DOCTOR ELEPHANT HANDS

Looks like Krishna let the doctor save my right eye.

The retina detached a week ago. A retina detachment is very often just part of the aging process. The doctor performed surgery the next day. If they can catch a retina detachment early enough there might not be any loss of sight. It was out patient so I thought, "Oh how severe can it be? Outpatient!" I was going to drive home afterwards. ha ha ha... forget that. They wouldn't let me go into the operating room unless I gave them the telephone number of someone to pick me up afterwards. Now I know why. It was intense.

Full anesthesia, out like a light. That's when they do the big cutting stuff I'm pretty sure. They needed to put a belt around the outside of the eyeball to squeeze it a little so the retina would not pull away when they put it back into place. That belt or "scleral buckle" as they call it, is sown into the outside of the eyeball and stays there for the duration of my stay in this body. So that must be what they did first when I was totally unconsciousness. I'm sure there was a lot of tugging and grunting and groaning to get it just right. Glad I was asleep for that. 

But I came to while they were in the middle of putting the retina back into place and could see through the eye that was being operated on the tiny instruments he was using. Maybe a tiny laser inside the eyeball. Which means they had to do some cutting to get in there. I was awake but frozen. I could feel things but no pain. 

The doctor was working really hard. He's done thousands of these. It's all he ever does and has been doing them for thirty years. But that didn't seem to make him light handed. He seemed a little bit of an elephant to me. But I was in no position to SAY ANYTHING. Just pray to remember Krishna whatever the outcome.

Evidently he was trying very hard to get something right that just wan't going the way he wanted it to so that he muttered "shit" a couple of times as he was poking around inside my eyeball. More praying to Krishna not to forget Him.

Then came the stitching. Sewing the eyeball closed on the side where they had gone in with the laser. Couple of small stitches. Snip.

Then the needle injection of the gas bubble into the eyeball to hold everything in place until it could all heal.
OMG... 

Ya sure. Just drive home. Only an outpatient procedure. Forget it!

The frozen head thawed out about 6 hours later and then the dull throbbing pain began. Then the scratchy feeling inside the lids, like the worst case of pinkeye you could ever dream of. Sleeping was impossible because I was instructed to only sleep with head elevated and on the left side. I never sleep on my left side, I think I have some curvature of the spine that prevents me from ever being comfortable on the left side. More Praying to Krishna not to forget Him. 

Playing recordings of kirtans, bhajans, eBooks of Srila Prabhupada's books.

Back the next day, took a taxi, for Dr. Elephant Hands to look at his handy work. His beside manner isn't much either. I mean "shit" in the middle of the operation with me awake? He yanked the eye open. And assured me he couldn't see anything. I told him I had the same problem. Then he crossed his fingers in front of my remaining eye. Like, "I did the best I could, now good luck." 80% success rate on the "first" operation. 90% success rate after a "second" operation. A second operation?

He told me, "I guarantee you a cataract. Your lens doesn't like the gas bubble. It's already clouded over."
OMG
More praying to Krishna not to forget Him.

The next four days were spent semiconscious. Sleeping as best I could to recuperate. The dull aching pain and scratchy pink eye feeling constant. Since both eyes like to move together it was very difficult to see anything at all since whenever I moved the good eye the recovering eye wanted to move too. Not a good idea.

I still managed to finish recording Chapter 21 of The Nectar of Devotion eBook and digitally cleaned up some kirtan recordings. Hung out on Facebook and some other forums I frequent. 

Now four days later I am finally seeing some improvement. The pain is greatly decreased and the bubble is going away little bit little bit. I'm sure it is being absorbed by the sinuses because it feels like an irritation in the sinuses on that side. 

It looks like Krishna let Dr. Elephant Hands save the eyesight. 

I'll know the official confirmation of success or not in three days when I go back for a follow up. 

The peacocks have left their tail feathers everywhere now that mating season is over. I'll bring him a peacock feather.

As we pass through youth most of us, at least those of us who are not challenged by poor health early, cannot even conceive of the difficulties of aging. As we pass through youth we are like supermen and superwomen. But that passes quickly. If we use that super energy to serve Krishna then as we pass through old age and disease we will not lament that we wasted our youthful energy when we had it.