Sunrise and seeing

 

I love the way the tree in my sister's neighbor's yard is in silhouette against the sunrise-tinged clouds.  Photo taken Friday August 11, 2023.

Good news:  I made it through to Saturday morning, and my sister's cats survived her absence.  Ran out of tuna juice exactly on time, Saturday morning.

Sis got home safely, to be greeted by her kitties, later in the morning.

Sunday morning dawned rainy.  We still need it, although my half of the city is down to "moderate" drought, rather than the "severe" it was the week prior.  Something about the way a Summer morning rain smells takes me right back to childhood... how about you?

Surgery morning (Monday) dawned cool.  I wore long pants and a zipper sweatshirt over a t-shirt.  It was a very interesting morning, and they were right on schedule with check in and procedure.  It was like an assembly line precision, and I was awake albeit the eye was drugged to inaction.  Inside my head it was like watching an abstract movie while Dr. S. did his thing.

Afterwards they fed me a cookie and sent me on my way.  My daughter in law was my driver Monday morning, right on time to the minute.  My older sis showed up at my house just as we also arrived, and things went well.  I tried to take a little nap but I was alert and not feeling it.  The nap was like my grandmother's:  5 to 10 minutes.

Here's the eye guard they put on.  I'm the mirror image of the man they were wheeling out as they brought me up to be prepped.  He had his left eye done, I had my right one done.  

Sis cooked me oatmeal, which is my normal breakfast, and that had been delayed by the procedure.  The post-op instructions said I wasn't to cook or drive, but have a "responsible adult" to do these things for me.

Sis and I had a good family catch-up.  We watched the tail end of the last episode of Grantchester (I hadn't finished it, she didn't mind watching it again). It did everything a season finale should, from wrapping up loose ends to setting up the possibility of a next season.  I do hope there will be a next season!

We also watched Jeopardy and did old fashioned fist bumps when one or the other of us got a question right before the contestants did.  We shook our heads and mourned over the Maui wild fire news.  We talked a little bit of spirituality and metaphysics based on her Bible study experiences.

The Prisoner took his time deciding my sis was a "safe" person, but once he did, she was fully accepted to pet the excess hair off.  

My son took over the babysitting when he got off work.  He brought his take-out supper with him.  We chatted about his day, his work, the decisions he and his wife are making about life (which fit in harmoniously with what she had chatted with me in the morning).  Good kids.  Well suited to one another, and they TALK to each other and LISTEN to each other.  Speaks well for their future together.

He set up my TV with his Disney plus account and we watched an episode of The Mandalorian together.  Then I was ready to turn into a pumpkin and did my dental hygiene stuff and put myself to bed.

Observations about living with the eye guard:  makes it harder to blow my nose... kind of like having glasses frames in the way, but not able to be shoved out of the way.  Also makes it a little harder to brush the teeth, as it restricts the movement of the cheek, just a tad.  I was VERY careful changing to my PJ's and again when I got up in the morning.  Then of course there is the whole sleep position thing.

The Prisoner wouldn't come in for me at bedtime, but sometime in the night, he allowed my son to let him in, and proceeded to go meow at him where son was sleeping.

My saint of a son got up in time to deliver me to the eye doctor, where they removed my eye shield.  OMG!  No reprogramming needed.  It's like the world is bright and shiny again.  I could also see all the dirty/dusty bits when I got home.  The spots on the windows, the cat hair everywhere... "is seeing better such a good thing?" asks my lazy/hazy visioned past.

But seriously, my bad eye instantaneously became my good eye and vice versa.  Dr. S. measured my eye pressure, pronounced that the eye looked good, and I'm already scheduled with Dr. J to adjust my glasses prescription in a week.

The shield was sent home with me, along with some tape to use to put it on for overnight for the next week until  I see Dr. J.  We stopped at the HyVee and bought some artificial tears "just in case" it starts to bother me.  Major instruction is the same as others have reported:  don't rub it!

I look a little like I have a black eye, but trying out wearing my old glasses, I see better than I did with the cataract, so I'm sure I'll be able to manage driving to that appointment.

I thought that I had good color vision.  I still think I did, in terms of identifying different subtle shads... BUT, once this surgery was done, it is as though a bright light has been shined on those colors.  I kept saying "Wow.  Oh, wow!  Look at my shoes... they are so shiny!"  "Look at that painting / print on the wall... it's like, three dimensional!"

So, anybody who's been dragging their feet on this one, I'll tell you the same thing that those of you who went before me said:  nothing to fear, and Oh, So, Worth, It!

Another vote to "go for it"!

And Life is Good!  Spark on!