It's All Fun And Games, Until Someone Gets Poked In The Eye.

Roland is extremely myopic (near sighted). Because of this his retina is very thin. As you remember from your anatomy class, the retina is attached to the wall of your eye and is what allows you to see, very similar to film in your camera, it receives pictures for your brain to read. For more on the function of a retina go here. When you have a thin retina it can be damaged easily.

Roland is probably too competitive. This can cause problems, like a detached retina. This summer, during an aggressive game of water polo with the nephews, he was hit in the face with a wet noodle, a pool noodle, causing his retina to tear and eventually detach. Detached retinas cause complete blindness. It's all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye.
So, my handsome husband had to have surgery on Friday for what we thought we had already fixed.

Surgery for retinal detachment is extreme surgery. The doctor refused to tell me the process because it freaks out some of his patients - he told us he would give details after Roland is discharged. We already know what it is like because Roland had this same surgery when he was about 27. It is gory and I will spare you the details in case you are eating right now. But it involves draining the eye, fixing the tear, putting gas into your eye, and wrapping the eye with a Scleral Buckle. The buckle will never be removed. He already has one on his left eye.

In order to regain his eyesight Roland must maintain a position with his head face down, parallel to the ground. Chin on chest. For 2 weeks.

He has to do this to keep the gas bubble against the back of his eye as the eye refills with gel and liquid.Holding your head in the right position is a pain in the arse.

More on that later.