Eye Spy

 As some of you know, I messed up my left eye a number of years ago. No need to go into the grim details here but let this serve as a reminder to always wear eye protection when doing almost anything. My eye looks pretty normal, but what I see when I look out of it is anything but normal. (*1) And no, nothing is going to make it okay again as my cornea was sewn back together and I have copious scar tissue through which to view the world. But it's alright: I've gotten used to it!

Anyway, my regular eye doctor had noticed in the past couple of regular eye exam visits that it was noticeably blurrier. She recommended a laser procedure as a secondary cataract had formed behind my eye. I put it off last year as COVID prevented me from wanting to do a lot of things. But this year, after my exam,I decided to go for it.

Last Friday I had an experience that felt pretty sci-fi. I know that this laser technology has been the medical standard for quite some time now, but I don't undergo procedures often so it was novel. The cornea doctor is very relaxed about this procedure as she's doing it hundreds of times a year but I was a bit unnerved by the odd red light and strange clicking noises and her space-age helmet. It certainly didn't hurt while undergoing the procedure as my eye was numbed and it only took a couple of minutes. Afterward, on the way home, it felt (briefly) like someone had rubbed my eye with sandpaper and then put salt in it. That sensation passed quickly. Although my first application of the steroidal eye drops reinforced the salt-in-wound feeling. It was fine after that...

So two days after the procedure I can report no pain (good), no discomfort in applying the eye drops (also good) but I do have a few big black honking  floaters. You know how floaters are usually translucent and wiggly? There are two of these black spots that look like flies have come into view. I want to swat them! This is supposed to resolve soon... kind of annoying but normal. Other than that, I think that color seems to be a bit brighter but I'm not sure I'm "seeing" any less fogginess. I guess I'll have to wait a few days to really know what's up!(*2)

(*1) If you want to sort of approximate what I see out of my left eye, take a small piece of plastic or plexiglass and sand it. When you hold it up to your eye and close the other eye; it will be weird and foggy. You will still "see" but it will not be clear, distinct or articulate. It is like everything has been "generalized". Yes, you see the book shelf or the computer screen or the dog, but it will be as forms with no specific details. 

(*2) I reiterate: no, I will never see totally normally. Medical science cannot do that. I think the best my doctors and I hope for is less cloudiness. Too early to tell!

 

Medical Adventures

And why are we looking at x-rays? And whose interior is this? Just guess... Poor Lil' Robin started looking green on Wednesday evening and then spent the night throwing up. Needless to say, Bob and I got very little sleep what with cleaning up doggie barf and pulling on pants and running outside. Just as we'd drowse off, Robin would need to go out again. Thursday she seemed okay early on. She ate her meals- not with much enthusiasm, but she ate. And pooped. (That's always important!) We went on our walk and she was alert and inquisitive; but when we returned home, she curled up in a small ball and slept most of the day. Friday morning, Robin just looked so under the weather that I skipped out of work and took her to the doctor. Robin had no temperature and she didn't seem in pain when her stomach was pressed, but her vet suggested x-rays. We all began to suspect she had eaten something that was lodged in her interior... like that damned new rawhide chew bone that I had given her on Wednesday and that was mysteriously devoured and gone almost immediately. Sure enough, the vet thinks a darkish circular area is probably that stupid piece of rawhide!*
So while Robin is still eating (small, simple meals of rice and organic low salt chicken broth and a bit of chicken) she doesn't seem to be eliminating much. I keep hoping that she'll just puke up that rawhide fragment or her stomach acids will break it down. She's running around, albeit not as actively as is usual for her and isn't really uncomfortable but it can't feel good.
Another view:

 So we're left, during a holiday weekend no less, with the fact that if she doesn't eat or can't poop that they may have to go in, do surgery and physically remove the obstruction. I've always heard these nightmare stories of dogs that swallow bones or corncobs or rocks that have to be surgically removed. Our good friends Don and Elizabeth (who visited this weekend with their dog Romeo) told us a funny but dreadful story of a dog that ate a billiard ball. They thought the dog was a goner because the vet assured them that it would never pass through their dog and they weren't prepared to pay the several thousand dollars the surgery would require.(!!?!?!?!!) But a few nights after this death sentence, their dog threw up the ball... in the middle of a dinner party and without the colored coating. (Apparently the dog's stomach acid had removed the finish on the ball!) So we can keep our fingers crossed!


*The dilemma is what exactly to give to a dog like Robin who loves to chew. She's a serious chewer! She doesn't like Nylabones, she consumes Kongs so fast that it's like an Olympic contest and most other treats just don't hold her attention or hold up under her powerful mastication. I used to give Robin hard sticks (thinking "all natural") but several friends warned  me about them with horror stories of how the get stuck in dog's guts. The irony! The vet recommended antlers and marrow bones so we'll try those.