How I Spent My Thanksgiving

I spent this Thanksgiving week pretty much on my face. The week before I was diagnosed with a detached retina. Surgery was on the Monday before Thanksgiving and I spent the rest of the week recovering. Because of the procedure used I was required to spend a week with my head pointed downward.

The procedure I opted for is called vitrectomy (there are others but they were not as attractive in my case). The vitreous humor is removed from the eye and replaced with a saline solution. Following the reattachment of the retina the eye is filled with a gas that creates a bubble within the eye. The bubble presses against the retina and holds it in place during healing. In order for this to work the head must be positioned facing downwards. For those of you who slept through science class (or were forced to take in its place multicultural studies or some other bullshit feel-good class) here is the reason: gas in a liquid rises to the top.

To make recovery a bit easier I rented some special equipment that includes this massage chair contraption that lets me watch TV and use the computer while keeping my head down. For watching TV they sent along this mirror gizmo that works sort of like a periscope. It has two mirrors so that the TV image appears upright when you look into it. When not in the chair or sleeping (face down of course) I spent the time reading. This gave me a chance to read a book titled Chosen written by Troy Seate, a classmate of mine from Paschal High school.

I want to thank all my friends that helped me out during all this. Thanks to Steve Collier who drove me to the outpatient clinic and Sara Jo Dunstan who picked me up afterwards. Sara Jo also brought me my Thanksgiving meal from leftovers at the West Alabama Ice House orphans party. And a very special thanks to my next door neighbor Jim Bishop, who ironically is a retired ophthalmologist, for taking me to my post-op doctor's visit and walking my dog Boo each day.

So, here's hoping that next Thanksgiving will be much less eventful.

To see my YouTube video click here.

Note: If you have any of the symptoms of retinal detachment (flashes of light, increase in eye floaters and/or the impression that a veil or curtain has been drawn over your field of vision) get to your eye doctor right away.