In the previous Blog post (Google search "Jupiter's Smile") about our engine woes, on March 20th I alluded to another topic.
It covers about a three month-long period of time. Here it is.
As the engine fix was progressing we had quite a bit of time to spend wandering around Puerto Vallarta and we would walk about looking at various sights. At one point Barb was behind me a few dozen feet and she noticed her vision seemed odd, so she covered one eye and then the other while looking at me. With her left eye she could see okay, but looking at me from behind with her right eye my head was missing.
No comment please, this is serious. I know, you think you know where my head was, but no, it wasn't up there (this time).
We arranged an appointment with an ophthalmologist for Feb 16th. I was alarmed during the eye exam. Barb would read four letters, getting two correct and there were, in fact, five letters. The doctor diagnosed Central Serous Choroidopathy - kind of like a raised area or blister behind the retina in the center of her vision. He suggested that it would more than likely resolve itself as the serous fluid was reabsorbed over a period of between one and two months, but that it could reoccur. He said if we wanted to really confirm the diagnosis we needed to go to Guadalajara where the equipment needed to do more extensive testing was located. We decided to wait and watch with his blessing and encouragement.
We are now noticing how many expressions in language have references to sight. See what I mean?
By the middle of March there was no improvement at all so we made another appointment for another look. The doctor was concerned about what looked like an indentation in the "blister" and advised us to go to either Guadalajara or back to the US to a retina specialist. By that evening, I had secured a seat for Barb on a flight back to Denver for the next day.
This was a one way ticket on United Airlines, bought for a Saturday non-stop flight from Puerto Vallarta to Denver about fifteen hours from that moment - during Spring Break. I will divulge the cost of that ticket at the end of this post. My plan to stay with the boat to oversee the engine repair was in jeopardy, but that was how we left it for now.
With Barb's flight arranged to Denver for tomorrow, the next tasks to arrange involved getting Barb home from the Denver airport, getting the house "turned on" again, getting a car insured and running and arranging for the necessary appointment with our ophthalmologist. Friday evening, I sent e-mails to our friends in Colorado Springs relating our situation and they came through for us, especially Karen with John's and Carol's help. Karen checked with John and he said he could drive them both to the airport to get Barb. Karen and Carol use the same ophthalmologist as we do and Carol is a physician and good friend of Dr. Jack's wife. Carol called Dr. Jack at home and he said he would see for Barb first thing in the morning on Monday. An e-mail to our insurance agent got our trusty, rusty 1988 Honda CRX (50 mpg) road legal.
While Barb was in the air I e-mailed the friends who had stayed in our house after we left for the season. They had "winterized" the house when they left in December and I asked them to bring the house back on line so Barb would not need to do that when she returned Saturday night. Donald and Ethne opened the house, turned on the electricity, adjusted the thermostat, turned on the water and the refrigerator and put supper and breakfast inside it. They even put flowers on the table. Wow!
Barb's flight and arrival home went well and she was surprised to find the house ready for her arrival and pleased that she had a doctors appointment set up so quickly. Her only real worry was to get the CRX running. She had to retrieve the battery from the basement and connect it correctly. She reported (with satisfaction) via text message that she accomplished this task and that the car fired right up.
Everything was in order now for her Monday morning appointment.
Barb went to the appointment which revealed that she had a macular hole. She was sent to a retinologist immediately and surgery was scheduled for Thursday. She was told that a gas bubble would be injected into her eye to "iron" her retina back into place. Hopefully the hole would heal. Over a period of two weeks the gas would dissipate, but, since the surgery would be performed at 6200 ft and we live at 7500 ft, the elevation difference would affect the gas pressure. She could not go home until the gas was gone. Further, she should spend as much time as possible with her face down to keep the gas pressing on her macula.
Karen offered to let her stay at her home to convalesce - thank you Karen! Barb rented a special pillow device that would allow her to rest her head and even sleep face down. From the library, she checked out an arm-load of books on CD because she was told not to read and to greatly limit or eliminate altogether working on a computer or watching TV. This was going to be no fun at all.
The surgery went well, but the follow-up appointment the next day was an emotional roller coaster. The technician asked Barb to do the typical eye chart test. Barb thought that maybe the tech expected that she should be able to see something with her right eye, but she couldn't. Thinking to herself, 'Was something wrong? Am I supposed to be able to see? Oh, no!' Then the tech left her alone and Barb waited for the doctor imagining that something was terribly wrong. The doctor came in and assured her, condescendingly, that there was no way she could see anything with the gas bubble in her eye. Everything looked fine.
