Orbital Decompression

Even the title sounds scary doesn't it?

On October 11, 2010, I had an intricate and delicate surgery with two surgeons working in tandem.

Dr. Offutt (Eye surgeon) did the first part. He cut from the outside corner of each eye about 1 1/2 inch toward the ear.. Then he removed bone from the inside of each eye socket closest to my ears. Next he inserted bone plates on each side to stabilize the areas. This took about four hours of leaning over and working continuously. I don't know how he did it. His back must still be sore.

Next, Dr. Alexander (ENT) came in to remove bone from the sinus walls. He went up through each nostril and cracked, chipped, and removed the bone bit by bit. Apparently he sat down to do his work so his back is fine.

I was told the surgery lasted longer than 8 hours but that each doctor was pleased at how well it had gone.

I only remember bits and pieces of the evening and have even forgotten some of the things the next day (like how I got dressed).

Amy and Elizabeth came and spent time with John and took him to lunch. They came back again that night and saw me. I remember them being there and holding my hands. It was so good to see them.

On Tuesday Dr. Alexander came in to check me and discharge me from the hospital. The plan was for me to walk over to Dr. Offutt's office so he could check my eyes. However, Dr. Offutt showed up at the hospital soon after Dr. Alexander so I was able to come straight home.

I was bruised and swollen of course. I had some blisters on the conjunctiva that appeared filled with pink gel. We called about this and Dr. Garrett prescribed a gel like salve. It worked really well. Nothing hurt all that much but John kept the pain pills up for about 24 more hours. It probably was a good thing.

On Wednesday, I started seeing and hearing things that were not there. I knew they were illusions but they were still there. I decided that was enough of the narcotics. It took about eight hours but everything returned to normal.

The right side was much more colorful than the left. The left under eye looked like a large piece of turky fat lying there.. Whitish but also yellowish. UGH!

The right side, being more colorful, was more interesting to follow. The color moved downward almost to my chin and then retreated back up. Now I just have a nice black eye.

The swelling went down slowly but did go down. However, it comes back during the night and I wake looking pretty rough. Thankfully it doesn't hurt, just looks terrible.

My post surgery exam with Dr. Offutt went well. He was pleased at how everything looked and the progress we'd already made. I could completely close my eyes, they were sitting back in the sockets properly, and the blisters were all gone. He told me to stop the gel medication since it was what was causing my eyes to be blury. I'll see him again next Tuesday.

When I saw Dr. Alexander the following week, he seemed pleased at how things were looking as well. He cleaned out a lot of clotted and dried blood that had accumulated in the upper nasal cavity. This is gross...it looked like he was pulling out bloody thumb parts. They were huge! It didn't hurt but a time or two got a little touchy. He gave me a Rx and said he'd see me in two weeks and we'd do this all over again, maybe more than once.

I'm headed back to Leitchfield on Tuesday after my appointment with Dr. Offutt. I feel fine so I need to go back and relieve Mary Sue for a while.