My Pirate

July 31, 2009

Robert asked me this morning, “what is it like, sleeping with a pirate?”! He has been a very good pirate too. I marvel at how patient and cooperative he has been with the whole eye surgery thing. I would be doing a heap of whining and complaining. In fact, I can hardly look at the eye, being all black and blue, red and swollen. He has three different eye drops to put in, some of them 4 times a day, and some twice. We have a chart to keep track and alarms set on his phone to remind him. I’m such a wimp, I can’t even do it for him. He can pull back the lower lid and drop it in without having to look at the bruises. The most challenging thing is the gas bubble inside his eye…he says he feels like a human “level”. Because that is what it is doing – always seeking to be level, and he can see it constantly, even when his eyes are shut. A glowing, bluish, purplish bubble, floating and turning and rocking back and forth inside his eye. He said yesterday he was going to take a nap, because sleeping is the only relief from the “level”. It is supposed to go away, but we don’t know the timetable for that. Meanwhile, he only has very blurry vision with his eye so far. How he endures it, I don’t know. But then, we are talking about a man who also was not completely ‘asleep’ for the surgery itself. In recovery, after they called me back to sit with him, he asked the Dr, “was I actually seeing the tweezers inside my eye, pulling the membrane out, because it looked like that was what I was seeing”. Oh my. And the Dr. said, “well, it was actually the shadow of the tweezers you could see.” Yikes. I don’t know how he did it…in fact, he said he had conversation throughout most of the surgery. Can you imagine, chatting with instruments inside your eyeball? Yep, he makes a good pirate!

~Jeanette
P.S. thankfully it was 58 degrees this morning and our high inside the house yesterday was only about 84 :)

Relief

Our patient has done marvelously well today. It is not easy to have one eye patched. Try watching TV or reading email with just one eye. But as the temperature climbed into the upper 80’s inside our house this afternoon, I suggested we escape to the coast for the rest of the day. At first he didn’t want to go, but then the heat won. All of a sudden, he was claustrophobic…and could not stand to be inside (90◦) or outside (104◦). We hurriedly invited mom and dad to join us, threw the dog in and we left for the coast. We enjoyed watching the temperature drop as we drove…and could see the fog bank up ahead. We arrived at Otis and noticed there were only 2 cars at the Café. The fog had just drifted in, it was 64 degrees and safe to leave Sadie in the van, so we went in and ate dinner. We hit the lull just right – soon the parking lot and tables were all full, as is the norm at this small, popular hole-in-the-wall. Great dinner and great marionberry pie. Fortunately, Robert went to the restroom just before she brought dessert, so I slid into the booth and that meant he was on my right when he got back – harder for him to watch me eat the great pie ala mode. The new advantage of the patched left eye!
On we went into Lincoln City, foggy and 59 degrees! Yea! We took Sadie for a short walk on the beach and watched the waves, while Robert sat in the car with the window down. Ahhhhh. Refreshment…relief. Exactly what we all needed. To get out from under the relentless heat. To experience a change. To be reminded that God alone knows when we can not take the trial or tension anymore, and he brings respite at exactly the right time.
Whoops! A wall of heat, 92 degrees of heat, hit us as we open our door back home. Ah, but the break, the refreshment, the respite enables us to endure once again.

~Jeanette

Eye Surgery

Eye Surgery
Well, I brought Robert home by 10:45 am and the surgery went just as the doctor had planned. He has a dot drawn above his left eye, so they didn’t operate on the right eye by mistake, and he has an eye patch with an eye shield (metal) over the patch. Looks like a pirate, except the top cover is royal blue instead of black. There can be advantages to him wearing an eye patch, for me that is…I always feel guilty eating high carb food around him, because he can’t have it. But driving home today, with the patch on his left eye and sitting in the passenger seat, he couldn’t see me eating my marionberry scone from Great Harvest Bread! He will keep the patch on today and tonight, and then he only needs to wear it at night for the next week or so. The biggest “nurse-y” thing I have to do is putting in eye drops, but that doesn’t start until tomorrow.
Robert’s diagnosis was Macular pucker (Epiretinal membrane) and he had a surgery that is called a Vitrectomy or a membrane peel. The initial step in this procedure is the removal of the vitreous gel through very small incisions in the eye wall, hence the name "vitrectomy". Then a gas is injected into the eye and the membrane is carefully removed…”carefully” because it is intricately attached to the retina and can easily tear it when being pulled away. Here is a link for you who like to read such things: http://www.salemretina.com/info/disease/epiretinal_membrane/index.php Of course, the cause of his Macular pucker is Diabetic Retinopathy. The injected gas will remain in the eye for up to 2 months, and is eventually replaced by the eye’s own natural fluid. During the first week, he should not bend over at the waist, lift, pull or do anything that could change the pressure in his eye…and for the next 2 months he should not travel by airplane or travel over 3000 feet above sea level. Shucks, there go our plans to fly to Italy and to climb Mt. Hood this summer. So far, the worst part of all of this is the heat wave we are experiencing…3 days over 100 so far, 105 yesterday, expecting 107 today and the same or so tomorrow. It is not cooling much at night, so without air conditioning our high has been 92 INSIDE the house…low about 78. Robert may be okay if he just sits in a chair and doesn’t move.
We are so thankful for good insurance, good doctors, and a good God. This surgery is relatively new, and without it vision progressively gets worse. With it, vision should stabilize and his doctor is hopeful it will actually improve vision. It will be a bit before the verdict is in on the improvement…the gas distorts vision for awhile. The other downside of this surgery? Development of cataracts is sped up. He can expect to need cataract surgery in 3 to 5 years instead of the normal 7 to 10 at his age. But since no one knows God’s plan…we keep trusting His will and good purpose. Thanks for continuing to walk with us.

