Man. It always takes all day. Chickens must have knocked their water over the minute I left, because they acted like they were dying.
Okay, back from the ophthalmologist (Hey! I spelled it right that time!) and he and the clear-eyed young assistant did a whole bunch of tests on Uncle Joel’s eyes. The results:
Bad news: I do indeed have glaucoma. It is indeed severe.
Good news: It’s sort of responding to the eye drops prescribed by the optometrist.
Bad news: That cloudy spot in the middle of my right eye’s vision, that has messed up my hopes of ever becoming a world-renowned open-sight rifle champion? That’s not glaucoma. That’s one of my budding young cataracts.
Good news: Cataracts, unlike glaucoma, can be fixed. From the doctor’s casual reaction, I gather it’s considered minor outpatient surgery.
Bad news: I still don’t know how much that costs.
Good news: It’s just barely possible Medicaid might cover that, since it’s a surgical matter and not optometric.
So a mixed report. He put me on a different bunch of meds, and (unlike the optometrist, who freaked out) seems to think my condition is still effectively treatable.
Oh, by the way: I take back the worst of the bad things I said about Zenni Optical. I didn’t send those glasses back right away, because one of my older neighbor said she thought possibly that lens was supposed to be that way but she couldn’t remember why. So I showed them to the ophthalmologist (dammit, screwed it up again), and he said, (paraphrased) “yeah, actually that usually costs extra.” It seems the prescription for my right lens has become so extreme there’s pretty much no choice but to grind the outer part flat, because otherwise the edge would be six inches thick. So they’re not bad glasses. They’re just really old guy glasses. Which made me feel better about the specs, but it didn’t do much for my outlook on life. :^(
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the report and I’m so pleased that it sounds like much more good news than bad news.
Not to brush you aside too quickly, and not to be crass and nosy, but did the eye guy leave enough wallet for Click to see the vet? Is it orange button time? Sorry. Had to ask.
Yes, CH. Click’s going to the vet ASAP, whether she likes it or not. That money’s in the bank.
But I’m afraid it might be orange button time for some time to come. From the moment the “S”(urgery) word was used, things started getting expensive around here.
Good news: It’s just barely possible Medicaid might cover that, since it’s a surgical matter and not optometric.
They should.
I gather it’s considered minor outpatient surgery.
Yes, but it needs to be taken seriously. The wife’s eyes were so bad that she wore contacts and glasses. Had/needed Cataract surgery. Now she only needs glasses for real close up. It’s pretty freaky that they can bust up your natural lens, suck it out, and then insert a new one.
F42
Just a Heads up:
For the last couple of weeks (perhaps since the format change) I have needed to load your page twice to see the latest updates. I use Firefox 18.0.1, in case that matters.
Doesn’t seem to matter how I get to your page – my bookmark, or via gunbloggers.com link to your home page (as opposed to an individual post)
Links to individual posts work fine.
Computers are screwy.
Medicare covers cataract surgery so Medicaid likely does. My Mom had them done last year. Outpatient surgery, required a follow up appointment the next a.m. Recovery required clean, smoke and dust free atmosphere. Eye drops cost abo 60 bucks, not covered by Medicare.
Had cataract surgery on both eyes. I was knocked out for the first one as the cataract was a minor part of some major surgery. I was wide-frickin’ awake for the second one. The view of the instrument cutting out my lens was… interesting. Joel, without a doubt, go for the ocular implant as clear vision is much better than cloudy and you can brag about going under the knife while awake.
I was unable to get Lasik for my eyes due to my extreme wussiness, but one doctor suggested a procedure called interocular phakik lenses. Basically it’s cataract surgery without removing your natural lens (they just slide the artificial lens on top of the natural one).
I was awake for both procedures (they couldn’t do them both on the same day since you have to wear an eyepatch for 24 hours IIRC), it was pain-free, and I was in and out within a couple hours. The cost was $3K per eye. This was about 6 years ago, so price may have gone up a little. Hope this helps!
Good news,at least the part about them being able to fix some of it.I would have them do whatever they can.The part about “old guy glasses”-whatevr they say about old guys,at least they’re not callin us dead guys.
Bill
Good news indeed. 🙂
Before my cataract surgery – ordinary kind with implant lenses – my uncorrected vision was 20/200 left, and 20/400 right… legally blind (and had been since birth). After surgery, both eyes are now 20/15 – and I only need glasses for close work since the artificial lenses do not adjust like the natural ones do. I went from nearly blind to actually far sighted. Amazing.
Yours will undoubtedly be complicated some by the glaucoma, but I suspect you will see a lot better in any case. Just don’t let them make you wait too long for the surgery. The old idea of needing to let them “mature” is pure bullpucky.
Joel, before I had my cataract surgery they said that one side-effect might be elimination of the glaucoma, and they were right.