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Nutrition and Preparation for Eye Surgery, Part 3
Well, I survived my first eye surgery. Last week I posted about how I was preparing leading up to my surgery and the week prior I posted about some research I did on nutrition related to surgery, both before and after surgery.
As before, let me start out by saying that I am not a licensed medical professional. My notes in this series are from my own research for my own use. Do your own research and consult with a qualified medical professional for advice specific to your own needs. Every person is different and what worked for me may not work for you.
Last Minute Prep
The day before the surgery I decided to eat really well knowing I had to fast the next day and that I might not want to eat right after the surgery. I transitioned to keto early in 2017 so I knew if I ate big the day before, I would weather the fast without issues. I was right.
I ate a big lunch and after work, I ran to the store for steak and mushrooms. I purposely had dinner just a little later than usual. After dinner, I had a chocolate smoothie made with full fat coconut milk and a big scoop of collagen. I also made sure to drink several glasses of water throughout the evening. I’m usually pretty dry in the morning. I knew I would need some extra fluids to keep me from wanting to suck down a big glass of water when I woke up.
Before I left the house, I warmed up some bone broth with extra salt. When I’m nauseous, I find salty broth helps soothe my stomach. I put that in my travel coffee mug so it would be easy to sip after surgery. I was worried the nurses would balk at me bringing my own drink for after the surgery, but they didn’t. They marked the sign on my bed so the recovery room nurses would know I had my own.
Surgery
I’m not going to lie. I was semi-awake and saw the whole thing. I was on good drugs to keep me relaxed so I didn’t really care that the doctor was scraping my eyeball, but I knew that’s what he was doing. The whole thing took just a couple of minutes so it was over before I had much time to register it all and get freaked out. I think I was in the operating room for less than 15 minutes, and that included the time it took the nurses to pump me with the drugs and get me settled. It was fast.
Immediately after, I noticed the weird blurry spot was gone. That was the point of the surgery so that was good. I grabbed my broth once I was in recovery and started sipping that while the nurse went over post-op instructions. We left maybe 20-30 minutes after the surgery.
Post-surgery
The first day or so was a bit rough. Okay, a little brutal actually. They used a protective contact over the eyeball so where they removed the lesions under that contact didn’t hurt much at all. However, I had a lesion that went across the top of the eye and involved part of my eyelid. That’s the part that hurt the most. It hurt to blink or move my eyeball for a while. The eyelid had to heal on its own. That took a couple of days.
After the first two days, though, the pain was much improved. The swelling was way down and the over-the-counter pain medication was actually helping. Had I not had that large lesion at the top that involved the eyelid, I think things would have been much smoother. I’ll find out when eye #2 gets its turn soon.
The light sensitivity made it hard to watch television or kill time with my various devices. I ended up listening to old shows on Netflix, shows I had seen already so I didn’t need eyes on the screen. I plan to grab a couple of audio books before my next surgery so I am better prepared for that next time. With ALL the preparations I did, that was the one thing I didn’t prepare for.
They gave me this plastic shield to tape over my eye when I sleep. I did that the first day, but by day two, I had developed a rash where the tape was. So I sewed the eye shield into my sleep mask. It’s almost a week post-surgery, and I still have marks on my face where the tape was. It will heal. It may take a few weeks, though. I’ll make a point to sew the shield into the other side of the eye mask before the next surgery so I’m prepared.
I slept. A LOT. For days. It was four days later before I actually left my bedroom to sit in the living room.
My biggest challenge was not having an appetite. I wasn’t hungry for much of anything for days after my surgery. I was so glad I had done the research in advance before this surgery, understood what was happening, and knew what foods to focus on. I had already primed my body with lots of gelatin, collagen and healthy proteins in the days before my surgery so I set myself up well. In the days following surgery, I focused on protein - where I could. I sipped plenty of bone broth, added collagen to my coffee, nibbled on gelatin gummies I made, and made a few fatty smoothies with a big scoop of collagen. I didn’t feel like meals, but I was able to get down an Aidell’s Chicken Apple Sausage link here or there along with some Applegate hot dogs or an Epic meat stick once in a while.
I kept it simple, and I didn’t push too much. I ate what I could when I could focusing on the things I knew were important. I did make a point to keep fluids going, though. I reminded myself that I got through my tonsil surgery so I would get through this. (I lost my appetite for months after that surgery.) Several days after my eye surgery when I returned to the office, I went to lunch with a coworker and nearly licked my plate clean. The appetite comes back. We just need to give our bodies some grace to get there.
My next surgery is scheduled for this week. If I feel up to it, I will try to do another surgery post next week.
References
www.balancedbites.com, Podcast episodes 9, 36, 57 and 255
Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe
www.eatright.org/resource/health/wellness/preventing-illness/5-top-foods-for-eye-health
www.eatright.org/resource/fitness/training-and-recovery/endurance-and-cardio/eating-for-strength-and-recovery
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15018479
Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo
www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/011315p10.shtml
