Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Eye-eye

Lou had surgery today for an epiretinal membrane in his right eye.
Epiretinal membrane (ERMs), also commonly known as cellophane maculopathy or macular puckers, are avascular (having few or no blood vessels), semitranslucent, fibrocellular membranes that form on the inner surface of the retina. They most commonly cause minimal symptoms and can be simply observed, but in some cases they can result in painless loss of vision and metamorphopsia (visual distortion). Generally, ERMs are most symptomatic when affecting the macula, which is the central portion of the retina that helps us to distinguish fine detail used for reading and recognizing faces. 
The tape can come off in a few hours. In the meantime he has zero depth perception. (How did pirates deal with that?) He has written instructions for post-op care. There are also a series of followup examinations.

Just the thought of even highly qualified people poking around in the eye gives me the willies. However, the surgeon says this is no big deal—as far as eye surgery goes. And Lou is calm. But that could be the drugs.

7 comments:

  1. I suspect I would have to have some damn good drugs to undergo something like that!

    At least they didn't shave his eyebrow off.

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    1. Surprisingly they don't put you fully under. They need your cooperation during the surgery. But you are not in any pain. Not much pain afterwards either. I did not need any prescription pain killers during recovery, just some Ibuprofen for a couple of days.

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  2. I hope Lou heals well and quickly.

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  3. I have had the same surgery. As far as pain goes it is not a big deal. Some irritation for a few days but not major pain. As to healing quickly...no that is not the case with this particular type of surgery in fact it takes a full year of slow progress to get it as flat as it will become. There is going to be some permanent damage as the macula will not ever be as flat as it was before the macular pucker happened. It is good that Lou has you to help him out with driving and such for the next little while. The first 3 months after surgery are not so great in terms of being able to see clearly.

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  4. He even got a tattoo out of the deal.
    Thanks Lou for allowing Al to share this with us.

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  5. I took Lou to his first followup exam and everything is as it should be.

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