With so much time between booking the trip and actually leaving, I began to think we were never going to leave. It was not until Thanksgiving rolled around that it really started to sink in. With a shorter-than-usual period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the departure date seemed to sneak up on us. We also had some worrisome time earlier in the fall, while we waited for Anna's schedule for final exams to be published. As it turned out, exams at GW were not due to end until 19 December, the day AFTER we were to leave. Forcing ourselves to not try to plan for a contingency were Anna to have a late exam, we were very relieved in early November, when we learned her last exam would be the 17th, giving us a whole day of cushion.
As we counted down and reached the two-week window, fate decided to challenge us. Exactly two weeks before we were to leave, almost to the hour, K announced that she could not see clearly out of her left eye. Out of the blue, she had what she described as a veil or spider web across her field of vision. During an eye exam earlier in the year, her ophthalmologist had noted that the vitreous fluid in K's right eye was contracting (as happens with time), which was causing "sparkles" to appear from time to time. He told her at the time to contact him if they ever got worse, as it could be a sign of a retinal detachment. The problems K had just developed, however, were different, and in the other eye. She elected to go to bed and hope it improved by morning. It didn't. In fact, it had worsened. She elected to go to work while I tried to reach the ophthalmologist. I called their emergency number, and the doctor immediately called back and said K needed to got to a retinal specialist immediately. He called to expedite a visit, while I called K from work. She had driven to the office, but was already regretting it. She had a very hard time seeing, and the vision was getting worse. I turned around, left work, and drove to pick her up. The doctor was located close to her office. Long story short. After almost three hours at the doctor's and after multiple tests and exams, they determined that she had had a vitreous hemorrhage; basically, she was bleeding into the inside of the eye, and the expanding blood pool was causing the vision problems. There was too much blood for them to clearly determine if the retina had torn, separated, or if it was "simply" a burst blood vessel. The only way to know for sure was to perform a vitrectomy, in which they essentially drain the eye. That would allow them to see (and repair) a tear, or reattach the retina. The doctor explained that as part of the surgery, they would inject a bubble of noble gas into the eye. While that would dissipate over time, it would be impossible to fly with the gas bubble in place, as the change in pressure could lead to blindness. When we told the doctor we were to leave in less than two weeks, his first statement was, "well, you will to file a claim on your travel insurance, yes?" He further explained that if the retina was detached, it would be six to eight weeks before the gas dissipated and K could fly. If there was a tear, it would be three to six weeks. If it was a burst blood vessel, it would depend on the size of rupture before he could estimate an "all-clear-for-travel" window. None of that seemed important at the time, and the practice was able to find a surgeon and surgery window for the very next morning, Friday, 6 December. In the end, the surgery was a complete success and there was no detachment or tear. The surgeon advised that he added a small gas bubble, and was hopeful it would dissipate before our planned departure. K left the hospital with a wrist band clearly stating that "the patient" had a bubble of nitrous oxide in their eye, and they weren't to fly or be transported by air ambulance. It would not be until her follow-up appointment with the doctor, a week later, and five days before we were to leave, that we'd know if the she was cleared for travel.
In the end, the doctor was very pleased with her progress and he pronounced her clear to fly. I was in Tokyo at the time, and she texted me at around 4:00 am their time with the good news. We had been in somewhat of suspended animation up until then, but all of sudden it seemed as though we had a lot to do in only a few days. Work was crazy for us both those last few days, and we also went down to bring Anna home with a lot of summer things she no longer needed at school. I even had my appointment for my new Invisalign braces the afternoon of the day we left, and Katherine worked a full day at work. It seemed very rushed in the end, but the hour of departure finally arrived.
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