Puppy Walk

I thought about a subtitle of "Anything but a walk in the park", but then decided not to.

J and I took the pups out for a walk this afternoon in the sunshine and warm temperatures. It felt good to get out for awhile.

Yesterday, I had eye surgery. It certainly was no walk in the park. I have what is called "narrow angle glaucoma". This can become very serious very quickly causing acute angle closure glaucoma and cause blindness within just a few hours. Because I had increasing pressures, I needed to have surgery to prevent the ducts from becoming closed. So, in addition to having a preventative bilateral iridotomy, I also had a bilateral lens replacement, which reduces the thickness of the lens thus reducing pressure in the eye and on my narrow angles. They call the latter "cataract" surgery, even though I did not have cataracts (still too young for them, he he he).

Normally, lens replacement surgery is a simple affair. This procedure would take about 10 minutes for each eye. They simply numb the eyes, drape the eye they are going to work on, insert a soft speculum to open the eye, add more numbing drops, then carefully insert an ultrasonic needle into the lens area, dissolve the cataract, suck out the gelatinous material which includes the old lens, then simply insert the new, monofocal lens. In my case, however, after removing the old lens, he had to insert another instrument to make additional measurements for the specially made lens that they were making right there. And then he had to "place" the lens correctly with another instrument, then take more measurements to make sure everything was correct. Then, after all of that, he needed to do the iridotomy with the laser. So, it took over 30 minutes for each eye, and I now have bionic eyes (just kidding!).

Oh, yeah, and I was awake the whole time. Thankfully, my scientific curiosity overruled my squeamishness.

I wasn't able to see much at all yesterday, but today my vision cleared quite a bit. We went back to the doctor for my recheck this morning and everything looks good. And it seems, initially, that I will not need to wear glasses again except for reading. In fact, when I put on my old glasses, I could not see anything. For someone who has had to wear prescription glasses and sunglasses most of my life, this is a real treat! So, after the doctor, we celebrated by going to Costco to buy a new set of sunglasses. Even now, as I write this, I am thrilled because I can see my computer screen perfectly.

A short time of discomfort is worth it, especially since I won't have to be concerned about an acute closure in the future.

Also, no one in my family has ever had glaucoma of any kind, so glaucoma isn't always genetic.

I highly recommend getting your eyes checked for glaucoma by an opthamologist at least every two years.