No more Contacts!

Ever since I was nine years old I have had annual eye exams to see how much my eyes have changed. Three or so years ago I was told that I had a slow growing cataract on my right eye. I've noticed since about the first of the year that my vision has been a little blurry. The last three months have especially been bad. I knew I had an appointment for an eye exam the end of July so I just waited until then. It was postponed until the 3rd of August since the doctor was going to be out of his office. Last Thursday I found out that the cataract in my right eye has really blossomed and that my vision in my right eye, which has always been better than my left, is actually worse. I went to see Dr. Aaron Affleck yesterday. He said that both eyes are eligble for cataract surgery. They do them a week apart. And with my bad eyes -9.25 in my left eye and a -7.25 in my right eye that it is greatly to my advantage to have both eyes done. That way I can have close to 20/20 vision when they are thro' with me. They will replace my natural lenses with a man-made lens that has power enough to get my vision up to 20/20. I won't have to wear a patch at all or have stitches in my eyes. He will make a 3mm slit in the lens cover of each eye and break up my natural lens and vacuum it out with an ultra sound machine. Then he will fold a flexible tiny lens and slip it into the slit and the cover will hold it in place. The lens has a fine little hook on each side that helps hold it in place. He said that my vision will be blurry the first day but when I wake up the next morning I should be able to see just fine without glasses or contacts. I will have to wear glasses for reading and close hand work etc. but hey, I'm almost 63 years old and I've been very blessed that I haven't had to been doing that for 20 years already. Some people would have. He said that the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes is all and they have it set up in the waiting room so Karl will be able to watch the whole procedure there. Then he turned to me and said I'd be able to watch when he did Karl's eyes when the time came. Boy, technology has come such a long way in less than 30 years. When I graduated from nursing school in 1975, the patient had to sleep with sand bags on both sides of his head and keep the bed at a 45 degree angle, wear a patch for at least two weeks and have coke-bottle thick eye glasses which the patient could only distinguish light and dark without them. With eyes as bad as mine, it is actually advantageous to have cataracts. Interesting, huh?

My surgery will be: Right eye August 16th, left eye August 23rd. It won't slow my life down much at all. I may have to miss my Thursday walk class both weeks but that's about it.