As we get older, things start to fail, or at least slow us down. Notice I said “get older” as opposed to “old.” Older sounds more respectful. The word “old” usually has a negative connotation. “That old lady is holding up the line.” “That old man shouldn’t be in the fast lane.” “Get rid of those old clothes. No one wears that anymore.” Some of us age more gracefully with aches and pains that are tolerable, others suffer years of pain as their body rebels against them. I’ve been lucky. One thing that seems to go wrong for just about everyone is our eye sight. It seems every older person wears glasses, progressives, bifocals, or readers. We’re all wearing something. I started wearing glasses when I was in my thirties. They were not very strong. For years, everything was clear. Then they weren’t.
Driving at night became a challenge. Those on coming headlights would look like star bursts. I couldn’t read the smaller print on the TV screen. Forget it when a character in a show was reading a text on their phone. It was time for a visit to the eye doctor. The first doctor told me to put my chin on the cup like holder and my forehead against the strip above it. Then she pushes that instrument with the blue light right to the edge of your eye. It’s hard not to flinch. She tells me my cataracts are at stage two. Four is the worst. She sends me to the surgeon, Dr. Martinez. She is just over five tall and wears what look running shoes and, of course, the white coat. She is a fast talker with an engaging Spanish accent. She’s very thorough and open to questions. She says come back in six months, you’re not quite ready for surgery. Apparently you have to get to a three before the insurance companies determine you’re blind enough to get them to pay for the surgery.
Six months later, I’m still not quite a three, but Dr. Martinez asks if the cataracts are effecting my life style. Of course, I say yes. She says that’s good enough. She’s going in. There’s paper work and eye drops. I mean a lot of eye drops leading up to the surgery, and for weeks after. I was anxious and did whine about all the drops. But people I spoke to who had the surgery said it’s no big deal and they didn’t have to wear glasses anymore. They were happy they did it.
The surgery is done outpatient at a surgery center. I’ve had a couple of hernia surgeries. The thought of being unconscious while strangers are using sharp instruments in a sensitive area was always concerning to me. Now, Dr. Martinez was somehow going to go into my eyes, remove the cataracts and replace them with new lens, and, by the way, there are stitches involved. Fortunately they don’t have to be removed. The surgeries were one month apart. Each time Dr. Martinez came to the cubical where they were prepping me. She bent down with her surgical mask and cap on and reassured me everything would be alright. She did say if I wake up during the surgery, just raise my hand and don’t try to speak. This was after the anesthesiologist told me don’t worry if you wake up, you won’t see the instruments. They operate from the side and below the eye. They put the IV in and put a wam blanket over me and all worries melted away. The surgery only takes a few minutes. I woke up with new eyes.
I went back the next day for a follow-up with Dr. Martinez. She told me I now had twenty-twenty vision in both eyes. She reminded me again of the things to avoid in the first week. Wear a plastic patch at night, Don’t bend down. Don’t lift anything heavier than five pounds. Don’t get water in the eye, and don’t jump up and down which she then demonstrated for me. I thanked her and told her the staff was great and shook her hand. She said she’d tell them and darted out of the room to the next patient. I told the technician as we walked out the room, “She’s a real firecracker.” She laughed and agreed.
People have much more serious health issues to deal with than I ever have. But I came to a greater appreciation of something we take for granted. Our eyes are our window to the world and our soul. Through our eyes we can see light and darkness, and most importantly, each other.
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