The Great Cataract Adventure By Lolo Silva

The Great Cataract Adventure by Lolo

Eighth month, eighth day, eighth year.............most auspicious occasion!

The day began with loading Peggy onto the gurney and transporting to
Queens Hospital. It was a flurry of activity admitting and then
transporting to the surgical area. Hospital directions were amusing.
We were told to turn left and go until we ran into a wall. The
consensus was that lolo is hyper............what the heck do they
mean??? Just because I was up at 6am, when the day doesn't really get
rolling until noon. Go figgah.

Once we were assigned a surgical room, it was more flurry of activity.
The hospital respiratory therapist had to get Peggy off her personal
vent and hook her up to their system. Luckily, Kimi had given us the
vent settings, so they simply duplicated them. Mahalo, Kimi! Blood
pressure, pulse ox, hook her up to this and that machine. Trying to
draw blood and can't find any good veins. OUCH! Paperwork, questions,
regulations. UGH! Managed to score a few Yankauer tips along the way,
though. Cover her with a 'Beir Hug'....a paper/plastic blanket with
individual cells that inflate like an air mattress to keep her warm,
instead of traditional blankets. Begin process of putting various kinds
of drops in Peggy's eyes. They were very red and irritated, but one of
those drops (waiting 30 seconds between application over a period of
about 45 minutes) miraculously cleared her eyes right up. Haven't seen
them that good in many months. Lots of suctioning. More questions,
small talk. Wonderful anesthetist (Dr. Duncun Macdonald) came to do
pre-op stuff. One of the best in the business who just happens to be
the brother of Kimo who was the best man at my wedding. :) Nice to see
him.

Time for me to dress in my Alien Lolo outfit. IMHO, very fetching, and
way better than those penguin outfits. Blue paper jumpsuit with mile
long arms/legs, sexy shower cap,slippery shoe covers and mask. Quite a
sight. Do the Corridor Boogie to the OR, say a fond aloha to Betsy and
in we go. Cataract surgery was soooooooooo interesting and by the time
the 2nd eye was completed, I figured I had enough experience, that I
could do it! *rolling eyes*

Let's see if I can remember the steps. Peggy covered completely, with
only one tiny eye exposed. More local anesthetic numbs the eye. The skin
around the eye was thoroughly cleansed. The eye is kept open by an
eyelid speculum - you're familiar with those things girls, only these
are itsy, bitsy ones and on the opposite end........... Dr. Duncun told
Peggy she was in for a real exciting light show, akin to and LSD trip or
something. We'll have to ask her if she saw fantastic lights and
colors. Under an operating microscope, a small incision was made in the
eye. Then Dr. Ty used tiny surgical (medieval looking things to me)
instruments to break apart and remove the cloudy lens from the eye.
Another probe was inserted and sucked out the offending lens pieces.
Quick as a bunny, another instrument was inserted with the new lens, it
unfolded perfectly into place and we moved on to the other eye to repeat
the process. Group photo of the surgical team. I'm quite sure none of
them had ever been asked to take a photo after surgery!

Recovery room beckoned, only for a short time and then we were on our
way home. I learned how to turn OFF the vent, which is something that
I've never done because me thinks that would be a bad thing.
Nevertheless, I know now how to do it!

Aftercare is pretty much what we have already been doing. The right eye
cataract was apparently worse than the left, and mostly they have been
caused by our generous use of Tobradex over many months. Nothing to be
done, we needed it. Now that the cataracts have been removed, there is
no danger of them coming back, so we will continue to use the Tobradex,
a _minimum _of 3 X/day. It can be used more frequently, if needed.
Continue using the PM Refresh gel as usual. Big thing to note is to not
use pressure on the eye when blinking. Dr. Ty will visit Peggy for a
check up on Monday.

Quite an exciting day for all of us. Hyper, HUMPH!!!!! Just a
conscientious caregiver who multi-tasks, with an attention to details.
And they recommended NO caffeine for the day. :)

Looking forward to seeing those crystal, clear, baby blues staring back
at me next time I see her. As I left for the day, Peggy was still
unable to determine how many heads lolo really has.