~Jeanette

Eyes

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Robert’s follow-up visit to the retina specialist in June revealed that the right eye responded well to the laser treatment – his vision actually slightly improved in that eye. However, the left eye didn’t do so well. In the left eye the retina has formed a membrane, sort of a scar of sorts, and the laser treatment was not able to penetrate the membrane to relieve the swelling of fluid behind it. This is affecting vision and it will continue to worsen until the membrane is removed. He will have the surgery to remove the membrane on Wednesday, July 29th, early in the morning. Your prayers are greatly appreciated as there is risk to the retina in this surgery.

30th Anniversary Trip

July 24, 2009
Ahhhhh…I am sitting at the edge of the McKenzie River in an Adirondack chair, watching an enormous amount of water rapidly flow by. It is a beautiful, sunny, quite warm day, but the cool breeze here close to the water as well as the shade from the tall trees are protecting me from the heat. Robert and I arrived here at McKenzie Bridge last night and are staying four nights in a cabin right here on the river. The word cabin can bring many images to mind. For instance, “cabin” last summer at Camp Fresno, meant rustic, built in the 1920’s, with sleeping bags thrown onto old mattresses on top of squeaky metal springs. It had a kitchen, but the kind you expect to find critters occupying – having full access through the many holes in the single board siding covering the walls. What made it “deluxe” was the fact that electricity had been added some years ago, so it had a refrigerator, stove and single light bulbs hanging in the center of each room…and more recently, a bathroom with toilet and shower had been added on to the sloping backside.
“Cabin” here at Inn at the Bridge is a completely different image! Built in 2006, it is akin to an upscale hotel – a two story house, with 2 bedrooms / 2 baths, full kitchen, satellite TV and air conditioning. It has a screened-in porch across the front, with a gorgeous view of the river a mere 40 yards away. The only thing missing is internet service! This is a perfect getaway for us this year – a greatly appreciated gift from our kids, family and friends for our 30th anniversary. Our favorite summer trip is to Riverside Campground on the Santiam River – pitching a tent just yards from the water…but that would not be possible this summer. Life has changed dramatically since pancreatitis 10 months ago. We still don’t know if Robert will continue to improve or if this is now his new normal. Oh, the pancreas has healed up well, but the side effects and resulting damage continues on. Last night, after we unpacked and scoped out the surroundings, Robert tried to get comfortable on the couch. Just the extra walking, riding in the car, lifting and carrying had made the pain in his hands, wrists and feet considerably worse. The scar from the healed bedsore still makes it difficult to sit comfortably as well. Then there was the issue of continually trying to get his eyes to focus as we watched the NFL channel.
The packing and set-up of a camping trip is definitely out of the question. So here we sit with all the sights and sounds we love when we go camping, but all the amenities needed for this stage in life.
Ahhhh…There is something restorative about listening to the sounds of a river. Perhaps it is the unending flow…the ever-present sound of the rapids…the view that leaves one wondering where all that water comes from. It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. A lot like the love, forgiveness and mercy of our Father. The never-ending grace, that never runs out. That describes my experience this past 10 months. We’ve gone through many changes in lifestyle, but we have found His grace keeps flowing, going deeper than any change in circumstance, no matter how painful. What a blessing. Much like this unexpected, unplanned gift we are enjoying, here by the riverside.