One of the health matters I have not blogged about on here is that I see double (no jokes, please!) – but not from drinking. I have something called strabismus (sometimes known as lazy eye), a largely congenital muscle problem around my eye, which I have been correcting via eye glasses with prisms. But it’s been getting slightly worse and this morning I am going under the knife (or something) of the maestro Dr. Kenneth Wright to get it repaired. There will be probably be a blogging hiatus for me here and on PJM (where others will of course carry on in spades).
Am I nervous? Sure. I don’t have a lot of eyes. But soon enough I’ll be under the miracle of modern anesthesia. 10… 9… 8… 7… 7…. 7…. zzz….
UPDATE: I’m back and it seems to have worked. Al Hail, Dr. Wright! (Yes, Charles Martin was right – they used Versed. Later Demerol, which put me out for a couple of hours – sadly, they were too smart to give me an enduring prescription.)
I can’t say for sure, in answer to a question, that this was late onset strabismus. More likely it was just something that was there, getting worse.
Been there, done that .. when I was 4.
Good luck!
I wonder if Roger is in for a surprise.
I had always been told that they put little child out, but usually after about 12 years old they need them awake, but with a local.
Seems little children’s eyes can adapt enough that the surgeons don’t have to be real exact with the muscle alignment of the eyes, but adults aren’t, so they have to be awake so they can move their eyes about while the surgeon tweets the muscles to get the eyes straight.
How interesting. Was it adult-onset strabismus? I have strabismus as well, as do both of my boys, but we’ve all had it since childhood. My youngest boy just had the surgery and he is doing fine.
As I understand it the surgery is pretty much foolproof nowadays, especially in adults. My dad had a very pronounced case of “lazy eye” into his 30′s and the surgery corrected the problem perfectly. It corrected the cosmetic aspects of the problem, at any rate; it was far too late to restore his vision that eye, since he’d had the condition since childhood and his brain was no longer able to process information coming from that eye. But his eyes tracked perfectly, it was as if the first 30-some years had never happened.
That’s okay — they’ll probably give him Versed, so if he is surprised, he won’t remember being surprised later…..
Good you’re getting it fixed –seeing double will keep one beside oneself. Good luck!
Good luck. Take it easy till you get well.
glad u r well!
Since we’re talking eyes…
Last February I went in for a routine eye check and they told me that my optic nerves were swollen. So? What could it mean?
First we did some tests to make sure they really were swollen and then they said “Early onset multiple sclerosis or brain tumor. Further tests will confirm which.”
I walked out to my car on numb legs and just sat there for a minute, and then I thought “What makes you so special? In a world of car bombs, AIDS, cancer, the mullahs, Hutus and Tutsis, why did you think you’d get out unscathed? Deal with it. Man up.”
So I decided that whatever happened, I’d just live it one day–or one minute–at a time and not let myself be bitter. I’d think of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and try to be like them.
Long story short, a spinal tap (They’re agony; don’t let them kid you about that) showed I had a condition called pseudotumor cerebri, in which my stupid brain pumps out more cerebrospinal fluid that I need, creating too much pressure and ruining my optic nerves.
I’ve been taking a nasty medication since April, which makes my lips, hands, and feet tingle, gives me crystals in my urine, makes me sleepy and depressed, gives me diarrhea, makes milk and soda taste like rubbing alcohol, and inhibits my concentration, and I’ll be on it for another few months, but I’m still here.
Hooah.
Get your eyes checked, folks. I’d never heard of this thing until I got it.
Roger, I hope you were first checked out by a neurologist, preferably a neuro-ophthalmologist. Double vision and abnormal eye movements (hence two images, one being “false” due to one eye seeing off axis) can be caused by a wide variety of conditions, some worse than others. It is not something to dismiss as a benign phenomenon without first excluding the more serious conditions.
But I suspect you received excellent care and a thorough work up, so glad all went well.
I hate it when they don’t put you completely under whilst cutting and probbing. Although, the relaxant drug of choice (I have had cataract operations) makes me all cheery so, I guess that’s something. And they are quite mean about it: not followup on the relaxant, darn.
problem is we only have two eyes. a fly or a spider with cataracts could lay in some serious supply of painkillers.
Glad to hear it went well, Roger. Having your senses working properly is not something you really appreciate until it starts to go south on you. Vision is especially important to those of us who express ourselves and get much of our information and entertainment through the written word, and it’s easy to take for granted when you’re still young and your eyes haven’t started going goo-goo on you yet.
Heather, the thing with Versed sn’t that it’s a good or bad relazant — it’s just another benzodiazepene, like Valium — it’s that it causes memory lacunae, like Halcion or worse.
Personally, I find the memory effects must freakier than a little pain.
Jeepers, creepers . . . So glad all went well.