so, day 5. Bruising: almost gone. Just a small bit under my eye. Even my subconjunctival blood is largely gone. Still a good view of the three blue sutures in my globe, which are driving me mad. Constant foreign-body sensation and tearing. At times I want to rub my eye, hard, or claw at it.
However, no other real pain.
Visual perception? the constant feeling that there is something blocking my sight in that eye that I can just lift away. Good light perception. Surprisingly good close (very close!) vision when looking directly down, through the liquid layer. No apparent areas of distortion or holes? Encouraging. However, looking forward, there is little more than perception of light and dark in that eye. Very distracting. No depth perception, therefore clumsy and cannot judge distance. Constantly feel I may bump into things on my left side. Feel very protective of my left eye; afraid I may walk into something on that side.
Sleep is fitful and full of frequent awakenings, with a puzzled, fuzzy "where am I/ what the heck?" feeling.....Plus the overwhelming desire to turn onto my side, or even more dangerously, onto my back when sleeping. That would probably fry my lens, so to be avoided at all costs.
Still, progress. Headaches and eye aching pain gone.
Sitting up for an hour to read the paper or watch tv, or work on the computer feels like a luxurious extravagance.

well, so the vitrectomy is over.
What are the notable features? The interminable wait, in the flimsy johnny shirt, for over 3 hours, watching multiple (mostly old) folk being wheeled off to the OR then back again from cataract surgery. Even though I'd been npo since midnight, was not hungry. Too many butterflies. Multiple drops in eye. Mostly dilating drips, an iv started (painfully), and Betadine eye drops for antisepsis. I now know what Betadine tastes like, as it makes its way down my tear ducts....(bitter).
Wheeled via wheelchair to the OR, climb with trepidation onto the table. Relieved that a mask delivered air, under the facial drape, in the direction of my nose/mouth. Cardiac monitor. Sat monitor. Drape covering my entire face, except the left eye. Painful orbital block needle.
Then, lots of visual images. My lit-up orbit, with black probe advancing into the light. Flitting pieces of things that looked like flimsy autumn leaves (? pieces of the internal limiting membrane?) travelling toward the cannula presumably sucking them out. The shockingly bright, lit-up orbit at times, like a jack-o-lantern. Some sort of automated voice, ?the insertion of gas into the orbit, and at last it was over. I actually felt myself falling asleep, my normal right eye drooping closed. I felt I had been given a sedative, so strong was the urge to sleep. Was surprised to find out, afterward, that no sedative had been given. I guess I was just exhausted, shutting down after all the waiting and stress.
Wheeled back to recovery, metal eye patch in place. Instructions. Walk out, feeling off-balance and clumsy with no vision on the left side. Face and eye still frozen and pain-free.

well, t-minus about 36 hours. My lounging spots are ready. I am getting anxious, about the procedure itself (WILL there be enough sedation? I don't want to be aware of the vitrectomy part)...and the logistics of getting home, getting through 2 weeks without slipping into melancholy or just getting restless to the point of going mad....
But mostly, it's the surgery itself, and the aftermath of blindness in that eye, that completely unnerves me.

The countdown is on. Only 8 days pre-surgery. Apprehension, and wanting to get it over with. And annoyance at having to do all this crap. Lying prone for 2 weeks. Good grief. All my grandiose plans of all the serious reading I will do...(really? with an air bubble bobbing around distractingly in one eye? and lying in the same position, hour after hour, day after day? Yeah right.)
My main concern now is arranging the house, stocking the freezer, and figuring out how to make some sort of comfortable spot to lie. Need all my electronic toys (ipad, computer, cd player, radio), good lighting for books, and some way to keep from turning my head to the side when sleeping. Still working on that one.

It all started in...July? June? 2012. I've always been a "high myope" but got by, first with contact lenses, then with Lasik surgery in 2002 or so. That was an adventure, but all in all very satisfactory. Better vision (not perfect),  lighter glasses, no need for contacts.
Then in late spring/early summer of 2012, my vision in my left eye became....interesting. First noticed a little blur in central vision. Saw the optometrist, thought it was just a minor wrinkle on my cornea from the Lasik. Sent to retina specialist. "hmmmm very interesting...."
A small vacuole, or empty space, right smack dab in the middle of my macula. Trial of drops, no change. Amuse myself by squinting closed my normal right eye, making peoples' noses disappear in my little blind spot. Both eyes open? No real problem.
Then, in October/November of 2012, while completely immersed in family issues/tragedy, my vision is a lot worse. A real blind spot; amuse myself by making words disappear on signs, or whole signs disappear. Fatalistic...."oh well, guess that's it then; nothing to be done...."
Frustration with my vision is compounded greatly by work. Trouble reading computer screens (multiple users, so can't increase font size); no depth perception; avoid tasks/patients requiring good vision. Corneal rust ring or foreign body? Nope! Blinding headache by the end of shift; too much effort to read the simplest things. Yes, I have one good eye, but the effort required to block out the distorted image from the "bad" eye take a lot of energy.
See the retina specialist and to my surprise have a well-described (and eminently treatable??) entity: macular hole. My depression/despair at the eye testing ("can you read this line? this one? No?" Christ, I'm legally blind in this left eye!) changes to feverish reading about everything I can find about macular holes. Eureka! High success rate of restoring vision!
Then....yikes, the details of the surgery...are you kidding me? You, what, suck out the vitreous? and stick a bubble of air in the eye? and you have to lie on your stomach for how long? And you are guaranteed to get a cataract in short order, necessitating yet another eye surgery???
Oh, and the whole idea of needles and cannulas stuck in my eye, and the orbital freezing, which sounds painful, and the bruising/swelling afterward for ? weeks, and the "no air travel" for how long exactly???
So here we are, early March 2013. Waiting to see the retina surgeon. My vision is.....pretty terrible. Print completely unreadable with my left eye. Looks like the paper the words are printed on has been twisted up in the center; the letters are a blurry swirl(and some entirely missing). And objects look farther away, and dimmer with that eye. The kitchen clock, for instance, shrinks to a circle about 2/3 the actual size (makes it look farther away), when viewed with just my left eye. People's faces (on tv) via my left eye are grotesque, like a picasso painting, with missing and fragmented features. I could not recognize even a familiar face with that eye.
So will be seeing the retina surgeon in a couple of days. Here's hoping I get all my questions answered.