Back in Puerto Vallarta, our engine saga was progressing, but not finalized until April 2nd. My brother Tom was planning to arrive on the 5th to help me return the boat to San Carlos +/-700 miles to the north on the mainland coast of the Sea of Cortez.
However, when Ethne took Barb to the following week's examination on Friday, April 3rd, it was revealed that her retina had adhered to the gas bubble and was being peeled away as the bubble deflated. It seems her vitreous humor (the fluid in the anterior chamber of the eye) is more "sticky" than average and that caused the retina to adhere to the shrinking bubble. Another complication of the gas bubble was that it had clouded her lens to the point where the retinologist had difficulty seeing into her eye. This appointment turned into a two hour surgery during which her clouded lens was removed, a "buckle" was applied to hold the retina in place and another, different gas was inserted. She was back to square one, but this time more extensive surgery had been done and she hurt. She was faced with two more weeks away from home, depending on Karen's generosity. Our phone conversation that afternoon was decidedly gloomy. Barb's right eye was now without a lens and she faced more surgery in May.
Darlene took Barb to the follow-up appointment where, again, everything seemed fine except for the pain. Barb was much more upbeat on the phone Sunday afternoon. She agreed that Tom and I should head out as soon as we could and get the boat to San Carlos, but we could take the time to cross the Sea of Cortez to the Baja side to make the voyage less arduous and more enjoyable as Tom could experience the beauty of the various anchorages and wildlife in the Sea instead of making a five or six day non-stop bash.
On Monday morning, April 6th, Tom and I cleared out with the Port Captain, stopped at Ernesto's for an early lunch of tortilla soup, paid the marina and the mechanic and at 1440 pulled in the docklines. We dropped the anchor at 0140 on Wednesday, the 8th, just outside Mazatlan Harbor to get some sleep and wait for daylight. High winds were forecast for late on Wednesday and we were glad we had made the run straight to Mazatlan to make some progress while avoiding bad weather. By noon, Tom and I moved the boat into Marina Mazatlan anticipating an extended period of poor weather.
As time went by, Barb continued to heal and friends visited periodically at Karen's house. She called me everyday that I had connectivity to the Mexican cell system while Tom and I were in Mazatlan. She confided that she felt she was overstaying her welcome at Karen's and her effort to be no bother was eating at her. On the 10th, she sounded so depressed that I decided to leave the boat in Mazatlan and fly home. On the 11th, Tom and I began preparing the boat for storage, but during Barb's phone call that evening she convinced me to wait for the outcome of a follow-up appointment scheduled on Wednesday, the 15th. The boat wasn't going anywhere anyway because of the weather forecast so Tom and I waited, walked around Mazatlan while preparing the boat for sea again and watching the weather. On Monday the 13th, a few boats left for the Baja and we heard via radio reports that the conditions were pretty rough and made for an uncomfortable overnight passage. We topped off our fuel because the weather forecast predicted much diminished wind for more than a week if we departed Wednesday so we faced extended motoring. On the 15th Barb called and gave good news along with the go ahead to cast off. Just before noon, we departed heading straight west to the Baja.
In the next post I will relate the details of the rest of our trip.
Although the gas bubble from the second surgery was not gone by the two week mark, it was significantly diminished, so Barb decided to get a motel room and give Karen her privacy back. Karen agreed, but persuaded her to wait until Monday, the 20th. Barb checked into the motel on Monday. That night, during dinner out with friends John and Darlene, Barb noticed the the gas bubble was gone.
On Tuesday, she headed home after the morning rush hour. The drive was uneventful in spite of the fact that she really only had useful vision in her left eye, the absence of a lens in the right eye prohibited much useful vision there. It was good to be home evidently, because that evening's phone call was filled with relief.
I arrived home early the morning of the 25th and got adjusted to land life in the USA. We had an eye appointment on May 11th that went well and surgery to implant a lens was scheduled for May 20th. That surgery went well. We returned to the doctor that same afternoon and he was pleased with the procedure. Barb's eye got to 20/50 vision with correction and with some distortion, but it works and there is no longer a hole in the center of her vision. In late June, she will get a prescription for glasses to put closure to this ordeal.
The fact remains, however, that this situation may reoccur at any time and in either eye. Barb's vitreous humor is changed, a product of the passing years and there is nothing to be done about it. Whether we set out to cruise as we have before remains to be "seen".
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