Eye Am Doing Great

Before Crenellated Flotsam breaks again, I'd better add an entry.

Three or four days ago I got over my fears and spent more money in a single day than I have in over ten years. In return, I got a working eyeball.

People who undergo real surgeries laughed at my fears and pointed out that tons of people have "surgery" to remove cataracts and it really isn't a very painful operation. In reply, I could only point out that I wasn't even thinking about any pain. The idea of it being painful only struck me the morning of the procedure, and even then I discounted it.

For me, it was all about having things stuck in my eye. And, let the record show that the pain was no worse than having the head of a pin pressed against your eyeball. "Piece of cake," I believe, is the phrase people use to describe this sort of thing.

Even that little pressure, however, was more than enough to freak me out, but that's only because I knew why I was feeling it. Because something was being stuck in my eye.

The greatest fear I had never materialized. Although I was wide awake and couldn't close my eye, I couldn't see anything while the operation was going on. I don't know how they do it, but either the amount of fluid in my eye or some device or other prevented me from seeing the doctor while he removed my cataract and replaced it with a shiny new plastic lens. I'm more thankful for that than you can imagine.

The day following the operation I went back for a follow-up visit. The first thing they did was throw away the clear plastic eye protection I'd been wearing. I mentioned that I was bit concerned because the pupil in the eye that had been operated on was still dilated last time I'd glanced at it, about three in the morning when I was putting in more expensive eye drops. Since that was over twelve hours after the procedure, I hadn't expected it.

For the record, I still haven't examined my eye. I'm too afraid of seeing little healing cuts or something. There are some things we just don't need to know. Anyway, during my follow-up visit I learned that the vision in my repaired eye had gone from 20-400 or 20-500 when I had the cataract to 20-50 or so, a tenfold improvement. I didn't mention that I expected to have perfect vision, but I did tell them that the first and greatest thing I noticed was that everything was 20% to 25% brighter.

I mean, really, it is. When I had the cataract I'd never noticed that I couldn't see at night when all the lights were turned off in the house, but now it's fun to walk around in the middle of the night and to be able to actually see!

Today the vision in the repaired eye is nearly as good as my other one. Next week I go back for another visit, and I expect to do real well on the eye examination. It was pretty rewarding for me even the day after to be able to rattle off most of the letters, something I was unable to do when I went in for the consultation. It was pretty embarrassing to look at the screen and not even be able to tell them the largest letter. I could tell something was on the screen, sure, but had no hope of making it out.

Before the operation, my vision was like looking through a wet sheet of single-ply toilet paper or wax paper. Now, it's damn near normal. I can no longer close my good eye when watching TV or a movie to avoid seeing something distressing, and the past two days of enhanced colors that reminded me of the dying embers of an acid trip are gone, but some buyer's remorse still lingers. As wonderful as it is to see again, I'm not sure that I should have had the operation.

But I'll enjoy it while I can. The doctor predicts that I'll get another cataract in the other eye, but he also says everyone gets them. I can't imagine ever having the money to get a second operation, but it's good to know the possibility is there.