Here's a Lens in Your Eye

I’m afraid I was a Swiss Cheese Head again; I was supposed to check that Friday was okay for my cataract surgery and I totally forgot. So when I went in on Wed. for my pre-op appt., I was caught off guard. Fortunately they went ahead and put me on the surgery schedule, so I have now had the cataract on my left eye removed.

What I hadn’t expected is that part of the surgery is putting an artificial lens into my eye. I have a little card now that describes the lens strength, etc., so weird! I had thought that a cataract was a separate piece over my eye, like a blister, but from what I now understand, it lays right on the eye so they must remove the natural lens, which must then be replaced for proper vision. They actually tape your eyelashes back and put a plastic tube over the eye so that you can’t close it. I had to stare up into a very bright light, but as Dr. Prestera had said, the work was so close up that I couldn’t see any details of what was going on. The exception was that when he laid the new lens on my eye, it changed the clarity of what I could see a tiny bit. The other thing was that since I was NPO, I was somewhat dehydrated and they couldn’t get a vein for an IV, so I had to endure the surgery sans anesthetic. They didn’t plan to put me to completely sleep, but it would have helped me relax somewhat…afterwards my BP was a little high! It was all a bit off-putting, but now that it’s done I don’t feel anything different, except that my eye throbs occasionally. Now I know what to expect for the right eye. To protect my eye they taped a clear shield over it. When Don saw me, he began teasing me that I was a Borg, a la Star Trek! I guess it would make for a great Halloween costume, with a bit of Randy’s makeup magic. ;p