The next couple of weeks are hazy for me as I was in and out of sleep most of the time. The majority of my time awake was spent in various doctors' offices.

During the exams with Dr. Hetland, I discovered that when I looked up and down, my eyes would not synchronize. There was something preventing my left eye (it felt like a tugging) from moving freely. Dr. Hetland explained that the eye had become trapped in the fracture, which was not good. Surgery would be required to free the eye and repair the fracture. So he recommended a surgeon that specialised in orbital repairs.

Also there was a sudden eruption of flashing lights, again not good. Dr. Hetland did a thorough exam and found a tear in the retina. Another specialist was recommended. He called both doctors and insisted they see me right away.

This was all happening to me in one day.

So it was off to the orbital repair specialist. Along the way I needed to stop at the hospital and pick up a copy of my CT scans.

Dr. Levin, a Ophthalmic Plastic Surgeon, was patient and kind despite being busy as hell. He did some basic tests on me, and noted that my eye had begun to sink in (another sign of an orbital fracture.) Ugh. He explained to me the options which were basically do nothing and live with the results, or undergo surgery to repair the fracture and free the eye. There were all sorts of possible complications from the surgery - one of them being permanent blindness. There were no guarantees.

I was pretty much stunned. This was serious - way more serious than I had ever imagined. Then Dr. Levin then showed me my CT scans and pointed out the fracture. Holy Crap! I had been initially told it was a minor fracture, but there was nothing minor about what I was seeing (see image, the fracture is circled in red). It was an orbital blowout fracture, and it was large. The chilling part was seeing that a large portion of my eye had gone through the fracture. After seeing the scans, I made up mind to have surgery. There was no way I wanted to be like this for the rest of my life.

Next it was off to the retina specialist. It was at the end of the day and I was an add on. I was screened by a technician first. He asked me "so what seems to be the problem?" and I casually responded "you mean besides the bluriness, double vision, problems focusing and the flashing lights?" I expected him to laugh but he was busily writing, telling me "wait, wait ..." Oh well so much for humor. He then proceeded to dialate my eyes for the third time that day.

After about another hour I finally got see Dr. Sanislo. He was young! He conducted a very thorough examination of the eye and spotted the tear. During the examination he would jam the butt end of a wooden q-tip between my eye and the socket. I'm not sure why but it wasn't pleasant. Trust me. He recommended the lasery surgery - and he could do it now. Whoa! So off to another room and I was seated in front of a machine. More eye drops (the amount of eye drops I had received during the day was phenomenal.) He numbed the eye and then placed a lens directly on my eye to hold it steady, and to keep my eye open. He explained I would see flashing light and that I might experience some discomfort. He was wrong. I experienced intense discomfort. It felt like white hot needles jabbing in the back of my eye. I had tears streaming off my face from the pain. It was only a few minutes, but it seemed much much longer. At least the tear was taken care of. After they flushed my eye out, I stumbled back into the lobby. The place was empty - I was the last patient.

I called my wife to come pick me up. I could barely see, so there was no way I was going to drive. It was the end of a long day, and I was exhausted. But I told myself it wasn't over yet - I still had major surgery awaiting me ...

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Published: (2005-12-06 16:18:59.0)