Sometimes Old Is Better
By Randy Rawls
I'm writing this with one eye covered by a patch and a shield. And I'm happy about it. Nuts? Probably, but not because of this.
It goes back about eight weeks. That was the day I took the plunge and had cataract surgery on my right eye—my reading eye. It wasn't an easy decision to make since my vision is my most priceless commodity. Just the thought of losing it terrifies me.
My vision began to tank in my early forties. I went from no glasses to reading glasses to bifocals in four years. Yeah, I was scared and provided my optometrist with a good laugh when I asked if I was going blind. He was patient and explained my problem. Vision would continue to collapse until it leveled off. I wasn't happy about it, but not much to do but accept it. As he predicted, it did level out after several years and several sets of progressive lenses. That didn't mean I liked wearing glasses, though. I felt like I was watching the world through a window, a border around everything I saw. Then I met contact lenses and spent many years happy to insert them in the morning and take them out at night.
Alas, that comfort zone began to collapse when my ophthalmologist started talking cataracts. They weren't bad yet, but . . . At first, the fear of blindness returned, then stubbornness. My contacts are fine, I told myself. I can handle it. But, as I talked to many who had undergone cataract surgery, I discovered that a return to 20-20 vision was not only possible, but probable. So, I swallowed hard and raised the issue of surgery with my doctor. He assured me I was an excellent candidate for resounding success.
In early October, he did the right eye—my reading eye. BANG! It went from a plus 6.50 contact to 20-20, no correction needed, overnight.
Today, I had surgery on my left eye. Tomorrow, they take off the patch and shield, and I find out the results. I'm expecting perfect far vision.
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