Savannah Guthrie absent from 'Today' after suffering serious eye injury and loss of vision

Savannah Guthrie called in to NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday to explain why she's been absent from the air this week: She suffered a serious eye injury after her 2-year-old son accidentally hit her with the pointed edge of a toy.

"Charley threw a toy train right at my eye and it tore my retina,'' Guthrie said over the phone. "It happened last week actually, and then I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later, and then it turned out to be kind of serious."

Doctors are concerned about damage to Guthrie's retina, and she's since undergone multiple laser treatments in an effort to seal the tear. The goal is to "avoid the retina detaching and avoid having to do major surgery," she said. "I'm not supposed to jump up and down or anything because it's kind of, like, literally hanging by a thread."

She added, "But I'm very positive because I think it's gonna be okay."

The 47-year-old said her son, who is her younger of two children, doesn't realize the severity of the incident: "He's 2, so he doesn't really know what he did, and of course I wouldn't want to make him feel bad about it."

NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar offered some further insights about Guthrie's condition, explaining that it's very important that the retina does not detach. "Right now her vision loss is ... just from this vitreous hemorrhage, not hopefully from any detachment," she said. "Hopefully that blood will reabsorb and she will regain full vision."

Guthrie said she remains optimistic that she'll be able to return to work Thursday to co-anchor the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

She even managed to crack a few puns about the situation, tweeting, "Eye’ve been out with an eye injury inflicted by energetic toddler!! But things are looking up!!"

RELATED: Hoda Kotb's Instagrams with her daughter