This is the third part of this trilogy and continues directly from part 1 and part 2.
It was a chaotic night that I fortunately have very little memory of. The first thing I really remember is waking up in complete blackness and a near panic. There was a nurse right in my room to comfort me and explain that I had both eyes covered so I wouldn’t move the injured one. Made sense to me sorta, so I calmed down.
The timeline is really fuzzy because they were giving me a shot of Demerol (synthetic morphine) every three hours. Which meant that I was basically out cold for 2 hours and 40 minutes, had roughly 20 minutes of semi lucidity and another shot.
Sometime on Saturday morning the surgeon made his rounds and was whistling when he walked in my room. When he told me who he was I had a moment of hope that somehow he’d saved the eye. He said he had great news for me. “No brain damage”. No right eye, either.
2 days. I got to experience total blindness for two days. Those two days would set the stage to my protecting my left eye at all costs.
By Saturday my friends started hearing that I was in the hospital and coming to visit. It didn’t take long and there was somebody there for my 20 minutes of awareness every time. My parents had to go in shifts, too many kidlets for the whole clan to be there, but my friends set up a schedule to have somebody in that room when I was awake. My buddy Spencer brought a short dog of Jack Daniels during the middle of the night. 3 hours later somebody showed up with a huge cheeseburger.
The nursing staff in the trauma ward is something special. By Sunday they had eased back a little on the Demerol and a nurse sat with me and gave me the play by play on the TV football game.
Monday started my rehab. They dressed my right eye with a metal appliance to protect it and removed the patch on my left eye. I can’t tell you how good it felt to be able to get up and go to the bathroom all by myself. Little victories.
Also Monday when I could see there was a packet on my ‘table’ from the US Navy. It included my Honorable Discharge and my DD214.
The also issued me a wheelchair so I could prowl the floor on my own. I got that taken away when I wrecked it on some stairs Tuesday morning. Turns out I still couldn’t see very well.
By Tuesday morning the surgeon decided that I could be on ‘demand’ for pain meds. He also told me that 24 hours after my last shot of Demerol I could go home. I told him to start the clock.
Source
So by Wednesday afternoon I was home. For a couple of days I just slept and broke glasses until my mother served me entirely with plastic. You see, I had no depth perception and particularly water glasses were in jeopardy.
Friday, a friend of my Mom’s came out and brought me a stupid good present. She was a book club member and had just finished reading James Michener's Centennial. She left it for me to read. It took me 4 days and the headaches were phenomenal but I knew I could read.
That Saturday I recruited my kid brother to go for a ride with me, I wanted to see how driving would work. We took my Barracuda and headed out on the back roads in the area. We drove about a 20 mile lap, didn’t see a single car. When I parked I said “That worked better than I thought.” To which he replied “That was completely fucking awful. I was scared shitless.” He worked with me on my driving every day for two weeks, until we were both more or less comfortable that I could,
I was only two years out of high school and pretty well known, so I got the goofy idea that I could rehab physically with the Basketball team. The coach was glad to have me, I was tall and skinny and could jump like a kangaroo, it wouldn’t hurt his kids to practice against me.
Source
What I failed to account for was that these Seniors had been sophomores when I was last there, and remembered me pretty well from football. The just beat the crap out of me for a couple of days. Then I started to get it. I gave as good as I got and several of those guys are good friends today.
I haven’t told you the whole story. Why I KNEW from minute one that this wasn’t going to stop me, or even really slow me down. You see, my uncle Del got a new shotgun for Christmas when he was 15. He and my Dad took it out to shoot some pigeons in the horse barn. He put a round in each barrel and proceeded to sneak over some hay bales to maximize his shot. He hooked both hammers on a wire and lost his right arm at the elbow on the only two rounds run through that gun.
He was right handed but lettered in Baseball THAT SPRING and in football that fall. He played some war ball at about the AA level. By the time I knew him he was an avid bowler who carried a scratch average, an enthusiastic golfer (I was a better golfer. But he got the hole in one that I never did) and ran his farm quite well, thank you. He was great to play catch with when I was a kid….
Did I mention that his wife had MS? That I never knew her outside a wheelchair? Life could not have been easy for him, and I never, ever once heard him bitch,
The day that Gunner went to the Navy and I didn’t was a very hard day. I got really good and drunk, a pattern that was going to repeat itself often.
All photos in this post are properly sourced and licensed.
All words in this post are mine. For better or worse
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I had eye problems a few years ago having to have my Retina attached as out had slipped off and was torn in 8 places. The surgeon did a fantastic job saving my sight, there was a chance i could loose my eye as i didn't go to the drs until 3 weeks after i went blind in my right eye. Stupid but very lucky.
I can put off and rationalize most poor health decisions. But when I have an eye problem I am on it. I've practiced being blind off and on over the years. It is a real possibility for me.
I should have gone but never heard of a retina coming away then when it happened to me everyone i spoke to had gone through it :)
Hey @bigtom13,
I missed nr 2, Im going to search for it amongst your posts...
You should make a couple of links to part 1 and 2 just in case.
Respect!
/FF
Damn. I knew I forgot something this morning. I'll fix it right now.
Thank you!! Respect!
Yeah, I tried not to read this post so that I would not spoil the whole story... =)
Cheers!!!
/FF
"Turns out I still couldn’t see very well.", if you hadn't told me that I wouldn't have known. That line had me laughing real good. The one and only thing that would make this story any better is if your parents had named you Jack when you were born.
I'm just not the most intuitive guy in the world. Ask any of the three exs. I just kinda figured if I could see it then I knew where it was. Not so much, I still get bit by that bug every now and again. It is funny. I've got way more time without my right eye than with and the 'two eye' version is still firmly implanted.
That is really something that the "two eye" version hasn't been over written in the brain by now.
And for the record. A character we will meet shortly WAS named Jack right at birth. None of that 'call me John' confusion for him..
I am guessing he is going to be an interesting character as well.
Oh yikes!!
Well, I need to go and find #1 and 2 now!
Thanks for stopping by. I really do appreciate it.
You're right. The F-bomb was totally justified. I can just imagine what that ride was like.
I thought I did pretty good. When I looked at my kid brother I could tell he was shook. That's why the words.
It sounds like your family and friends really rallied round to help you save your sight. And you're right, there's always someone worse off. I have endless admiration for those people who have real, life-changing handicaps, yet they just get on with it.
I have always had solid family and friends. I'm just really lucky that way.
Me too. It's priceless.
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Im curious how this is going to continue...
/FF
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