More eye stitches for Rachal
Aug. 20th, 2006 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rickvsThursday, Rachal had another checkup with her opthalmologist. Both optic nerves were swollen this time, and her vision had gotten slightly worse, so he scheduled another eye fenestration for the next day.
At my job, the other functional graphic artist (and now production manager) is out for hernia surgery, and our *other* other less-functional artist/production person apparently decided to resign by going AWOL. So this meant I spent Thursday night at the office, getting all of Friday's artwork done in order to bail out by 10:30 Friday morning. (I did sleep for over three hours on a couch upstairs, so I wasn't a complete zombie driving Rachal to her surgery).
Her left eye is the better one, and they'll avoid operating on it as long as they can. But each time they go back to her right eye to cut little venting slits for her spinal fluid, the surgery gets more difficult, as they must choose a different approach site to the sac around her optic nerve. This time, it was through her right eyelid, leaving four visible stitches and bloody tears leaking from the corners of her eye, like some image of the Madonna you'd read about in a tabloid.
At least venting the pressure from one eye seems to relieve the problem in both. We were really hoping that the lumbar-peritoneal shunt they did earlier would reduce the pressure systemwide, but that doesn't seem to be the way it's working out. The L-P shunt had to be removed, fixed, and reinstalled recently -- so at the moment Rachal's got external stitches at three different sites on her body (eyelid, lower back, flank), and can't really find a comfortable position to rest. Hydrocodone is her friend, but she doesn't wanna stay on it any longer than she has to.
Her mother has come to town to keep an eye on her, and may drag her back to her parents' for a while after Rachal's last medical appointment for the week. I'll keep y'all posted.
At my job, the other functional graphic artist (and now production manager) is out for hernia surgery, and our *other* other less-functional artist/production person apparently decided to resign by going AWOL. So this meant I spent Thursday night at the office, getting all of Friday's artwork done in order to bail out by 10:30 Friday morning. (I did sleep for over three hours on a couch upstairs, so I wasn't a complete zombie driving Rachal to her surgery).
Her left eye is the better one, and they'll avoid operating on it as long as they can. But each time they go back to her right eye to cut little venting slits for her spinal fluid, the surgery gets more difficult, as they must choose a different approach site to the sac around her optic nerve. This time, it was through her right eyelid, leaving four visible stitches and bloody tears leaking from the corners of her eye, like some image of the Madonna you'd read about in a tabloid.
At least venting the pressure from one eye seems to relieve the problem in both. We were really hoping that the lumbar-peritoneal shunt they did earlier would reduce the pressure systemwide, but that doesn't seem to be the way it's working out. The L-P shunt had to be removed, fixed, and reinstalled recently -- so at the moment Rachal's got external stitches at three different sites on her body (eyelid, lower back, flank), and can't really find a comfortable position to rest. Hydrocodone is her friend, but she doesn't wanna stay on it any longer than she has to.
Her mother has come to town to keep an eye on her, and may drag her back to her parents' for a while after Rachal's last medical appointment for the week. I'll keep y'all posted.
