Oilpressure

One of the (many) problems with old age is that things that were once considered an annoyance, eventually become big enough problems that they need to be fixed. Such a malady has finally caught up with me. For years I boasted that I have never had surgery. I reached the age of 66 back in October and was still able to make that claim. After today, it’s debatable if I still can – but I think I’ll just call this a procedure. Yeah, let’s call it that – a procedure.

You may have noticed in the various One Take Only or Two Sites Unite videos that I have a droopy right eyelid (my right). Here’s a creepy-looking photo I took in my office yesterday. That’s as open as they get.

Sometimes, depending on how tired I am, it is more pronounced than other times. I first noticed it in a photograph back in 2012. When I asked Susan about it, she said she had noticed it even earlier. I asked my ophthalmologist about it the next year, and he said it was a condition called Ptosis (pronounced TOE-sis). He said it was age-related and my facial structure made me pre-disposed to the condition, whatever that means. He said it would worsen over time and the time would come when it would eventually affect my vision. That time has come.

When we were driving to the IndyCar race in Iowa, I was tired before we even left. I noticed I was not seeing well at all out of my right eye, which was a little scary as we drove through St. Louis. It was fine the next day after a good night’s sleep and I thought no more about it.

Glaucoma runs in my family. When we were visiting my brother (who now has glaucoma) in Virginia back in August, he asked me when the last time I had been checked for Glaucoma was. I wasn’t sure. When we got back, I learned I had not been to the ophthalmologist since before COVID. I had an appointment scheduled for 2020, but it was cancelled because of the pandemic. I never thought about re-scheduling. It turns out, my old doctor had retired.

When I finally went to the eye-doctor in September and they examined my eyesight, there was a huge disparity in brightness and focus between my right and left eye. The tech made a note of it. When my new doctor first walked in, she said she could tell it from clear across the room. I realized if I manually lifted my right eyelid, my vision improved dramatically.

Long story short – today I am having plastic surgery at 3:00 pm CST to raise my eyelid so I can see. Go ahead and make the predictable jokes that I’m getting an eye-job. Everyone at work already has. When I explained the condition to people at work, one co-worker told me she thought my eyelid was a sign I was just high all the time. Seriously?

When I went to go see the surgeon last month, I told him my big fear was that I will come out of there looking like Warren Beatty or Meg Ryan. He assured me that the only thing anyone would notice is that my eyelid is no longer drooping. Since the left eye has already begun drooping a little bit, they are going to work on it too, to get me symmetrical.

The problem is that this is not a simple outpatient procedure. Yes I will spend tonight at home, but the recovery time is a couple of weeks. I will (thankfully) be completely knocked out.  When I go home late this afternoon, I will have to keep ice on my eyes throughout the weekend to keep the swelling down. They say the swelling may prevent me from seeing as late as Monday or Tuesday. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to drive. Thanksgiving is next week and I’ve been told to not even attempt to lift the turkey in or out of the oven. Susan will be on her own next Thursday. We might just go to Cracker Barrel. On top of not being able to lift much for two weeks, they say my face will look like I’ve been beaten up due to heavy bruising for a couple of weeks.

With this wonderful prognosis over the next couple of weeks, I’ve decided I will take an extended Thanksgiving break from here this year. Therefore, today will be my last post until Wednesday Dec 4 – the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing much clearer by my next post. Old age is hell!

George Phillips

This entry was posted on November 22, 2024 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.