Eye Surgery Update: Good news & pictures!

This is Adam, filling in for Karyn.  

I'm glad to report that things are going as well as we could have possibly hoped for.  Karyn is really barely recovering from the surgery itself, feeling really groggy and out of it ever since she got pulled back into consciousness.  It hasn't helped that she's been out of adrenaline, hadn't eaten at all before the surgery, and that she's been wearing a patch and a bunch of gauze over her left eye.  It's been really disorienting.

But, the good parts:

• The doctor, right after the surgery* said that it went very well.  No problems and no extra manuevers.
  
• Karyn woke up after the surgery -- that's the part that always relieves me -- and she came home.
  
• Louise (Karyn's mom) got here this morning to help out.
  
• I took Karyn to the doctor this morning, where the patch got to come off and they checked all things they need to check.  For me, it was really interesting to see all the different things they could look through and all the different things they could look for.  The doctor even pointed out to me the various features of the procedure, holding Karyn's eyelid open as he did so.  (Not very comfortable for Karyn, but it was really fascinating for me.)  They checked the pressure in her left eye and it measured 16 mmHg.  (I include the units of measure for any physicists or any of my physics students checking in.)  This is exactly in the normal range, and much much better than the elevated pressures she'd been sustaining for the last few days.  This is without medication in this eye.
  
• Karyn's much more comfortable to have both eyes open, and the left eye doesn't feel that bad.  It feels better than her throat, actually, where she had a breathing tube during the surgery.  Her vision is surprisingly good, even minutes after removing the patch.

Now Karyn goes back to the doctor every few days to check on how the healing is going and if anything needs to be done to modify the pressure some more.  There could be some more fine tuning with the eye, but so far (aside from having the surgery in the first place) things are going as well as they can.

Karyn hasn't been behind her camera lately, but I took a few shots, both before and after the surgery:

Karyn with Anna, behind the small army of medications she was taking to try to prevent surgery.

Karyn showing her calm cool collected self before the surgery.

Staying warm under my coat.  The socks aren't upside-down, they're made to go either way . . . I guess in case you need to climb a wall or something.

Just a few hours before she got the patch removed.  

Now, Karyn is taking a nap, Louise is doing laundry, and I'm on my way to get the girls from school.  It all feels much more calm than the weekend.  Thanks to everyone with the well wishes to Karyn -- she's really appreciated knowing that people are thinking of her.

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* If you're interested, the procedure is called a "trabeculectomy".  If you google such a thing, you can get an in-depth description of the different things that are done, and you can even see some video footage of procedures.  (Not really recommended, actually.  Very graphic and maybe more information than you'd want to know.)  The basic technique is that they open up a flap in the exterior of the eye, do an incision that goes to the iris that will allow fluid to drain out and prevent pressure build-up, and remove a sliver of the iris so that it doesn't fill in this piece of the plumbing.  Then they treat it with some cancer medication which prevents cell growth, keeping that opening clear for drainage.  Karyn goes in over the next few weeks to make sure that this basic plumbing is just the right gauge to allow pressure to be relieved, but also not be too low.