Today

Okay, most of you know my eye's been fucked up for a long time.  Quick background for those who've missed it...

Back in '84 I got the shit beat out of me, and I suffered a detached retina.  The only way they could control it (after trying everything else) was to put a bubble of silicone oil inside the eyeball.  The doctors at the time told me a side effect of this was 'corneal staining', which didn't sound so bad back then.  

In about 1996 or so, I started to get some pain and irritation, but nothing I couldn't handle.  

By 2002 or so, this was changing...i.e., I was becoming less able to handle it.  Lots of pain, very light-sensitive, raw and irritated...in short, something had to be done.  

After messing around with this dr. in OKC, who told me to just keep putting drops in my eye, I decided in 2005 to have them do a 'buffing' procedure.  To be honest, the word 'buffing' brought up these images of a soft pad, kinda like waxing your car.  So I had them do that.  

Hurt like hell.  They don't use anything soft, they used a metal blade to scrape off the calcium deposits (the staining) off my eye.  As my friend Doug said at the time, "you mean they treated your eye like they were cleaning a bong?!?!"  Well, yeah.  

After getting this procedure done in 2005, I kinda hoped I'd be able to hang on another 20 years or so, but this was not to be.  It came right back, and has been sucking ever since.  This fall has been especially bad, so about a month ago I went to see a retina specialist in Tulsa.  He couldn't get a pressure reading in my bad eye, the calcium was so hard on the front.  He also coundn't see inside it at all.  As most of you know, I've been functionally blind out of that eye for a long time.

So he said to me, "Well, you've got an eye that you can't see out of, that hurts a lot.  I think you should just have it taken out."  We discussed different reasons for and against.  He told me that with that oil having been in there for so long, my optic nerve was as good as dead.  He gave me a couple of recommendations for doctors here in town that could do this, and I started making phone calls...

The first guy I want to I didn't like, he wouldn't answer my direct questions.

The second guy was harder to get an appointment with.  This made me think he was busier.  I went to see him on Wednesday, and he was more personable...not necessary, but it was easier to talk to him and get more questions answered.  After discussing things with him, he told me he thought doing an enucleation would be the most successful.  Which is what I've got scheduled for today. 

'Enucleation' -  WTF is that?  That's where they take out my whole eyeball, and put a plastic one in to fill the space.  He'll attach the muscles in my eye, the ones that move my eyeball around now, to the plastic ball, so I'll have some movement.

After a couple of months of healing, I'll go to this outfit here in town that supposedly really good.  I went and visited with them in person while waiting for my appointment with my second dr.  These guys will hand paint a prosthetic eye to cover up the plastic ball, and make me look normal; considering the rest of me and what they have to work with, we'll see about that.  After that, I'll be able to go outside on a pleasant sunny day in the spring/fall, play catch with my girlfriend's boys, and actually have a life without constant agony.  At least that's what they're telling me.  I'll keep this posted as time goes on to document whether or not that is actually true, and to let you all know how things are going as far as this goes.  

The next couple of days are gonna suck, so nothing for a little while.  I'll try to post pics, so if you're feeling squeamish you might at least pause before checking it out.