I Can See

I guess my poor eyesight is genetic, although neither one of my parents suffered from being nearsighted.  No glasses for them.  My siblings escaped it.  Just me, the lucky one.  I hated those eye charts, feeling like a failure unable to pass that test.  My desk kept moving closer to the chalkboard.

I’m sure the doctor related that information to my parents but a tight budget left little room for eyeglasses.  Finally, the school called and that did the trick.  Got my first pair at 10 years old.  Remember those cat eye glasses?  Mine were two-toned blue and green…matched our Chevrolet.  Now they’re considered ‘vintage’ or ‘retro’ and loved by celebrities…really.

What a revelation when I first put them on.  I could see!  I saw the formations in the clouds.  I saw dairy cows from hundreds of yards away.  I could sit in the back of the classroom…which didn’t last long as I was a talker and got into trouble.  Thus, started my love-hate relationship with my spectacles.

I tried contacts in high school but that was way before soft lenses.  Yes, I got rid of the glasses, but I was constantly tearing up and my eyes were chronically bloodshot.  Most of the time, I felt like I had a knife in my eye.  Not attractive.

The next decade or so, the first thing I reached for in the morning were my glasses.  Eventually, I got very thin soft lenses that worked for about 25 years.  And then they didn’t.  Why?  Because I did not listen to my doctor.  Yes, I knew I had chronic dry eye.  My eyes do not manufacture enough tears.  I was told to take them off as soon as I got home from work.  I didn’t.  Eventually, it became too painful to wear them.

I investigated Lasik surgery.  Not a good candidate.  “You’re going to have to wait until you need cataract surgery.”  Well, that was about ten years ago and…. voila!… it’s here.

It came on slowly…halos around oncoming car lights at night….slight blurriness when I was reading.  I’d always had perfect up close vision.  Last summer, my ophthalmologist told me it was time.  I wanted to jump for joy!  Yes!  I can finally get rid of those pesky glasses.

My mother had just had hers done the year before and she just raved about her sight.  She could now get her driver’s license renewed….she’s 90.  And she is still a pretty good driver.  She also claims she’s never had an ache in her life.  A slight exaggeration to be sure.

Not so fast, my doctor cautions.  You have nodules on both of your corneas that will have to ‘scraped’ off before we can consider cataract surgery.  Evidently, this surgery is a lot more painful and has a longer recovery period than cataract surgery.  Great….but the timing is no good, butting up against my son’s wedding.

I elect to wait until we return to Florida to go to the renowned St. Luke’s Eye Institute that my family absolutely swears by.  My heavens, these are my eyes!  It’s not like getting a bad haircut that can grow back in a month.  My eyes are so bad, I’m horrified by the prospect of a botched job.

And, so I went to the experts.  Three hours of exams and the cataract specialist tells me I’m a special and complex case….my eyes are bumpy, not concave like they’re supposed to be.  I looked at the computer drawing and was horrified.  Significant astigmatism.  Not sure if we can give you good vision.  Yes, we can improve it but you may have to continue wearing glasses.
NOOOO!  Not what I wanted to hear.  Next step?  The cornea specialist.

Who totally confirms he has to scrape nodules off both my eyes.  That sounds daunting as does the warning that I’ll feel like I have a brick in my eyes for three days.  But, the hell with it.  I’m plodding my way through this.  They put numbing drops in my eyes and sure enough, he scrapes the nodules off both eyes, a week apart.

The first day was awful, the second day much better, the third day…no problem at all.  However, I will say that Nyquil was a dear friend during this period.

Last week, the cataract specialist looked again at my new results and was downright giddy!  “Wow, you have great options now.”  I tell him I want long distance vision in one eye and near vision in the other, so this week I’m wearing contact lenses to see how I’ll adjust.

He put them in and after two minutes, I told him I’m ready.  Whoa….not so fast.  He insists I try it for a week.  OMG!  This is a whole new world for me.  I can see when I get up in the morning.  I see the sky at night when we’re soaking in the hot tub.  I can see the TV and movies.

Hopefully, by the end of the month, I’ll have new eyes.  I am SO EXCITED!!!  A dream come true.