You Gotta Love Frozen Peas

Yay! The bandage is off, and to my great relief, my eye is not stitched shut, so I can see out of both eyes again. Depth perception is BACK!

 

The dark long line beneath my eye in the pic is surgical thread, which appears to be anchoring the tiny stitches in the graft, which was taken from the outside edge of my eye. I feel much better now, but at about 3 AM this morning, with my face hurting quite a bit, I decided to open the Swiss Eye Masks and attempt to get some relief by cooling my eye through the bandage. First of all, I've gotta say, whoever thought that printing the instructions for a mask to be used after eye surgery in pale grey ink in a tiny font on a shiny white background should be fired. When I finally got one of the mask packets open and picked it up to put it on over the bandage, I realized why I was told I could "just use a bag of frozen peas" instead. The masks are SLIMY and totally disgusting, to the point that I'll pass on using them.

 

I like peas, but in a lifetime of eating peas, I've never been so happy to see a bag of frozen peas in my freezer at 3 AM as I was last night. The bag of frozen peas inside a clean wash cloth provided some instant relief from the pain, even through the bandage, so that's what I'll be using to ice my eye for the next two weeks.
 

I Survived!

I was at the facility from 11 AM until 4 PM. The two surgeries (removal of the BCC and then reconstruction of my eyelid) took just over 2 hours. I had a general anesthesia during this time, which included insertion of a breathing tube. They told me to expect a sore throat. The recovery room nurse asked me if I've ever been diagnosed with asthma. Yes, when I was in my early 50s, and for about a year I took Singulair, but I’ve never had a severe asthma attack, so I discontinued that and just keep rescue inhalers on hand, which I occasionally use. Apparently, I had some problems tolerating the breathing tube, and she appeared to be a bit alarmed with my perfectly normal (for me) post-op cough, so she sent me home with an inhaler. I was told I have deep stitches, which will dissolve on their own, and surface stitches, which the surgeon will remove in a couple of weeks. Dunno what they look like though, because I have what appears to be a MaxiPad covering my right eye. I’ll remove that tomorrow. Some people who've had this surgery said they had no pain, but I’m not gonna lie, my eyelid and the area below it HURTS…really hurts. I was told to take Tylenol for pain, and I took 2, which haven’t have any effect whatsoever. They also sent me home with something called "Swiss Eye masks", which are currently cooling in the refrigerator and which I've been instructed to use for treatment of pain and swelling, or, if I don't like those, I've been told I can use a bag of frozen peas. I also received an antibiotic ointment which I'll start using tomorrow, once I have access to my eye.

 

I’d fasted before the surgery, of course, but I wasn’t really hungry afterward. Nevertheless, I was instructed to eat something, so when I got home I heated up some Trader Joe’s tomato soup, and had that and some ginger ale, after which I brushed my teeth, inserted a new set of Invisaligners, and went to bed, where I slept soundly for a couple of hours. I'm so relieved the actual surgery is OVER.

 

Oh, and one other thing. I'm not driving (of course). I'm writing this using my left eye, in which I have an IOL (intraocular lens) for distance only. So I must wear eyeglasses to be able to see anything up close, like my laptop screen. But another effect of having just one eye to use is that my sense of depth perception, which has been on shaky ground since the 2 surgeries on my left eye anyway, is just pretty much gone for now. Attempting to put toothpaste on my toothbrush really illustrated this for me, because when I tried to load my toothbrush, I discovered I was nowhere near it. I actually laughed out loud when I realized the toothpaste was going all over the sink. Sheesh.