Recovering From Sugery

 Recovering From Surgery

 

    When I woke up, I was pleased to have not remembered the surgery at all. I also was not nauseous and did not feel sick. I don’t think I was in the recovery area long before I woke up. As soon as I did come to, a nurse had called my mother to come inside. I asked for some juice as it had been a long day and I hadn’t gotten much fluids in my body, only whatever small amount was given through my IV before and during surgery. I'm always hyperconscious of being hydrated due to my impaired kidney function.  I drank two 12 oz apple juices and then was instructed to get dressed. My mother helped me as I still did not want to open my eyes, because when I tried, my right eye felt very uncomfortable. I was then driven back home. My mother guided me to my room where I tried to fall asleep. My sisters had told me the day prior, that they wanted to see me when I got home, but I didn’t feel up to it now. I thought I would easily fall asleep and forget about my extremely, uncomfortable eye. I was so miserable. To my surprise, I was not tired at all. Since I was so uncomfortable and restless, I decided to ask my sisters to come over after all. They came bearing gifts and my two youngest nieces came along as well. They brought me food and dessert. I was still not opening my eyes, and my nieces were very happy to feed me and guide me to the bathroom when I needed to go. The presence of my family helped distract me from everything that happened that day, as well as from the uncomfortable sensations of my eye. My oldest sister volunteered to stay the night with me and walk me to the bathroom as I frequently woke up to pee since my kidney function was slightly compromised. She walked me there twice, and after that, I somehow managed to open my eyes. The next day, my sister stayed for a while until my other sister came back over with her girls. It was wither this day or the day after that I began to walk in the park again, despite my somewhat disfigured face.

    When I was finally able to take the bandages off, I could see there were a lot of stitches. The doctor had gone with the option of pulling my eyelid tight and releasing the tension in the corner. Because of this, I had a line of black stitches on my eyelid, as well as by the corner of my eye. Because the eyelid was pulled so tight, and because there were stitches near the corner of my eye, all around my eye felt very tight. I also noticed that my eyeball was swollen and puffy in the area near the corner of my eye. This alone would be a cause of great discomfort for me. Although not painful, the tightness and the dryness of my eye drove me mad. The affected area of my eyeball was very sensitive to wind and cold air from air conditioning. My eye had a stinging pain in it at all times. I resumed walking in the park on the second day and the little bit of wind hurt my eye so badly. To reduce some of the puffiness, I gave up  caffeine. This helped a lot but did not eliminate the puffiness completely. When I finally got the stitches out, 15 days later, I felt a bit of relief. As time passed, my eyelid began to stretch out a little and my eyelid no longer felt so tight. To this day, the area in my eye remains puffy and it is at its worst in the winter, when hot dry air is blowing. Although some puffiness remains, I was able to start using contacts again on September, 29, 2023. I thought wearing contacts would make my eyes worse, but I joined a yoga studio in September. I could not wear my glasses for class as they often fell off my head. I took a risk and put the contacts in and found they actually managed to keep my eye more moistened which made the swelling much more tolerable.

(Stitches out.)