I learned the hard way that the immune system is still a bit weak from the surgery. Woke up Monday morning with the stomach flue, and by mid afternoon was in an ambulance on the way to the emergency room, again. What does it mean when you start to get to know the ER staff on a first name basis?
But I'm back home and just about fully rehydrated. My vision did go way south for a couple of days, but seems to be getting back on the recovery track again.
Finding a ride to get groceries is a real challenge. I haven't been able to do so in two weeks now. I'm lousy at directions, always getting left and right reversed, very consistently, too. And I still can't telll you what I ate for any meal yesterday. Well, except for 2 days this week, when I couldn't eat anything. So short term memory is definitely a problem. I keep forgetting to update this page.
All in all, there is still a long road ahead. But I'm making tracks. And the starting point is far behind.
Still making slow but sure progress. Brain function still seems to be on the mend, and I can walk further, without staggering as much. Blood pressure is starting to hang around normal now. Vision still has a lot of blind and weak spots.
I saw a retina specialist last week. The optic nerve heads in the back of my eyes are still swollen, and there are flaming hemorrhages in the nerve head in the left eye. He said he is still optimistic, but it's possible I may never get much more vision back. The swelling and bleeding may be causing too much damage. And there may be some brain function in the visual centers which may not recover. However, the brain function seems to be recovering well, and I suspect that won't be a problem.
Maybe in 2 months I'll have some idea whether to sell or keep my car. It will be quite a while before I can drive.
We got moved, and the new, larger apartment is much nicer and more comfortable. There is no air conditioning upstairs in the bedrooms, and we are at the hottest week of the year. It's taking some getting used to. We are figuring out how to position the fans to draw in cool air at night. That is, when there is cool air.
I've been to the grocery store twice in the past week. When I'm by myself, it takes about 15 minutes per item to find and pick up what I need.
The most simple things give me the most trouble. Like finding the right end of a garbage bag and getting it open. Or unwrapping a bar of soap. Or putting salt or other seasoning in food. I have to put it in my hand first, then scatter it over the food. Otherwise, I can't see it clearly enough to have any idea how much I'm putting on. Looking up phone numbers in the directory is almost impossible.
I can now read what I'm typing fairly well. The large text helps. Except with numbers.
I'm becoming more aware of the world around me and how I fit in with it. The more I improve, the more I realize what shape I was in, and how far I still have to go. I'm glad I wasn't really aware of how bad a shape I was in, even 2 weeks ago. The light at the end of the tunnel, representing full recovery, keeps getting further and further away. We are talking another 6 months to 3 years at this point. That can be both frustrating and discouraging at times.
But what is the most frustrating is having to rely on people to do things for you, like give you rides to where you need to go. That's why the home health agency is sending a social worker out to help me deal with and adjust to being legally blind. And to help me find ways to get around town.With the divorce, starting then having to quit a new job, and the surgery, I've been through alot of changes in the past 2 years. I think I could handle it all on my own, but it will be good to have a listening ear as I try to sort it all out.
We are starting to work on the redesign of the site. When we get the decisions made, the code entered, and the bugs worked out, we'll start posting. Meanwhile, this site should start showing up in the search engine databases any day now.
(NOTE: Substantial progress was made, until I somehow erased all the new files. Trying to build up enthusiasm to start over. 08-24-00) Thanks for your interest.