FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: As many of you know Larry sustained a traumatic severe eye injury on Saturday 9/27/08. While playing tennis he took a direct blow to the eye, with a 120 mile an hour serve. We went the the ER on Saturday and initially he was felt to have a fairly minor injury to the iris. We followed up with an ophthalmologist on Monday and found out he actually had a tear of his iris as well as a giant tear and detachment of his retina. They orient things clockwise with an eye injury. His tear was from 8:00 to 12:00 and the detachment was from 8:00 clockwise around to 4:00. He had surgery on Tuesday. Surgery- They repaired his retinal tear with laser surgery and his detachment with cryosurgery as well as a scleral buckle. Surgery took a little over two hours. To keep the repair in place they also had to place a gas bubble over the repair. Recovery- He has to lay on his stomach with his face down for 23 out of 24 hours a day. The gas bubble will take 6-8 weeks to dissipate. He will be able to make out letters on the eye chart once the bubble is 50% dissipated (about 2-3 weeks). He cannot drive until the gas bubble is 80% dissipated (about 4-5 weeks). He has to put drops in his eye 4 times a day and keep it patched for 1-2 weeks. Post-op day one- We received some bad news on Wednesday that he was starting to develop a cataract. The surgeon said it was small and would not affect his sight at it’s current size but it could progress. He still had some bleeding and a lot of swelling which was all expected. Post-op day three- Friday- we received good news today that he has been doing a great job keeping his head down and he cataract is actually resolving. He could tell that the gas bubble is starting to dissipate and he had a very small window of vision at the very top of his field of vision. He will see the surgeon again on Monday and if things look good he will be able to raise his head and sit upright. We will keep you informed. Jackie Lawrence Brownsburg, Indiana