Surgery and After - Comments (1)

Category: Behind the Lines
Author: John Malone
Date: 27th June, 2007 @ 12:25:11 AM

For as traumatic as the news of Karen’s cancer and its immediate consequences was, the surgery itself was pretty anti-climactic.

Two hours, and she’s done. The eye is gone. As one brother said, “It’s like removing a tooth.” The surgery itself was so simple, the doctor said “I can do these in my sleep.” Karen said, “We want you to stay awake.”

The eye removal surgery – enucleation – is apparently a simple one. Karen walked herself into the operating room. The doctor took the eye out, and placed a plastic steering device in its place, wrapping her right eye muscles around it. They place a silicon “conformer” in the eye socket to retain its shape during a six-week healing process.

In the mean time, we will find an ocularist who will hand-design a prosthetic eye that will be moved by the steering piece powered by her muscles.

Her removed eye will be studied in pathology during the next week, and we will get some information about the cancerous tumor. It was large: “very large.”

Karen has been ambling around with the sight of one eye for six weeks, so the advice she was given about dealing with loss of vision was very hollow. They taped a huge bandage on her right eye, and it was too tight, pinching her skin. I mentioned it, and they said, “The doctor can fix that tomorrow when you come in.”

But the doctor said we didn’t need to come in “tomorrow,” and we elected to just leave Iowa City and come home. Home to our family, and responsibilities. While I drove the 4 hour return trip way too fast, Karen adjusted her bandage until it no longer pinched her, listened to music, and rested her eye.

When we got home, she used a mirror and a pen to write “Jesus Is Lord” in blue on her bright white bandage.

She’s not taking her pain medication. Her blood pressure is very high.

We are hoping the grand children will understand, because this all is complicated for them We have 18 of them 8 and under with two more on the way.

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