I would like to start by thanking all those family members, friends and followers who have sent a steady stream of messages wishing me well during the last eight months as the ‘detached retina saga’ has unfolded.  While I am not on social media and therefore unable to respond directly, I have appreciated each and every message that Anne has read out to me. A big thank you to all.

Where am I now?  A little over a month ago at the end of March, I underwent a third operation, this time to remove the oil in my eye and replace it with gas again.  This had always been planned, but became more urgent due to the oil causing my retina to become inflamed.  We had tried steroid drops to control and reduce the inflammation a month prior but as the photo below shows this was not successful, so back under the knife again.

After a week face down again, getting used to this now, and wonderfully supported by Anne, I was able to see the progress of the gas dissipating. It was like having a spirit level in the eye which slowly moved to a point where if I leaned forward, I just had a single bubble in the centre of my eye.  One day, probably because I jogged about 50 meters, it split into two bubbles.  I found that if I moved my head in a certain way, I could make the small bubble travel round the big bubble.  The surgeon seems less than impressed with my skills when I mentioned this last week during a checkup! He was however happy with the last operation and apart from a checkup in six months, my surgery days are over, hurrah!!!!!!

I would like to take a moment to thank my surgeon Dr Abhishek Sharma who not only fixed my detached retina but made himself available at any time to promptly answer any questions or concerns we had, such as what looked like a blister was in fact part of the belt and buckle. I was lucky to have him and his team treat me.

So what next?  I will visit a specialist optometrist to get glasses that will help the left eye to work harder which may help my vision.  The laser scarring caused by repairing the 13 tears in the retina and the detachment of the retina and macular means a reduction in vision in my left eye.  As the surgeon said “Think of it as the film/sensor being damaged, even having a Leica lens will not completely compensate for the loss of vision”.

While this whole process has taken some eight months to reach a conclusion, it has not been all pain and discomfort.  After each operation I was able to resume normal activities, which in Australia, has meant pretty much everything we used to do. We have been so lucky in Australia that COVID-19 did not get a foothold.

We have not forgotten that a blog on our African Adventures in 1982/83 was proposed back in February 2021.  Just like the Australian COVID-19 vaccination rollout, we are behind schedule but will get there eventually – just need to get the creative writer juices flowing again.

Thanks again for all the messages and well wishes.

– Anthony