Ok....so you know how I told you all that I had surgery a few weeks ago....I had very little discomfort from the surgery itself. Let me just tell you what happened to me....
I am not a person who tolerates anesthesia well....I always am super sick and end up throwing up for days after surgery. (I've had about 7 surgeries in my lifetime) I always tell the Anesthesiologist about my nausea after surgery and generally they give me IV Phenergan and am good to go. This time the doctor is like I'm going to put this patch behind your ear and you are to wear it for the next three days. Before I apply it....do you have glaucoma? I was like no...he said are you sure cause this will make you go blind if you have glaucoma. I said no I don't have glaucoma and he placed it behind my right ear. This was Friday afternoon and he told me to take it off Monday night....which is exactly what I did.
I noticed Tuesday morning that my eyes were fully dilated. I could barely see any color in my eyes at all.. It was noticed by a few of my co workers as well. I assumed that it was from the anesthesia or surgery and didn't really worry too much about it. By Thursday my eyes were fully crossed....both of them and dilated most of the time. I called my doctor that performed the surgery and she sent me to the er.
Come to find the patch the Anesthesiologist placed behind my ear is called Scopolomine. It is very potent....causes vision problems....hallucinations...makes the muscles in the eyes weak...which in turn causes them to cross. The emergency room doctor advised that most of the time the worst side effect is inability to urinate for days....then people have to go to the emergency room to have their bladders drained......YIKES!!! I was instructed to wear my glasses not contacts for the next week and as the Scopolomine wore off, my vision would improve. It took a full 2 weeks to see a significant improvement and my left eye still appears to be slightly off. (I am going to see an Opthamologist in a few weeks)
So if any of you have issues with nausea after anesthesia please be careful of this patch. It was not communicated to me that this could impair my vision or my ability to think and rationalize (which is another side effect) I was scared to death that my eyes would stay crossed and that my vision would not improve. I am very thankful that things seem to be almost back to normal. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks :)
2 comments:
How long after surgery did you notice this? I had a polypectomy 4/4 and also had the scopolomine patch due to post anesthesia nausea. I am STILL feeling "off." I was blaming it on the anesthesia but now I'm wondering if it was the patch. I'm glad I stumbled on your blog, our journey's seem to have some things in common.
I noticed the morning after removing that patch so 3 days after surgery. I am still having trouble with my vision. That patch is some lethal stuff. The er doctor said that he wished that would not give it to people for surgery....he said he sees so many people cause of it. I still don't feel right and I had my surgery on 3/18. :( I hope that you recover from the patch quicker than I have!
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