I have been seeing double and no it is not because I had too much to drink. It has gotten to the point where I hesitate to drive at night because there are far too many lines on the road.
Going to a regular eye doctor, I was diagnosed with macular degeneration. What that means is that the retina inside my eyeball is swollen and therefor my vision is distorted in that eye. since one eye is unaffected, by binocular vision causes me to see two of everything. This is not an idea situation for a visual artist.
A friend drove me to The Orlando Ophthalmology Surgery Center. It was scheduled for 6:30am but was thankfully rescheduled for 8am. The receptionist asked which eye need surgery, I said my left eye and pointed at it. He responded with Right Eye, and we had to correct him. There was the usual agonizing wait in the waiting room. I had sketched this waiting room before since I took another fried in for an eye surgery years ago. I felt less inclined to sketch but once I put a few lines on the page I was called in.
There is no HEPA air filtration system in the waiting room or in the pre-op gurney waiting area as far as I could see. I was intubated. pointing my toes in pain when the needle was shoved into a vein in my hand. An anesthesiologist and nurse who would control the drip both asked me a series of questions. I was asked multiple times which eye needed surgery and they pasted a sticky note above that eye. My surgeon came in and asked me again and he signed off on the sticky note. A clear eye shield was placed over my other eye.I wonder how many incorrect eyes they jabbed before they developed this stream of checks and balances.
As I lay on the gurney the lights blacked out and then flickered back on. A nurse joked that they really should pay the power bill In another passing conversation a nurse said she would marry for money rather than love. None of the nurses wore masks though the anesthesiologist wore hers as a chin strap. I had to take off my quality N-95 mask and wear the baggy yellow surgical mask they offered. I know it is worthless against an airborne virus and it is amazing that doctors and nurses do not. I had a brand new n-95 mask in my bag, but I could not use that either. I breathed as shallow as possible especially since one nurse was coughing up a lung. I felt like I was in a horrific third world emergency room. Doctors and nurses who are not required to wear masks refuse to wear them because the do not care about the health of their patients. They are actively promoting and encouraging infection. In the surgery room, everyone wore their surgial masks which offered me some form of relief.
I was awake but groggy for the surgery. My doctor told me most patients don’t remember a thing. I however remember seeing everything as it happened. A blue bag was taped over my head. I saw a purple pitchfork shoved inside inside my eyeball from the left and it stabbed a sheet of film which waved in the fluid like a flag. After the surgery a patch was taped over the eye. when I tilt my head a black fluid line separates the red on top which is light shining though my eyelid, and grey below which I was told is a large air pocket in the eye. tilting my head makes that air pocked move up and down. Shaking my head makes it slosh around like an ocean wave. Watching that air pocket sloshing around tends to make me sea sick. I did some painting the first day after surgery but got sick to my stomach and had to lie on the couch for the rest of the day.
This is day two and I can type, but I need to keep the wonky eye closed so it doesn’t distract me too much.