I spoke with Dave last night around 10:30 Tirana time (9:30 London time). He had just been seen by the surgeon, Dr. Zambarakji. If you click on the link below, you can read a little bit about the surgeon. http://www.arnotteye.com/people/zambarakji.htm. His eye surgery on December 21 was to repair about 5 tears in his retina. Dr. Zambarakji told him that in about 10-15% of cases such as his, there will be a subsequent detachment in a different place. This detachment is in an entirely different area and is a complete detachment, which apparently was not the case last time. Surgery is scheduled for 6:00 pm London time (7:00 pm Tirana) today (April 22).
There are several possibilities with the surgery. To keep the repair in place in his previous surgery, the surgeon put a gas bubble in his eye to put pressure on the repair sites. Because he has a complete detachment, this may not be possible, and the surgeon will not know until he is operating. If he cannot use a gas bubble, he has to put some sort of silicon gel or cream in the eye, which must then be removed (I think several weeks later), and the removal is another surgical procedure. Another issue is Dave has a cataract on that eye - having surgery aggravates a cataract, so even though it was very small and did not interfere with his vision before his last surgery, it has now grown since then. So, if the surgeon cannot get a good view, he will also have to remove the cataract and replace the lens, which prolongs and complicates the surgery.
The surgeon is supposed to call me post-surgery, which will probably be around 10:00 pm Tirana time, at the earliest. If any of the above described issues come to pass, the surgery will take longer. So, it looks like I will be having a late night.
Dave is in the hospital, and they will keep him there post-surgery (unlike the US, the Europeans appear to be more civilized about hospital stays). He was pretty much incapacitated after the last surgery, so we are hoping they keep him there as long as possible. I will post an update tomorrow after the surgery.
Send good thoughts and prayers towards London.
Cindy
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2 comments:
It sounds like he is in many good hands. Even so it is no fun to have to rely so completely upon the kindness of strangers (in a strange land once removed from a yet stranger land).
Prayers are being said, but rocks on the alter are pending further instructions from the field.
Hi,
I did a search on Zambarakji and it sounds like Dave has one of the best persons for what he needs done. Our thoughts will be with all of yall and our prayers will concentrate on Dave.
Let us know if there is anything else we can do.
Cade will be 19 years tomorrow!
Robert
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