August 20, 2016
Today is Saturday. Den has his 1 day follow up appointment with Dr. Reidy this morning. This is an unusual day for an appointment, but Dr. Reidy said that he would make a special trip into the clinic to make sure Den’s eye was healing well. The sky was black and ominous all the way to the hospital. It felt like it was 10PM not 8AM, with how dark it was outside. Den had his protective eye cover on, but could not help commenting on the difference in his eye sight. I remember him saying that in his (now) bad eye, he saw halos of lights….not just one headlight, but multiple in a circle, like a Christmas wreath. In his now fixed eye, there was only one light with a little halo around it. He was amazed by the change in just 24 hours. His eye still itched all the time, but we would ask Dr. Reidy about that in just a little while.
As we turned on the street that would take us to the parking garage, the sky opened up! Den said that it was like a rerun of the previous day. I was thankful that there were very few cars parked on the street, so I had very little to try and dodge with the blinding rain. Needless to say, I drove slower than usual. We finally made it to the parking garage and found a really good spot. (Well, it is Saturday…no office hours for the Dr.’s, just visitors and staff parking so lots of room in the garage.
We walked into the DCAM building, where the eye clinic is located, and found a seat. A security guard told us that no one was in today. I explained that Dr. Reidy was making a special trip in to check Den’s eye and he should be here soon. He left, but kept an eye on us until Dr. Reidy walked in the door. He shook our hands and told us to follow him to a room.
Dr. Reidy looked over Den’s eye and told us that the cataract that had been removed was very thick took a little more work than they had expected. We told him about the irritation Den was feeling in the eye and he told us that it was from the stitch that was put in the incision in the eye to help it heal faster. I told him about using the cool washcloth and he said that it was the best way to alleviate the itchy feeling. He went over the routine for the eye drops to confirm what was needed and said that he would see us again in one week. Den asked about the tons of “floaties” that he was seeing in that eye. Dr. Reidy said that they would get smaller and go away over time and not to worry. The last thing that Dr. Reidy did was check Den’s vision. Den had gone from basicly blind in that eye to 20/50! That is what I call improvement!
We headed home in the same downpour that we arrived in. Den spent the rest of the day marveling at the vision that he now had and that it would still get better.
Den's LVAD 