Thought you might want the latest update on Aron. After his quick drive to Calgary on Sunday, Dec 30th, he saw the retina specialist on Monday morning first thing. In order to assess if the retina is detached, required them to do an ultrasound on the eye. Once that was complete they confirmed that it was detached.
Normally to reattach a retina requires them to view the retina through the cornea to do the repairs. Because of his cornea transplant being fairly recent, the cornea is still cloudy and so they cannot see the retina. This means that the only way to proceed is to remove the new cornea, put on a plastic cap over the eye, do the procedure and then stitch the cornea back onto the eye again. They want to ensure the total success of the procedure, so they want the cornea doctor as well as the retina doctor to work together on completing all the work.
Since they need two specialized doctors and nurses and it is right during New Years, they don’t feel they can coordinate the surgery until Friday. So Aron will stay with the kids in Calgary and Airdrie during the next few days while he waits for confirmation of the surgery and during his recovery.
Once they reattach the retina they will introduce a bubble into the eye again to put pressure on the retina to help ensure that it stays in place while it heals. This will mean that Aron will likely have to lay face down for about a week to ensure the bubble is in the right position. So he won’t head back to BC until after that.
So they really don’t know what the damage may be to the retina overall and there is no guarantee that once it is attached again that there won’t be permanent damage. The procedure to fix the retina may also damage the transplanted cornea and it will have to eventually be replaced with another cornea.
My wish for 2019 is that this surgery is successful and that Aron is able to recover and come home and enjoy a normal life for awhile. It is likely that no other procedure will be done for some time while the eye has a really good chance to recover. Send all your good wishes his way.