After emergency eye surgery for 2012 combat injury, Crenshaw 'not out of the woods yet'

After recent emergency eye surgery, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Houston) said the operation “went very well,” but he can still see only lights and shadows.

"Last week, I had my first follow-up visit with my surgeon, which went very well,” Crenshaw said in a statement. “To our relief, my retina was still in place during my follow-up appointment. I can lift my head up again and no longer have to position myself face-down, which is a relief. This is obviously good news, but it doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet."

Crenshaw was serving as a U.S. Navy SEAL in Afghanistan in 2012 when he lost his right eye from an improvised explosive device. The blast also damaged his left eye.

The congressman said he recently noticed “some dark, blurry spots in my vision,” and doctors discovered that his left retina was detaching.

“This is a terrifying prognosis for someone with one eye,” he said in a statement. “Anyone who knows the history of my injuries knows I don’t have a ‘good eye’  but half a good eye.”

He said he is still in the early stages of recovery from the surgery.

“I am not sure how my vision will be in a few weeks, but I am hopeful and confident that it will return to normal,” he wrote.

Doctors at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston placed a "silicon buckle" around his retina, and with a laser "glued" the edges of his retina.

They injected a gas bubble into his eye to serve as a bandage and keep the retina from detaching further.

“That is why I cannot see anything right now and won’t be able to see for the next few weeks until the gas bubble dissipates,” the congressman wrote.

He thanked supporters for their prayers.

"We've been through harder times before and we are going to get through this," he wrote.