Woke up this morning almost pain-free, and able to see out of my right eye almost as well as I could this time yesterday. Yesterday evening was a long one: The pain got pretty bad, my eye watered constantly, it was quite unpleasant. But now it just sort of feels like I’ve got some sand in my eye.
I’ve got a follow-up in two weeks, which is already paid for. Then I stand pat for about two months, still taking the eye drops. By then the ophthalmologist should know if the laser treatment did any good. If it did, he’ll want to schedule cataract surgery on that eye. If it didn’t, apparently things get complicated. There’s surgery for glaucoma, but his opinion seemed to be that I didn’t want to know the details and if his hint about boring actual holes in actual eyeballs is accurate he’s right about that.
Your contributions to Joel’s Eye Fund have made all things possible to this point, for which I’m eternally grateful, and I’m covered for meds and such until the next round, which involves actual surgery. Cataract surgery at some point is not negotiable if I want to not go blind. Whether it will be surgery for cataracts AND glaucoma, remains to be seen.
Of course all this is just for the right eye. The left, I’m told, is responding well to the glaucoma meds. Eventually the cataract in that eye will get just as bad as the right but it’s not urgent now. It’s kind of embarrassing just how bad I let my right eye vision got before I took any action at all. It happened so gradually. And I noticed yesterday, when I was completely blind on the right for a while, that my brain just seemed to edit out that bad information. I had to close my left eye for it become apparent that I couldn’t see anything out of my right. I couldn’t even detect movement, unless it passed directly in front of my face and blocked the light. But it really didn’t impede me. The pain did, but the loss of vision didn’t.
It was an interesting experience. A fellow really can get by on one eye if he has to. For the first hour or so, though, my depth perception was comically bad: You hear about that, but actually experiencing it is quite disconcerting. I kept reaching out for things, and my hand would close on nothing. I’m glad we’re not an arboreal species, or I’d have been tiger bait.
Pro-tip from someone who has never had depth perception: Don’t play catch or attempt parallel parking until you regain binocular vision. Don’t ask how I know. Hang in there, the cataract procedure is a piece of cake and the drugs are good, too.
“I’m glad we’re not an arboreal species, or I’d have been tiger bait.”
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Uhm … not to be argumentative here Uncle Joel but wouldn’t that be tiger snacks?
ducks and runs for his cave …