Savannah Guthrie planning ‘Today’ return following eye surgery: ‘I don’t have my vision back yet’

A week after Savannah Guthrie underwent eye surgery for a “massive tear” in her retina caused by her 3-year-old son’s toy train, the “Today” show host is resting at home and planning her return to work.

Guthrie called in to the show Wednesday morning and told co-hosts Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Al Roker she saw her ophthalmologist, Dr. Donald D’Amico, Tuesday, who gave her a “good report and said everything is just as it should be.”

“I don’t have my vision back yet, but I’m going to get it back and everything is on track,” Guthrie added.

Guthrie has been in and out of the “Today” show since November, after her son, Charley, accidentally threw a toy train at her eye.

Last week, “Today” shared a sweet picture of Charley consoling her while she rested at home face-down on a cushion post-surgery. Guthrie says she expects to only have to lay face-down for another day or two. In the meantime, she’s resting, watching Netflix, organizing drawers and getting a few massages.

“I didn’t have a spiritual breakthrough like I thought I would,” she joked. “But it’s been kind of nice to be at home. The hardest thing about it is sitting still, having your head down — you kind of get a back and a neck-ache. I can’t say it was easy, I don’t want to undersell it. But it’s manageable and I’m so grateful because it’s all going to be OK.”

“Savannah, why don’t you just go ahead and get an eye patch on and get in here?,” Kotb joked, adding she and her fellow co-hosts miss Guthrie “like crazy.”

D’Amico joined the hosts in the studio to explain the next steps for Guthrie and the intricacies of operating on a torn retina. The good news: Her tear was on the side of her retina rather than the center, which allowed Guthrie a much better chance of her vision returning.

“The retina lines the back of the eye like wallpaper or the Teflon in a frying pan,” D’Amico explained. “She actually, from the contusion of the toy, had a very big tear in the retina. And when the retina’s torn, it begins to fall off and separate from the back of the eye and you lose vision.”

How long until viewers can expect to see Guthrie back on “Today”? It’ll be about another week until the doctor will be able to tell if Guthrie’s eye can hold the retina on its own. Guthrie added she had hoped to return at the end of the week, but thinks “it’ll probably be after the holidays.

“The truth is I still can’t see out of that right eye,” she said. ”And also it looks a little weird: When the surgery was first done, I looked like I got punched in the face — of course, I didn’t. But it was very swollen. Now it looks pretty normal, but I just can’t see.”

Read more at usatoday.com.