The week before T's Birthday Brandon started experiencing some strange eye issues. He was seeing flashes of light in his right eye. He described them as lightening bolts. His right eye is his "good" eye since corneal erosion in his left eye has really affected his vision in that eye. He went to a local eye Dr. the week before T's Birthday and got an appointment with a more specialized Dr. for the day after her Birthday.
On Monday the 17th I was settling in a home, excited for a productive week. I was catching up on emails and anticipating getting back into blogging. I was cruising through my inbox sending email updates to many people. While I was working, Brandon was at the specialist. He called me from there and said, "My retina is detaching and I need emergency surgery. I am driving to St. Luke's. Can you drive down there?" WHAT?!?!? I asked him if he could drive back here so I could take him down and we wouldn't have to figure out how to get the other car home. He asked the Dr. and the Dr. said no, he had to go straight there. This caused me major concern since he was at a clinic only 25 minutes from our house.
I ran over to church and found that he was on the phone with another pastor. I needed to talk things through with the staff because I couldn't think very rationally. Talking with friends helped. The church sent our a prayer request and I started to get texts immediately from people offering to help. I asked a friend to drive me down to the hospital to drop me off. Charissa offered to use our van to pick up all 5 kids at Lincoln and take care of them until we got home. What a HUGE blessing.
I packed a bag and ate some lunch and my friend (with three kids in the backseat) picked me up and drove me to the hospital. I am so thankful for her willingness to help. Once I got there I quickly found Brandon waiting to be seen but the surgeon. It turns out the Dr. was quite confident that he could do surgery the following day and that Brandon's retina would not totally detach before that time. We were both skeptical and nervous.
We spoke with a very knowledgable nurse who worked hard to answer our questions. She explained that younger people have detachments when they are severely nearsighted. Their eyes are shaped differently and the retina pulls and detaches. Yes, I did say eyes. Yes, this means we might have to go through all of this again with his other eye. Even though Brandon had Lasik surgery (twice) to correct vision (somewhat) it doesn't change the shape of the eye. Lasik led to his corneal erosion, but corneal erosion has nothing to do with retina detachment. Basically, when it comes to eyes, Brandon has gotten the short end of the stick.
One of the trickiest things about a retina attachment surgery is the recovery. The patient needs to be face down (head totally parallel with the floor) 24 hours a day for many days, sometimes even 10 days. The other tricky thing about the gas bubble surgery is that after surgery you can't change elevations for 2 months. We had our annual trip to Mexico scheduled for just 2.5 weeks later so the trip would be out of the question if he had the gas bubble. The nurse also told us about a different option for surgery. Brandon could have the surgery done in two parts. He could have oil put in his eye first, recover from that and then have gas put in later. This would mean two recovery periods, but we could still travel to Mexico. She also said that oil is a better/best option for extensive tearing and detachment. We already knew that Brandon had at least 2 tears in the retina so we were pretty sure we would go with the oil surgery.
We left the hospital a bit stunned by all that had happened. I navigated us home through rush hour snow. We picked up the kids and ate and explained things to them. That night ended up being very helpful. Brandon was able to order a massage chair that would better help him to be face down. He was able to gather all sort of supplies he would need during recovery and come up with a game plan for the following days. I am so thankful that he was able to help get things prepped.
Tuesday:
On the morning of the surgery I brought the kids to school and we continued to prepare. We headed downtown around lunch time. Poor Brandon had to go without food all day. We were quite nervous about his eye. When the retina is detaching it is described at a curtain closing in the line of vision. This was happening more and more as the day went on. The eye facility was an odd place because it was very medical yet patients were close together and family members could come and go from the pre/post surgery area. It is located on the lower level of a big hospital. Since it is below ground I had very little phone signal and no internet signal. I was trying to text a group of people updates and the were not going through.
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| Pre op Brandon. |
The waiting really seemed to drag on and on. They put dilation drops in the eye and we kept getting word that things were being pushed back more and more. Poor Brandon hadn't eaten since the evening before. Finally at 3:37 he headed back for surgery. We all decided to do the oil surgery.
While he was in surgery I quickly took the elevator up to a higher floor to try to send updates to family and friends.
The surgery went well and I was able to see Brandon in recovery pretty quickly. They gave him a little toast post op and we waited for all the boxes to be checked so we could go home.
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| Facedown all the time! |
I was anxiously waiting for the Rx's to be ready so I could pick them up onsite before the pharmacy closed. Thankfully I was able to go at just the right time and get them filled without having to try to find a different pharmacy that night.
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| A simple bag, but an answered prayer. |
We arrived home at about 6:45 totally exhausted and very hungry! At this point you might be wondering what happened to our children, right? Well we have amazing friends... M had a club after school so one of the pastors at church picked him up and after the club and they spent time together. When the work day was over M went to a neighbor's house and ate dinner there. Charissa picked up T and took her home with them. T stayed there for the afternoon/evening and then David brought her home in a truck he uses for plowing. She got to sit in the front seat (no airbag) and she was thrilled!
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| Before the massage chair and table arrived this was his only option. |
After a little time with the kids, we got them to bed. M brought home food for Brandon to eat. I fell asleep putting M to bed. When I woke up and came downstairs I saw that a massage table had been delivered. We have a friend and neighbor who is a massage therapist. She brought over her portable table so Brandon would have lounging options as he recovered.
Brandon had a lot of pain the first night and sleeping in the odd position was quite a challenge.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a unique day. I brought the kids to school in the morning and then we had all morning to sort of figure out how to navigate things. Our church was hosting a skate land night that night. I love those nights, but we decided our good friends who are M's special respite family would pick both kids up from school and then take them to skating and bring them home. This meant the kids were out of our house for about 12 hours. Brandon was on the phone with staff a lot. He was in good spirits and able to get a lot done.
In the afternoon we headed for his first post op visit. Because of where the Dr. works each day we had to go to a location so far south we were just 15 minutes away from the town we lived in while Brandon was in seminary! The drive and appointment filled most of our afternoon. The report was good. The healing was going well. We learned that he had 6 tears plus the detachment. They also informed us that Brandon would have to be facedown until Monday morning.
A funny story from the waiting room. There were several people talking about various things in the room. Brandon was remaining facedown, but I obviously could look around. After we got home he was telling me that he agreed with what the old lady shared in the waiting room. I laughed because the old lady he was referring to was a man in his 60's. I know how he could imagine the voice to be a rough older woman's voice, but it was still funny to hear. I was also proud of him for his diligence to not look up for a second.
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| The massage chair arrived which helped his head have a resting place. |
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| Three head down options in a row. |
His pain levels were pretty low after the first night. The stitches in the eye were very annoying to him, but not exactly painful. Overall he was in very good spirits.
We had amazing friends bring a very tasty Chicken dinner for us. We were overwhelmed with many gifts and cards during this time, but the food and treats were especially appreciated by Brandon. They are truly a love language for him.
There was much to consider during his recovery week. Celebration Sunday was scheduled for the following Sunday. We had one special service planned with many people from the project attending. We had all been looking so forward to the event. Brandon really wanted to speak at the event, but eventually it was determined that he would write something and I would read it on Sunday. More on that in a following post.
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