time to come out of the anesthesia. We couldn't figure out why until I looked at my discharge papers that night and noticed that they had my weight written down as 27 pounds more than what they weighed me at the hospital that morning. So we figured I must have been given more anesthesia than I really needed. Yikes!
It doesn't look very pretty now, but it should look much better in a couple of weeks. There is a slight problem I do have to deal with for about the next 6 weeks. My eyelid cannot shut. Have you ever tried to sleep with your eyes open?? You can't! I literally have to sleep with sunglasses on and a cloth over them to block out any kind of light. I also have to keep plenty of ointment in my eye to keep it from drying out and to protect the cornea. So my world's a little fuzzy right now.
For those of you who don't know the story, my eyelid started to droop when I was about 19 or 20. I had never had any problems with it up until that point and looked completely normal. After seeing 7 doctors, going through numerous tests and scans, and having 5 surgeries, nobody has an answer for why it occurred. A little frustrating to say the least. The only explanation I can think of is that when I was 16, I woke up in the middle of the night, passed out, and hit my head on the corner of my bed. I had headaches and a lot of pain near the temple on the same eye for months after. Later scans have shown no sign of injury, but a few of the doctors say that it is a possibilitythat there may have been damage to the optic nerves and muscle in the eyelid. Whatever it is, it has caused the muscle in my eyelid to become weakened and it therefore continues to droop. The doctor inserted a sling from the muscle in my eyelid up to the brow bone. My brow has also moved up higher than the other side in response to the eyelid drooping because it's trying to compensate for that. Isn't it interesting how the body works? We're very hopeful that this time it will work.
4 comments:
I told Shannon about not being able to close your eye and she was as appalled as I was when you told me! I cannot fathom! You are a brave woman and I really hope you get the outcome you want with this surgery. Let me know if you need ANYTHING:)
My goodness girl! I hope this time it works! Eye problems are so not fun! I use that Genteal eye gel to help lubricate my eye--not sure what they're having you use, but that stuff works great for me and my extreme eye dryness! Let me know if you need any-- I've got plenty of tubes lying around--I'm sure I can find an unopened tube somewhere around here! :D
I can't imagine trying to sleep with one eye open! Does it take you forever to fall asleep? Hopefully fifth time's the charm!!
I am the WORST at checking blogs, but today I just happened to click on yours. Wow! That was by far the most interesting and insightful post I have read...ever! I hope that you are seeing the results you want. I can't believe they got your weight so incredibly wrong...that's scary! I am so glad you are ok. :)
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