My fiance has a retinal detachment :(

I have been absent from facebook of late.. It has been quite a challenge for me and Alex in the past few days. I wish I can tell you that it has been a fun adventure, alas it is not the case!

Alex just had an operation :( On his eye ... yes... his left eye to be exact .. He has pretty high degree of myopic ( near sightedness ) Myopic eyes are physically larger and longer than normal eyes and have thinner retinas at the periphery. This thin retina is more likely to break, forming small holes and tears that may progress to a detachment. 

So what exactly happen to Alex? After suffering from two retina tears and undergone laser surgery twice to repair those tears last month,  the retina gave way and had a slight detachment~! Yes, it took place all just 6 days ago. Did I mention that a retinal detachment can lead to total blindness!?

For more info on retinal detachment , you may read this 

It was a day surgery that took an hour to repair the detachment . A gas bubble was inserted to replace the vitreous (the jelly-like substance in the eye cavity) gell in the eye. All his laser and op to repair the retina were done at the Singapore National Eye Center ( located in SGH ) . 

There is no need for him to be warded..

After some rest at the day op recovery ward, we were able 

to go home after a couple of hours. 

That's him before and after his surgery. The bubble in his eye will take a few weeks to dissolve and also will take awhile for his vision to be clear.

Here's the most difficult part of his recovery..or anyone's 

recovery from retinal detachment surgery ...

Patients have been told to keep their face down and parallel to 

the ground as much as possible!! 

Yes.. pls look at his position after the op. 

He has to put his face down 24/7 except for meal times 

and going to the loo.. Yes..that includes sleeping time! 

So can you imagine how tiring is that on his back and neck!?!!?

This is how we improvise at home.. 

We got a memory foam travel pillow for him to place his face 

upon or for him to prop up his head when sleeping face down 

on his tummy. Oh, the swimming float doesn't do much ..

it just act as a support for the pillow when he is seated up..

As his vision is still very blur and he has two kinds of eye drops to be administered at different time intervals., I have been acting as his nurse , helping him for these couple of weeks. The initial two days he was sleeping most of the time, but as he got better, he was able to watch tv using the mirror.

It is not a fun journey I must say, but we will get through it :)  I am just glad the detachment was discovered and he is able to see.