Looking Up!

Well, the day after the “double vision” incident, I went for my walk without my glasses, wearing only the Solar Shield to protect my eye and to cut out glare. And ten paces down the sidewalk, I was surprised to see all of the outlines of the houses on the street were as sharp as a picture. Even the leaves on the trees had crisp outlines. I couldn’t stop looking up at the rooftops and the trees. I haven’t had such an amazing change in my eyesight since the doctor put my first set of eyeglasses on me when I was seven or eight. I just kept looking and looking, especially up.

When I was in third grade the teacher told my parents she thought I should have my eyes checked because I could not see the blackboard and she had to move me up front so I could copy my lessons. I distinctly remember after I had my new glasses, the first time I saw a robin. Up to that time, I had recognized their song but they were only a blur, and suddenly, with glasses, I saw this beautiful russet-breasted bird and I was thrilled.

In retrospect, my parents and I both remembered the times when my father wanted me to do something for him, and he wondered why I did not, and I told him I could not see what he wanted me to do. I’m not sure he believed me at the time. But my astigmatism and near sightedness meant that I would always wear glass from then on.

I felt I could not deal with contact lenses, even if they were possible for me, so I never asked for them. But a few years after I moved to Kentucky, a clinic in northern Cincinnati was advertising laser surgery of the eye for correction of astigmatism and I made an appointment for an exam and orientation. It was a bitter disappointment when, after my exam, I was told that they would not do laser surgery because I had Fuchs Distrophy. I said, “What’s that?” I’d never heard of it before, but I figured if it was serious enough that they did not want to do surgery on me, I should find out more about it. I started going to an ophthalmologist instead of an optometrist, so that the condition could be monitored.

You know the rest of the story. My ophthalmologist at home was reluctant to recommend cataract removal because of the Fuchs. That’s what brought me to Dr. Lass.

It is hard to believe that I can drive without glasses but I now can see speed limit signs and no-parking signs without them. The names on the street signs are some better; I can probably pick them out a little quicker, but time will tell if that improves. Dr. Lass says I will always need bi-focal glasses because of the astigmatism. He does not recommend implanting bi-focal lenses for persons who may need a corneal transplant, so I will have “standard” lenses put in both eyes and these lenses are for distance. Hence my intriguing sharpness of image in distance- and that is with only one cataract removed. 

I still need my glasses to read or use the computer, or to write this blog. But things are looking up - every day!

Double Vision!

We went back to Dr. Lass today, the end of one week, for a check-up. We had all of our questions written down.

First, his assistant had me try to read the eye chart. There was no doubt I was able to read the eye chart some easier than last time with my corrected eye. Then I saw Dr. Lass and he did a cursory check of my eye and said the Fuchs was no worse. I asked about driving; he said that my “far” vision at this time is good enough to pass a driver’s license exam. I was surprised at that because it still seems hazy to me. 

I then asked about having the right lens of my glasses popped out, or having a plain glass put in, so I would get more used to the “new” lens over the next couple weeks and he said I could do that if I wanted. 

Can we schedule the surgery for the left eye now? we wanted know. Well, that sent him back to his computer screen because obviously he had to do something there that would signify to the scheduler that it was okay to do that now. But he kept saying “after the last check-up for this eye is done”. In other words, one has to be completely healed before he will do the other. Then he whipped out a permission form for me to sign.

We got new instructions on tapering off the drops - YAY! - three times a day instead of four times a day for this next week. We verified my one-month check-up appointment. Then we went to LensCrafters to see about a plain glass lens for my right eye. I thought the plain glass lens would be better than no lens, for protection of the eye. The woman at LensCrafters said they had to have a doctor’s order to put in a plain glass lens, because, after all, it was changing my prescription and they did not want to do that without authorization.

She called the Doctor’s office, got passed on to a technician, it turned out, and talked for a few minutes, then said, “All right; I’ll tell her”. The news was that they would NOT recommend the plain glass lens; they “do not do that”. I would have to go back to the doctor to get his permission for a plain glass lens.

I thought it would be very difficult to go back and interrupt his flow of appointments, maybe have to make another appointment to discuss it with him, and I would just have the lens “popped out” and try that. The LensCrafter woman took the lens out quickly and gave the glasses back to me. SURPRISE!

I had been getting on so well with my glasses and my new “lens” that I was totally unprepared for the DOUBLE VISION - Big time! I looked around the room and said, No way could I drive in this condition. The “doubles” were not side-by-side even; they were offset to the side and one under the other. So I had the lens put back in my glasses. I decided that I would take my glasses off when I am not doing close work, as I can see “far” fairly well without glasses and that would give my eye opportunity to adust. 

This seems to be working okay so far. I just have to remember to take the glasses off and put them back on, like reading glasses. This is going to be a challenge because I have worn glasses all the time nearly all my life... I may need one of those chains I see women wear around their neck; otherwise I’m afraid I am going to leave them somewhere and then have trouble finding them. I’ll have to work on this for a while.

Be seeing you, and hopefully, not double!

My Three Amigos

The thing about having cataracts removed is the eye drops. They start you on drops the day before. Then you have the Surgery and after that it’s all about drops, four times a day. 

