Cataract Examination Postponed
The eye surgeon, Dr. S., postponed the appointment I had for him to examine my eyes yesterday for the cataract situation, and now that won't take place for several weeks, because in a couple of days my wife is leaving for Florida to check on her very aged stepfather, and she intends to stay there for about two weeks. Her presence is necessary, because for both the examination and for the operation I would have to have somebody there with me.
Meanwhile yesterday, as I predicted, M., the gracious Southern belle who lives over on the Northern Neck, returned my call, and she gave me an even more complete rundown on how the operation went with her, four or five years ago, and with which she is extremely happy.
Her situation had been worse than mine, because while my eyesight only began to deteriorate seven or eight years ago, she, in her words, "hadn't been able to see across a room" for as long as she could remember, and she had always had to wear glasses or contacts. But now it's amazing to her how the operation gave her the ability to see things as clear as can be, except only that, because the new lens can't correct for everything, she chose distance vision, while for reading she still uses dollar store reading glasses, but only of the lowest strength. Meanwhile she spoke of how even the colors improved and became much more vivid -- an effect that especially interests me, though I wouldn't expect it to be as marked in my case, because colors are already vivid enough to me.
In fact, despite having had my spirits greatly lifted by talking with M., I am starting to waver about having this operation right now, and I've been wondering if I wasn't over-reacting when I went to the eye doctor a few days ago. I'm wondering if that business about not being able to read the road signs wasn't purely psychological, born out of not having been out on the main roads for several weeks previously. When a person does that for weeks at a time, as I do, the outside world always looks like a very strange and dangerous place when you finally venture back out into it, and being genuinely old doesn't help.
In all my day to day activities, my vision isn't a big problem. I can see everything that I need to see without glasses, though that could be a delusion, and it's true that I haven't read any books for several weeks now because of the newly oppressive small size of their print, and I really couldn't read the road signs.
Right now I don't know what I'm going to do when my wife and the doctor return, though because I've been talking and thinking about the op so much, I'll probably go through with it, especially if it turns out that, as my wife has heard is the case with contacts, with this cataract operation I could have a close-up lens put in one eye and a distance one in the other. M. didn't say anything about that. And also there's the strong curiosity that I always have about how things will go. It's going to be interesting to hear what the doctor will find to say.
Meanwhile yesterday, as I predicted, M., the gracious Southern belle who lives over on the Northern Neck, returned my call, and she gave me an even more complete rundown on how the operation went with her, four or five years ago, and with which she is extremely happy.
Her situation had been worse than mine, because while my eyesight only began to deteriorate seven or eight years ago, she, in her words, "hadn't been able to see across a room" for as long as she could remember, and she had always had to wear glasses or contacts. But now it's amazing to her how the operation gave her the ability to see things as clear as can be, except only that, because the new lens can't correct for everything, she chose distance vision, while for reading she still uses dollar store reading glasses, but only of the lowest strength. Meanwhile she spoke of how even the colors improved and became much more vivid -- an effect that especially interests me, though I wouldn't expect it to be as marked in my case, because colors are already vivid enough to me.
In fact, despite having had my spirits greatly lifted by talking with M., I am starting to waver about having this operation right now, and I've been wondering if I wasn't over-reacting when I went to the eye doctor a few days ago. I'm wondering if that business about not being able to read the road signs wasn't purely psychological, born out of not having been out on the main roads for several weeks previously. When a person does that for weeks at a time, as I do, the outside world always looks like a very strange and dangerous place when you finally venture back out into it, and being genuinely old doesn't help.
In all my day to day activities, my vision isn't a big problem. I can see everything that I need to see without glasses, though that could be a delusion, and it's true that I haven't read any books for several weeks now because of the newly oppressive small size of their print, and I really couldn't read the road signs.
Right now I don't know what I'm going to do when my wife and the doctor return, though because I've been talking and thinking about the op so much, I'll probably go through with it, especially if it turns out that, as my wife has heard is the case with contacts, with this cataract operation I could have a close-up lens put in one eye and a distance one in the other. M. didn't say anything about that. And also there's the strong curiosity that I always have about how things will go. It's going to be interesting to hear what the doctor will find to say.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 7:55 AM
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