Eye Sight

Went for a drive last night. Prior to my cataract surgery, a nighttime drive was an adventure in blazing lights and disappearing roads. My bionic eye has changed all that. Now headlights are just headlights and the road is once again visible. Of course, things are far from perfection because the left eye still has its issues and is probably a little ticked off at the right eye who is busy telling my brain, ignore that guy, he has no idea what’s coming. I’ve got this. While my left eye, like the ignored child, is pitching small temper tantrums and saying, look at this flare, ain’t it pretty?

But that’s the nighttime and I can stay in the daylight until July when my left eye gets its chance. Meanwhile, I’m just going to revel in all that my good eye can see, chief among them are things like the words on this computer screen which before the surgery needed corrective lenses to become clear. That’s quite a change, and fairly pleasant.  To celebrate, yesterday I bought a new pair of wrap around safety glasses to wear in the daytime, primarily to protect my surgically altered eye. They look sharp, or so some folks told me.

I think I’m in for several months of feeling really good because being able to see is a truly nice feeling. The only fly in the ointment is my abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) which has grown to a worrying size and will probably need surgical repair this year. Unfortunately, in that case, the surgery will simply hurt as my life gets extended because there are no symptoms associated with the issue. It just bulges. Oh, well. Life gives and life gets, and right now I’m really happy with my new vision, and my triple A can wait. And if it pops unexpectedly, I won’t even have time to say, goodbye.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale