It's official, I have joined the sorority that so many of my friends have become a part of. Yes, I have had cataract surgery on both eyes. Just like everyone else, I went through the steps and became a full fledge member on Thursday. I'm in that new member period learning the ins and outs of eyedrops, marking and keeping that schedule, when to wear an eye patch and of course made that financial commitment. Went through all the commitment meetings for choosing a lens and the duties and values associated with all things cataract related. It helped that I had a legacy recommendation for this particular practice. Another part of the process was ordering the eye drops in the recommended time. Passed with flying colors.
For the actual procedure they needed to see if I would follow directions. Got a pre-surgery eye drop schedule, then instructed to wear very specific clothing for that all important meeting, button down or V neck shirt. I was asked the same questions multiple times, proving I was of sound mind and knew what I was doing. For both procedures I wore the sorority "dress" of an open to the back hospital gown. I initialed here, here and here...I signed where the yellow highlights marked signature. All this for the all important second eye procedure complete with follow up early Friday morning. I'll have another appointment next Friday and then another one a month from then to get the final results and prescription if needed.
Left eye first and the multicolor marshmallows during replacement. The color orange the dominant color and thankful it was more like a TN Volunteer orange than the burnt orange of the University of Texas. The right eye seemed to have smaller marshmallows and blue tones of color. Left eye took longer to wake up so to speak, so it wasn't until the Monday after surgery that I was able to see clearly. My right eye improved right away but was more painful for the rest of the day. Seems that it is the usual experience for most, one eye will hurt more than the other.
Of course I had expected some type of hazing for this sorority and I believe it came in the form of the prep nurse for the procedure. She clearly wasn't happy to be preparing an "elderly" lady for cataract surgery. She was clearly put out about that. After two attempts to find a vein that didn't blow, she got another nurse who got the stick on the first try.
Maybe the hazing was having Roy drive me at 6:00am to the surgery center across from the airport. Roy has assured me he drives better in the truck because he can see better....hmmmm. I am not prone to car sickness but Thursday morning if I had eaten anything, it would have not stayed with me. My blood pressure was higher than normal when the disgruntled nurse did my BP. After the procedure, before leaving, my BP was back to normal. So, I guess I would choose surgery over riding with Roy to keep my BP low. Now on Friday, the ride to the dr office was smoother, less jumpy and I would have to say we had a little more sunrise light. I never once had to grab onto the handle above the door to steady myself to prepare for collision. Reminded me of my crazy friend Debbie. Back in the day I was a rather wild driver. She would reach into her purse, pull out a New Testament and hold it out flat in front of her, arm length. I asked, what are you doing? Her response, well, we are going to be in the backseat of the car in front of us soon enough, I might as well share the gospel with them.
Oh, I haven't told you the name of my sorority- Alpha Beta Zeta. Now if this a real sorority as in Greek Life, this is not associated with them. My chapter is all in my head. So, this means, hearing, seeing, living. This year brought hearing aids. I welcome wearing them cause I can hear now and conversations don't sound like mumbo jumbo. I also haven't accidently committed to a time share or a lucrative business done on my own time. Now, adding seeing to the equation, is such a blessing. When I turned forty, it seemed like the next day, I needed reading glasses. Then reading glasses morphed into bifocals. Progressive lenses, the next step and each year having to have a stronger prescription than the previous year. All lights looked like dandelions. Everything was fuzzy. So hearing and seeing has come to zeta, living. Ten years ago, hip replacement and bilateral knee replacement and now hearing and seeing, again. That is living. It will take some adjustment after years and years of putting on glasses the first thing in the morning.
I told my doctor yesterday, I was feeling like I was forty again. He had a puzzled look and didn't quite know how to respond. I said yep, I now have readers in every room just like back in the day.
Hearing, Seeing, Living!
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