The Farmers Wife: A hard lesson learned: Part 2

Monday night waiting at CVS for antibiotics.

Tuesday morning rolled around and we found ourselves a nervous mess (more Alan than I). What we struggled with most was the question "Why?" Most would.

On our way to the hospital - Ruth was driving

We had to push our fears, anger and guilt aside so we could keep our minds on what truly mattered. We needed to focus on God and pray for his healing grace. He had already shown us his protection and now we needed him to guide the surgeon's hand.

Nerves were high as we entered the hospital... We waited maybe 5 minutes before the nurses came to get Alan.

This was about 1:15 ish.

You know where we were when the earth quake happened? Alan was hooked up to IVs, eye dilated as far as possible and laying in his hospital bed. As for me... I was sitting under the huge, outdated tv in his room! At first it felt like someone was just walking down the hall and then my chair shook! Alan looked at me and we both determined it had to be an earthquake! Thankfully he wasn't in surgery at that point! I am glad it didn't get any worse or we would have started to panic!

You might be able to see how dilated his right eye is... look close!

Alan was wheeled back to the surgical room around 3:15 pm and I was ushered back to the waiting room where Ruth (Alan's mom) and I waited patiently. After knitting, reading, and working on Sudoku, we began to get anxious. We were told Alan's surgery would last about an hour and ten minutes.... It was now about 5:15pm and the screen (lets patient's family members know where they are in the surgical process) said Alan was still in surgery.

My worst fears started to creep up ... is he going to loose his eye?... will he wake up from anesthesia?... Will I loose him?...

It was terrible! I started to feel slightly sick to my stomach and then Ruth said "He's in recovery!" WHEW! I felt relief! I promptly began thanking God for getting us this far but I knew we were not out of the woods yet.

The first thing the doctor said when he came to brief us of how things went was "He is one VERY lucky man!"

Evidently the piece of metal was shaped like an arrow and had shot through his eye from 10 o'clock down to 4 or 5 o'clock. being an arrow it made a clean slice in through the white of Alan's eye and was able to travel through the "jelly" the whole way back to the optical nerve. He explained the the 1.5mm shard was very close to the optical nerve and could have blinded Alan. They had to pull Alan's eye out of the socket (a little bit to get behind the eye) drain the eye of its "jelly", use a a magnet to pull the metal piece out and then fill the eye back up with a "jelly like" substance.

Sounds gross! I am so glad he didn't have to be awake for that!

We were able to see Alan around 6:15 pm and you have no idea how good it felt to see him... He looked miserable but I was glad to be back by his side. God guided the surgeon's hand and I am so thankful! (Alan is to!)

We left the hospital around 7-8 ish and made it home by 9pm just in time to see Rhya off to bed.

*************** Wednesday Follow up appointment******************

In the waiting room of the doctors office

We got to the doctors office bight and early with high hopes that he would say "All's well and go ahead back to your daily routine, with some moderation."

Boy were we ever wrong!

You know somethings wrong when the doctor kept looking, poking, looking, prodding and more looking... then says "dang"!

My heart sunk to my stomach and I though "Oh no..."

Alan waiting for the laser surgery

Turns out Alan's retina was "folding under" best describing it as a tissue paper and the underside was folded under but the top layer was still intact. The doctor said he had never seen this before! He decided his best bet would be to laser behind the fold to help it to heal better and keep it from folding more. For Alan this was more painful than the surgery. I had to sit and not do a thing... the hardest part for me!

Alan was then given strict instructions to lay low for a while. At least till his appointment the following week.

That was a hard pill to swallow... Alan... Do nothing... that really bugged him. There was so much to do around the farm, income lost and bills piling up.

Wearing his cool new sun/safety glasses that my dad gave him

*************Through out the week of resting*************

The first few days were easy... Alan felt tired and worn out so he didn't feel bad for resting. As he started to feel better he started driving me crazy!

You could tell he was feeling better but we didn't want to get our hopes up... We had some help from friends and family getting the hog barn ready for little pigs, getting ready for strawberries and other odd jobs around the farm.

***********Yesterday: Follow up one week appointment"************

"Looks great! You can go back to normal activity's just no high impact stuff!" (No wake boarding)

"Eye sight's 20/25 and I would expect it to be back to 20/20!" What a relief!!!!! Alan about bounced out of his chair with joy! He was smiling ear to ear!

Most people with an injury like Alan's would have lost their eye sight or even eye! Alan has truly been touched by Gods gracious healing! He is still not out of the woods yet, there's still a chance for scarred tissue to form and could hinder his sight but our hopes for complete healing are high!

God is good! Alan is now back to doing what he loves and I am so glad to see him out of the depressed, caged animal mood he was in!