Eye Surgery Tomorrow

This is an update for All Misty-Eyed.

We never found the records of my husband's LASIK surgery, but an efficient and helpful ophthalmologist in Gunnison, Colorado still had my husband's paperwork from a decade ago, and he was prompt in sending it to us. The numbers are accurate enough for our surgeon to configure a lens to match the one that is in the eye. I finally understood that since the cornea has been altered by LASIK, they cannot simply put in a perfectly shaped lens; it has to match the corrected cornea. Once they correct one eye and make sure it has healed properly, they will operate on the other one. That will keep him from becoming incapacitated should the surgery fail.

They operate tomorrow. I'm taking the day off to do driving, waiting, and restraining with words of caution. We won't really know if the surgery was successful for a couple of weeks, because the eye has to "settle in". There may be a little 'trial and error' involving more surgery to correct the lens, or maybe glasses will have to be made to fit this new arrangement of the eyes. Even so, at this point we have no choice. The haze has grown even in the last week. So for a valentine, my husband will get a new eye. How was I ever privileged enough to be born in this century, in America? It's more than I deserve.

"Can you read that sign ahead?" he asks, "because I can just make out the words...not yet...not...NOW!"

By tomorrow he will probably be telling me what they say...all the way home, and the leaves on the trees will be sharply defined, and the wheat blades in their green fields will all stand out in vivid detail. He will amuse himself by reading the license plates on cars ahead of us and by wondering aloud why those out-of-state-people are traveling in February. Let it be so.

Update: We are home. The doctor said the surgery went well. We won't know how well he will be able to see until the inflammation settles down--maybe ten days, but the initial glimpses are promising.They did 14 lens replacements this morning. It's amazing.

Update: After Ten days: My husband is seeing extremely well with his new lens. The doctor had run several models using the numbers he had. Each time the computer recommended a different doppler, ranging from 17 to 21. The doctor selected the 20 doppler. He is really pleased, because yesterday's test showed the vision between 20-20 and 20-30--almost perfect. It was just in time too, because the other eye is beginning to cloud badly. They have scheduled that surgery for March 6th.