Eye Surgery

So the day finally rolled around for me to get the surgery to get rid of the floaters in my eyes (AKA vitrectomy, performed by Dr. Carmelina Gordon).  Well, actually just one, because you need the other to get around with while you recover.  As Jami had to watch Frederick and Thomas is off in Chicago, we got our friend and colleague Ade to be my ride for the 60+ miles each way to Jackson, MI.
Here's the view from the waiting room of the surgery place:

I was whisked in as soon as I'd signed about 500 consent forms saying that it's not their fault if I go blind and if my insurance won't pay they get to come and take the house - you know, the usual.
Anyway, they slapped me on a cot, made me repeat twenty times which eye it was (and they wrote letters on my forehead in felt pen above the relevant eye) and then the anaesthesiologist (who had one of those droning voices that made it sound like he sampled his own wares) came and explained that they were going to first "numb your brain a little" so that I would pass out as they set up and then numb the eye, and then wake me up for the operation.  But not to worry, because they were going to give me something so that I wouldn't care what they were doing to my eye (presumably some kind of anti-anxiety medication).  The reason he gave for why I was awake while they operated was that they didn't want me snoring and jiggling the eye as they were slicing into it.  I do have vague memories of the operation, mostly just weird flashing lights.  Ade said the whole thing took about 2 hours but I swear I checked the time before and after and it was only 30 minutes.  I think he was just bored being the only non-octogenarian in the waiting room (and definitely the only one with dreadlocks).  This is what I looked like in the car afterwards:

Lovely, eh?  The next day (today) I had to drive BACK to Jackson, one-eyed (and to make matters worse, in thick mist and driving rain) to have them remove the patch and check that they had not, in fact, blinded me.  Here's the office:

And here's the before and after shots from my visit today:

I have to put two sets of drops in it 4 times a day for about a month and I'm not allowed to wear contacts for a week at least.  I go back in week to check things are progressing nicely.  I think I'll put off the other one till Summer...
(Turns out that the Doctor who saw me today had taken a class from me back in 2010 or so.  Small world.)