Recovering from eye surgery

So since I have basically lost all of my readers from my other blog I might as well get the new people a little bit up to date on what it is that's going on with me, I guess.

April 12th I had a very serious eye surgery called a vitrectomy. It was due to a problem in my right eye and it was an emergency surgery to hopefully help me save my vision in that eye. I have type 1 diabetes. I have diabetic retinopothy in both eyes. Last year this condition was stable, but my eye was fragile. I was in a car accident as a passenger and the impact of the accident tore my retina. The retina became detached and I had a surgery to put it back and a few other smaller surgeies after that. My left eye is currently stable and the vision in that eye is doing well, so thank God for that. Anyhow I needed a vitrectomy in my right eye and that is the surgery I had April 12th.

The vitrectomy is a procedure that's used to clear a blood hemorrhage in the humorous fluid. This all crap I knew very little about until recently. Anyways they scrape out the hemorrhage and replace the fluid with saline or something. During the surgery the doctor also removed a surgical cataract that had formed a previous surgery I had the April before. I didn't know he was going to do that and that part of the surgery involved him removing the lens. And now it's gone. Just like that. Just like my old blog, without warning. If my eye recovers he may be able to add some weird sort of contact lens so I can see again. Right now I have no vision in that right eye.

I also have no health insurance and there was a big comedy benefit, two benefits actually, that helped me to raise the money to get that emergency surgery and help me through the recovery period. The first benefit was on April 12th at The Steve Allen theater in Los Angeles and it was amazing. Louis CK, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Dana Gould, Naked Trucker, Andy Kindler, The Tomorrow Show band, and Jimmy Pardo performed. Advanced clips of Wondershowzen were shown, and Morel Orel and Jim Gaffigan donated DVD's to auction off as well. It was pretty much a sold out show and one of the best line ups for a single comedy event that Los Angeles has seen in a long time. I got a lot of support from my fellow comics and the money raised at the event paid for the surgery.

There was a second benefit a few weeks later with another stellar line up at the Friars of Beverly Hills featuring Darren Carter, Marc Maron, Mark Cohen, Greg Behrendt, Jimmy Dore, Jimmy Shubert and Doug Benson.

Anyhow I couldn't have asked for more talented performers or a more awesome show of support from the community. It was honestly amazing, inspiring and awesomely uplifting.

And now I am here at home recovering. I am past the weeks and weeks of looking at the floor ( part of the recovery after the surgery requires you to not move your head up and to stare at the floor for weeks), and my eye is no longer patched up. I no longer have any pain from the surgery and I still have to sleep on a massage table at night so that I can face down while asleep, but I've managed to mostly keep in good spirits given the circumstances, but I am starting to slowly freak out.

There is no improvement yet in my vision at all and I think there should be some by now. I looked at my eye in the mirror today (something I avoid doing all together for the most part) and my eye is starting to look bad. It seems very slightly off to the right I noticed today and that sent me into a complete panic. I mostly haven't been doing much to help the recovery besides taking some vitamins and doing all the things the doctor told me to do. And now I am worried that I should have been doing something else. That I haven't done enough and that I've run out of time. I can't even begin to explain how incredibly frightened I am. I pulled out my old juiceman jr. today and vowed to drink bunches of carrot juice from now on. I'm going to start trying to do eye exercises and maybe meditate and try visualization and something and I'm going to pray, heck I might even go to one of those healing born again Christian I'm-gonna-heal-you-by-praying-over-your-pathetic-ass type masses. I think I need to take something for the anxiety I'm having because I can't function this way. Anyways I forgot what my point was, I guess I'm done for now.