I am about two weeks removed from my trabeculectomy surgery. (I misspoke in the earlier email when I said it had been "a couple of weeks" at that point.)
Undergoing the surgery was easy. I received something to "relax" me as well as a local anesthetic in the area of the eye. Was told that the relaxant would leave me drowsy but still aware of what was going on. Not the case for me. I was zonked out the entire time and didn't wake up until after it was over. The needle stick from the local left a small black eye which let me use the old line, "You should have seen the other guy" when people asked me about it.
The healing process is ongoing. The eye feels a little uncomfortable at times and I have been using 2 different drops in that eye, initially 4x daily. They have reduced the drops somewhat but the alarm on my iPod seems like it is always going off to remind me to put more in. The vision in the that eye has not returned to normal - it's still blurry and I don't believe I could function if both eyes were like that. The doc says this should get better over the next month or so and a new glasses prescription should help too.
I've been back to the doc in Boston (this was done at Mass. Eye and Ear) a total of three times since the surgery. The first was the next morning. Just a post-op check and pressure check. No drop in pressure then. Several days later I went back and the pressure was still at 16 (goal = 10.) At that time she lasered one of the several stitches on the slit she had made thus removing it. This had the effect of reducing the portion of the slit that is supposed to heal and enlarging the portion that remains open to allow aqueous humor to drain. Goal was to have this reduce the pressure and it worked. When I went back yesterday pressure was at 10 in that eye. No real change to the pressure in the other eye as some have reported. (I'm still doing my daily regiment of 3 different drops 3, 2 and 1 X daily, respectively in that eye.) I know some report pressure reductions in pressure in the unoperated eye but that hasn't happened (yet) with me. She reported that everything she saw by looking in my eye indicates it is healing normally.
I still have concerns about the blurry vision - I would really be bummed if that didn't resolve itself over time. (I could function OK with one good eye even if the other remained blurry but if I eventually have to have the good eye operated on and that one permanently ended up just as blurry it would be a significant problem for me.) But, we'll stay positive and see what happens over time.
I appreciate the comments and good wishes from those who have posted.
As an afterthought and by way of background, I have been tracked and ultimately treated for glaucoma for a long time. My mother had it and since it its often hereditary, I guess that's one of the very few things I can fault her for. I'm 71 now and they first began noticing rising pressures when I was in my 30s. I think I was in my very late 40's when I first started using drops and the number of drops has increased over time. I've had both ALT and SLT laser procedures on both eyes but they didn't seem to help at all. For quite a few years I've been seeing an opthalmologist 3 or 4 times a year with at least annual visual fields, photos and the whole deal. It was suggested about 5 years ago that I might want to have the trabeculectomies done then. But I got a couple of second opinions that indicated otherwise, so I put it off. When I moved to MA three years ago my current opthalmologist said it wasn't essential yet, so I stuck with the drops regimen. Then at my last regular appointment she said the time had come for the right eye, so I went ahead with it.
