Dear Citizens,
I apologize in advance that this post is not about Colorado travel or a Colorado festival, but I felt it must be written in order to let everyone know what the heck is going on and why the Mayor is being so unusually quiet.
It’s going to be a ghost town around here for the next five days or more. This was 100% unplanned. In fact, I’m supposed to be in Pueblo at the Colorado Festivals & Events Association Conference giving several presentations this week.
From the age of 10 to 20, I went through a series of eye surgeries. Six major surgeries, lots of laser work and tons of shots in the eye (yes, these are as bad as they sound). As a result I have a lot of hardware in my eye and am very lucky to see as well as I do, which is quite badly from my left eye and quite well from my right eye.
However, this past weekend I ended up in the local ER with hazy vision and after they consulted with my eye specialist in Denver, I was immediately sent to the ER at University of Colorado Hospital to see the on-call ophthalmologist.
The result of all of this crazy hospital hopping is that I’m having surgery on my right eye (also known as my “good eye”) tomorrow. I’m more than a little freaked out and I’m very sad to be missing the conference and my trip to Pueblo, which has been planned for sometime now.
I don’t have lenses inside my eyes like normal people, so I’m a full time contact lens wearer and haven’t even bothered getting glasses, therefore I’m going to be blind for the days following this surgery. As many of you know, I do own a German Shepherd, unfortunately she’s not a seeing eye dog.
Anyway, I’m not exactly sure how long I’m going to be out of commission, but believe me, I will be back to this blog and social media just as soon as I possibly can. I’m already experiencing withdrawals just thinking about not being able to post on my HeidiTown Facebook page or Twitter every day.
Please don’t feel too bad for me, I’m already throwing myself a pretty spectacular pity party. You might want to keep my husband, Ryan, in your thoughts, because he’s the one who will have to deal with me for the next week or so and act as my seeing eye guy. I’m not always the happiest of campers in these sorts of situations, so if you’d like to leave sympathies, leave them for Ryan. 🙂
Thanks to all of you for being awesome citizens (and supporters) of this little town, I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me to grow this community over the last seven years.
In the words of Arnold, “I’ll be back.”
Hopefully this hiatus will be very, very brief.
Most Sincerely,
Heidi
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Oh Heidi! this post just warmed my heart! My 4-year old niece is aphakic (missing her right lens due to being born with a cataract and glaucoma) and has had several surgeries already. To know you are dealing with something similar, just gives me more hope and optimism and happiness than you know! Prayers for a quick recovery and hope to see you back online soon!
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Thank you, EJ. I’m aphakic due to cataracts that developed when I was around 8 years old. I then developed glaucoma as a side effect of surgery. I’m sure your niece will do very well. There have been tremendous advances since I was going through this as a child and I did well way back then! The way a child can bounce back from this stuff is truly amazing. It’s funny, because when I was going through this as a kid I was much braver. I guess today it’s a little more apparent what I have to lose, although I do feel I’m in good hands and will work my butt off to get back online just as soon as possible!!
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Holy flock of cows! I will have to bring you recovery items! 🙂 Look to your phone….
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We will miss you! Best wishes for a quick recovery. The town won’t be the same without HeidiTown!
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Thinking of you Ms. Heidi and wishing for a VERY quick recovery. Take good care. Bet Ryan looks good in a nurse’s outfit?! Best wishes and hugs sent to you both. 🙂
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You’ll be missed! Wishing you and yours strength for a speedy and uneventful recovery.
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Take care, heal well, bask in Ryan’s TLC! Call if you need anything,
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Thinking all the best for you and an uneventful recovery.
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Heidi, somehow your post got in my SPAM file.
Sorry to hear about you eye troubles. I hope all went well. Thinking of you!
Nancy
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THANK YOU for all the comments. It was rough week and a half, but as of a couple hours ago I got the okay to put my contact back in my good eye. Thankfully, even after surgery it is still my good eye.
So I am back in the saddle again and looking forward to Taste of Vail this weekend. I have to go back in a couple weeks to get the stitches out and will be out of commission for a day after that, but otherwise my surgeon is happy with the way things are progressing.
Thanks again for all the words of support. I was overwhelmed this last weekend by comments, tweets, calls and texts from well wishers and it really did make the recovery process that much easier.
By the way, Ryan survived, despite having to cook a lot (something he doesn’t normally do). He’s a pretty outstanding guy and I’m a lucky gal to have him in my life. 🙂
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