Not me, for once. The wife’s good buddy from high School called, and his wife is having some sort of delicate eye surgery on her ‘good’ eye soon. After the surgery, she’ll have to stay on her stomach, with her head in some sort of brace, for 23 hours a day for 6 to 8 weeks.

I really don’t think I could do that. I’d go crazy. How about eating and potty trips?

I think I need to offer to send them something that might help to ease her recovery, but what would that be? Suggestions?

Dang that sounds horrible. I would assume they will put her into one of those beds where there is an opening in front of your face and you'll be staring at the floor all day. Don't know how tech savvy they are, but if they know how to use a tablet, how about a subscription to youtube TV or maybe some other streaming service? At least there will be something to watch besides the floor.

That’s a good suggestion. I don’t think they are big into techie stuff. I’ll get my wife to feel out what they don’t have. Maybe a Kindle would be a good choice. I wonder if you can get audiobooks on a Kindle.

Damn, that sounds crazy. I couldn't do it without them putting me in a coma.

Sounds like retina detachment surgery, my wife had it a few months ago. They put a bubble behind your eye to hold the retina in place while it reattaches so you have to keep your head down to avoid it popping . She hated it but it worked

dang !!!

just made an appointment for my yearly vision check-up. This is scary.

Yup, my MIL had the same thing.

Wow that sounds rough. Tablet and tech could help.

You could also send them some gift cards for dinner service like Uber eats or doordash. I can say firsthand that not having to worry about meal planning is a huge help after surgery.

Here’s how my wife had to sit and the chair they rented us for a week

Macular hole or retinal detachment surgery….the face down is important.

There are chairs that make this much easier, the surgeon should have some medical goods equipment companies that can supply such a chair for the timeframe (for a cost of course). But the patients that use the chair always say it was well worth the money.

This is not uncommon but it is super important to have a really good surgeon. This is a surgery I would travel to a big city to have done by the best surgeon available. A bad job or mediocre job on this and vision can be terrible for the rest of your life. If you want some names i can give them via PM, but assuming this may be on near horizon and might be “too late” to change.

I asked the wife when the gal was to have the surgery. I think it’s real soon, but hasn’t happened yet. I think the surgery is in Shreveport. Personally, I’d be at the Houston Medical Center. They saved my life in 1980. I really am lucky to be alive, and firmly believe that if I had been at a lessor facility, I’d be dead or paralyzed.

What saved my life, you might ask? It was a golf match. I was invited to play at the River Oaks CC, and with an eyepatch in place, I could still play decent hacker golf. We had lunch first, and one of our foursome was the director of the Baylor Med Center. He looked at my eye and symptoms and sent me directly to the Med Center to a specialist at the Neurosensory Clinic. And, because of that, I’m alive today and sore at the moment from teaching tennis at the High School. I don’t think about those days too often, it’s still, after all these years, tough to remember, but when I do I’m always so happy to be alive and married and a parent and grandparent. It was close. Real close. Thank God I was a golfer.

After the surgery, still bandaged up, with all sorts of tubes running out of me, it still wasn’t known if my left eye would work. I talked to “The Big Guy” and said if you’ll give me my left eye back, I promise to always be nice, never throw a tennis racquet, and never again say the following 5 words (you can guess which ones). I got my eye back. I’m nice, don’t throw racquets, but have slipped a bit on the 5 words.

Probably more than you needed to hear.

Stupid question because maybe I missed it 603, but what was the actual issue / diagnosis for you? Glad you were in the right place at the right time!

I had a slow growing non-cancerous tumor in my left cavernous sinus. Pressing on the brain and my left optic nerve. It had grown into my eye socket and was bulging my eye outward. Took a succession of doctors about a year to find out nothing. Both eyes worked, but didn’t point in the same direction, hence the eye patch. Meeting the right doctor at a golf lunch was what saved me. Fate? miracle? Luck?

Dang! Maybe all of the above. Talk about a great blessing.

Life is strange and amazing all at the same time.