I don't recall when my parents had their cataract surgery. I don't recall how it went, if they were afraid, anxious, or really any thoughts they may have had. I don't recall what they were like afterwards. To me it was something that older people had, and I did not need to be concerned about it for many years to come. In retrospect I wish I had paid closer attention to the whole thing. In general I wish I had paid closer attention to the aging process that my parents experienced. After all my mother lived to be about 93 1/2 and my father 89 1/2. They had a lot of things to deal with, but I paid little attention. All I remember was my father saying to me, "Alan, don't get old," and my mother repeating the Bette Davis quote, "getting old is not for sissies," which I still quote a lot. I like to say, "if getting old is not for sissies, then what do sissies, like me, do?"
So as I got older, I knew things were going to happen. I actually had Melanoma at age 51. My father had skin cancer, I recall, but not Melanoma. That was my first surgery, and as I recall I was pretty scared. I still have the 8 inch long scar with clear remnants of the 15 stitches. I loved the doctor, Matthew Harris, who did the surgery at NYU Medical Center, and my Dermatologist, Alan Schecter, who still treats me. Then there was surgery to remove the kidney stone in 2011. That was the worst week of my life, and I never wish to repeat it. I have had minor dermatological procedures over the year, perhaps as many as two dozen or more.
About 4 years ago, when my vision began to deteriorate and I was told I had cataracts, I knew the time was coming soon for that surgery. Then my ophthalmologist, Dr. Gary Povill, retired and handed me off to the person who did his surgery, Dr. Roger Husted. I liked him immediately, but was still quite apprehensive about the coming procedure. Last September, when I could not even read the top line with my right eye and barely the 20-40 line with my "good" eye, the left, Dr. Husted told me I was ready for cataract surgery. Knowing I would need time for the whole thing, I scheduled it for after my teaching ended, choosing the two dates myself back last fall even before I asked the doctor's scheduler, June 14 and June 28.
Then I began the research, speaking with dozens of people who had it, and reading everything I could find on the Internet. I was assured that it was a complicated, but successful procedure in a large number of cases. Most people said, "ah, it's a piece of cake." Nonetheless I was very anxious, as I am for many things in life (including doing a TV show!). I started with the drops the Friday before and continue to this day, 72 hours after the first surgery. I drove to the surgical center, and my wife drove me home. I was sedated, as I requested (some people do not have that (for them getting older will be "sissy-free")). I was quite relaxed, but felt the doctor doing a lot of stuff and heard him speaking (his voice was reassuring). The surgery seemed to take longer than I recall reading, but I knew he was implanting a special Toric Lens to which I paid extra to correct my astigmatism. I went home, took off the patch on my right eye and immediately realized that I had gone from not being able to make out face features on people ten feet from me at the YMCA without my glasses to being able to see brilliantly with the surgical eye without glasses. The next day the doctor's assistant told me I had 20-30 vision in that eye without glasses. I still had who knows what in the left eye without glasses. I thought I would be quite cool by having my glasses adjusted so that the right lens was removed and replaced with a clear lens; it didn't work for me, so now here is my situation.
I walk around with a good right eye and a bad left left eye, but am managing. I drove yesterday very well as I am legally allowed (in NY State 20-40 in one eye). I cannot see short distance, as I was told would happen, so I wear a pair of drug store reading glasses with a patch over the bad eye, and that is what I am doing now as I write this blog. It is uncomfortable. I await my next surgery on Tuesday, June 28, still anxious, but eager to get the whole thing over with. I do not wear glasses anymore for distance. I will be going to a party tonight being seen by friends for the first time in 63 years without glasses. This interim two-week period when I can see well with one eye, and do the reading/writing thing as I indicated is hard for me, but I have no choice and the days pass. I will keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment