[...] I am recovering—very slowly—but I am recovering.—I have scarcely any recollection of the first week of my illness, though memory is gradually coming back to me somewhat. For some days I was almost completely blind. I am uncommonly weak at present, amazingly thin and hollow-eyed. As you know, I am really always in pain; nervous excitement alone can deaden it; and now that I must avoid any excitement you can imagine what I feel like! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 479