PHOTOSSavannah Guthrie Says She's Having A Difficult Recovery After Eye Injury
Savannah Guthrie has been in recovery ever since her son Charley hit her in the eye with his toy train last month. At first, the Today show anchor hoped she could avoid retinal surgery, however, she ultimately decided to do it and recently detailed her painful and difficult recovery process.
Following retinal surgery, patients are required to lie facedown for one to three weeks after the procedure. Savannah, 47, continued to host her NBC morning show while traveling to doctors to undergo laser surgery. Laser surgery would have been a way to reattach her retina less invasively.
The laser treatments proved to be unsuccessful and doctors ultimately decided the Australian-born journalist would need the full retinal surgery on her right eye. On December 11, the night before her scheduled surgery was to take place, her vision went dark.
She explained to People, “The retinal tear had deteriorated sharply, and I lost my vision. And that’s what happens if you don’t fix this: You lose your sight.”
“That was the first time I felt freaked out,” she added. “I was hoping that they weren’t going to get in there and see, ‘Oh, it’s worse than we thought. We can’t fix it.’ That was probably the lowest I felt, because I was just really scared.”
The surgery was successful and Savannah said her eye is looking “solid.” The recovery, however, has been grueling. She confessed she had to switch off between lying facedown and sitting up each hour. “It’s uniquely challenging, this recovery,” she said. “Your body starts hurting in different places, lying down like that.”
“If this eye looks anything like it does right now, I would not do that to America,” she quipped. “It’s pretty ghastly. I look like a prizefighter…who lost.”
In late November, Savannah revealed on Today that Charley tore her retina with his toy train after its sharp point whacked her in her face. She admitted on the show that her son doesn't fully comprehend what happened. “He’s 2, so he doesn’t even know what he did,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to make him feel bad for it. He hears me talking about it and he has no idea. I was FaceTiming with my mom to tell her and he came running in and said, ‘I did it!'”
