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Update: Eric Nadel Out With a Torn Retina

Ouch. Just got off the phone with Eric Nadel who had eye surgery this morning and is already back on his couch in Dallas. It sounds like Eric could be out of the booth for two weeks. Ouch, again. He sends this report:

I had laser surgery this morning in NY for two tears in my retina. The surgery was successful, but I will have a follow-up tomorrow in Dallas and maybe more lasering.

This all came on very suddenly. Yesterday I was seeing black dots circling my head with my right eye, then eventually the vision in my right eye got very cloudy. I broadcast most of the game from Yankee Stadium last night off the tv monitor. By the end of the game, I could barely see the ball when I looked at the field, and the players were very blurrred.
My friend Peter Lapinsky, noted eye surgeon in Baltimore, recommended that I see a retina specialist asap, and arranged for me to see on this morning at 8am in his Park Ave. office. He told me that I had two tears and recommended immediate laser surgery to prevent the retina from detaching (which is why Peter recommended getting to see someone so quickly).

The doctor zapped my right eye 698 times with the laser (his count, not mine). It hurt a little bit after a while each time he did it, and by the end (10 minutes? 15?) I was about ready to stop getting punched in the back of the eye.

He said he did everything he had hoped to do but there is still blood in the eye, which is why I still can’t see out of that eye. He arranged for me to see a colleague of his in Dallas tomorrow morning and told me to fly home and stay still.

So our traveling secretary got me on a flight this afternoon and I stumbled thru LaGuardia like Mr. Magoo until I found the gate and got on the plane. And I can see well enough out of my left eye that I am typing this on the plane, to send when I land.

I will be missing games (including one right now) for the first time since 1989….John Blake did a count, it’s over 3,100 games since my dad died and I missed a few….almost to the date, it was June 2, 1989 last time I missed one.

I don’t know how long I will be out. I am supposed to be very still and not move my head much for a week or two. Don’t know when the blood will drain from my right eye, either.

I will have to be patient, and very very grateful that we caught it in time and I was in NY where I could get recommended to a great surgeon.

I am not in any pain, just frustrated that I can’t see out of my right eye and can’t work.
That’s it for now. This too shall pass.