The gift of sight

Eyesight is a valuable gift. We see and hear from the time we are born and take it for granted.

At least I did until I read about Helen Keller. Helen Keller was rendered blind and deaf in early childhood by meningitis, but with the help of tutor Anne Sullivan, went on to become one of the most respected women in the although, as a child, effectively she could not communicate at all. This helped me “see” how important vision and hearing are.

As a child I had excellent eyesight and no one in my family evrer needed specs.

This continued to be so until early adulthood, when as a Junior computer operator, I started to suffer with headaches.

 1964.

The music of the time was

The Dave Clark Five ”Glad All Over” and Bits And Pieces”
The Four Seasons ”Save It For Me” And ”Big Man In Town”
The Beach Boys had ”Fun, Fun, Fun”
The Searchers had “Needles And Pins”,”Don't Throw Your Love Away”,”When You Walk In the Room” and ”Love Portion Number Nine”

And Beatles were really hot with 'I Want To Hold Your Hand” amonst other tunes.

Astigmatism

I had an eye test. I had astigmatism. I needed hank B Marvin (Shadows – Dance on) glasses. They were horn rimmed heavy and green tinted. I hated them. They hurt my nose and got in the way. They made me look nerdy and reduced my opportunity window with the chicks. Glasses were not cool! I hated them (er I said that already.).

Now we did not have Google but I went a library and read about astigmatism and found out that “eye exercises” could go some way to relieving this problem. I got some books with small print and read these without specs, in poor light, forcing my eyes to focus. Welll after a few weeks I no longer need the specs and threw them away. A year later I had my eyes tested, my eyes were perfect and so I forgot about the glasses.

Fast Forward to 2007.

The top 5 radio plays are:

1. Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry

2. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls

3. Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah

4. Elliott Yamin - Wait for You

5. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - Umbrella

The Cataract

Over the years my arms are getting shorter as I no longer have the reach to read without specs. I use readers from time to time in poor light or when text is in red or on a red background. I need to have my eyes tested. Guess what! I have a cataract in my right eye. And a budding one on my left.

According to Wikipedia A cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light. Early in the development of age-related cataract the power of the lens may be increased, causing near-sightedness (myopia), and the gradual yellowing and opacification of the lens may reduce the perception of blue colours. Cataracts typically progress slowly to cause vision loss and are potentially blinding if untreated. The condition usually affects both the eyes, but almost always one eye is affected earlier than the other Apparently in the old days you had to wait until the cataracts became “ripe”. That is you had to be nearly blind before these could be removed. But now apparently not. They can ber operated on and a glass lens inserted straight away. So I booked the surgery. One eye only for now.

Prior to the operation I had to have various tests at the Eye Institute. By the way the eye hospital is like a battlefield with people wandering about with Eye patches and head bandages. Quite scarey actually.!

The Operation

In any event ,the day of the operation drew nigh and I went in. First surprise, I had a local anesthetic! An injection around the eye and one into the eye! So far painless. Perhaps I should digress at this point and say that when I go to the dentist I refuse the injection because I can't stand the numbness and drooling and I hate that feeling! Well my eye area felt exactly the same. The operation was done with my eye open and it was a strange experience.

An hour or so later after having a patch put on my eye (Aargh Pete the Pirate Aargh) and being given a kit with drops and eye care instructions (no water in the eye from showering,no bumping, jolting or sneezing, no Gym for about a week)In addition I was told to return on the following day for a check up. I find using one eye a challenge. I bump into walls and pour coffee past my cup. So I reckon people losing sight in one eye have to relearn visual acuity. More appreciation for eyesight

The Aftermath

Next day the patch is removed and I am told no driving for 48 hours. Wait 3 weeks and get my eyes test for new specs. Initially I could see very well with no specs required but as the lens settled I needed specs. But as a result,I find that the astigmatism which had been cured by eye exercise is back. So now I need multifocals . I only needed reading glasses originally but since the cataract operation my vision is actually worse in that eye. Because of the glass lens I am not a candidate for corrective surgery, but I can have the lens removed and replaced with a corrective lens but I don't want to go down that route. I am now about to try contacts for the first time. So we will see. my long vision is perfect.

Using contacts at my age is not easy. Getting them in is easy but adjusting ids something else. My reading vision is perfect but now my long vision is a problem. However let's be patient , time will tell.

Good news for now is that I don't have to worry about the cataract on my left eye just yet!