My dad had his first cataract removed when he was 90. He didn’t like the drops. Nor did he like driving an hour one way to Syracuse for the surgery AND again for the check-up AND then again when he had a granule in his eye. And he hated the drops. “What? You have to put those in again?” He expected that his sight would improve right away, so upon his request his doctor gave him a new prescription for his glasses ten days after surgery. And Dad didn’t like them; he said he could see no better. While he had lots of patience for some things, and most people, he had little patience for the whole cataract procedure and no amount of persuasion was going to convince him to have the other eye done. Period. He eventually changed his glasses two more times, finally going back to the original prescription. His eye just needed more time to heal.

Well, I have to admit the time for more eye drops comes around really fast. Four times a  day I lay down on my bed and address myself to the three bottles of eye drops on my nightstand. I call them my Three Amigos. I’ve even given them names: Dick, Flo and Fred, take-offs on their pharmacological names. Amy and I gave Dick a green cap, and Flo a red one and Fred... well Fred... I kind of wonder about Fred. Fred came out of the box with his own color - Pink!

I have to wait for five minutes between applications. That means the eye drop process takes from ten to fifteen minutes. In the morning and at bedtime, I have to put in one drop from each of the three. In between, twice a day, I only have to use Flo and Fred. It’s a good thing we have them color coded. I use them in a certain order because lying there on my bed for five minutes until time for the next drop, my mind drifts. All I have to look at is the ceiling; I can’t see anything well. So I might think about last night’s TV show, or some picture I scanned, or a crazy video I saw on YouTube. Then I realize it’s time to apply another eye drop. Did I just use Dick? Or was it Flo?

Now Dick is not very nice in the morning. His drop kind of stings for a while. Not so bad at night. Flo’s drop never hurts. She has the antibiotic. As for Fred. You have to give Fred a real good shaking to wake him up, and even then he is going to be really slow about releasing his drop. I lay there holding my bottom lid down with my left hand and holding Fred above my eye - waiting. I can see well enough, that close up, to know that I am staring right at the end of the dropper and the eye drop is just hanging there. “Come on, Fred, give it up! You’re such a slowpoke.”

And at bedtime, there is the danger of falling asleep before I have completed the three drop routine. That is a big NO-NO. Because I have to tape the eye shield over the eye so that I don’t scratch it or rub it or do anything to it during my sleep. “The eye must be protected at all times” warned Mary, the nice post-op nurse. So after Dick and Flo and Fred have done their duty, I drag myself off my nice comfortable bed to put on the shield, trying not to tape the same place on my face that I did last night. I’m even getting accustomed to not sleeping on my right side - well almost. I say goodnight to my Three Amigos and switch off the light. Another cataract day has passed.

Day 4 of Recovery

Here it is Day 4 of Recovery already. I have been “testing my limits” and each day I am a little stronger and a little braver. The eye is still fuzzy, but it only hurts in the morning before I put in the first set of drops. I slept better last night and woke at more of a normal hour for me - about 7 am. Yesterday I slept until 8:45 and that’s just being lazy! 

I am able to work on my computer with my old glasses on and see pretty well for relatively long periods of time and then my eyes get tired and I have to switch to something else. So I go for a walk; the distance I can walk now is nearly up to my usual mile and a half. Sometimes Amy goes with me; she will say “see the bunny”. Nope, don’t see the bunny, but if she describes where he is, after a few seconds I can see the two blurry ears sticking up. My post-op eye is still fuzzy but the left eye and the glasses do a good job of compensating.

Had an interesting thing happen a couple days ago. All of a sudden about 4:30 in the afternoon I began to feel really weak. My daughter quizzed me “what did you have for lunch?” Salad, yogurt and crackers with peanut butter. No fault there. She thought it might be loss of electrolytes due to the surgery; Barry thought it could be low blood sugar. They suggested I eat a half banana which would help in either case, and within 20 minutes I was feeling normal again. That was a strange experience. Thanks to the excellent care I am getting, it did not last long.

Yesterday Amy learned there was a Greek Festival at a near-by church and I thought I could manage an hour or two and would enjoy it. I wore my glasses plus the Solar Shades the surgery gave me, plus a visor to shade my eyes. I got along fine getting on the shuttle bus from the parking lot. But when I got off at the church parking lot I felt disoriented by the large unknown space and people moving in different directions. Once we were in the church itself I was okay again. The best part for me was the room where they had two areas of Greece highlighted on the wall with 8x10 pictures of different scenes from Thrace and Macedonia. It was fun to point out to Amy the pictures of places in Macedonia that I had visited just last June: Vergina Museum with King Philip’s golden crown, the harbor and huge arch in Thessaloniki, the Agora, Aristoteles Square.

While there I began to get a headache and the ladies were really nice, gave me some Advil and got me a glass of water. Then Amy and I listened to a gentleman explain all of the icons and parts of the church sanctuary. But the headache would not give in. I was not worried it was from my eye because I’d had this particular headache before - right at the bridge of my nose. The first thing one wants to do is take off your glasses, but that never helps. This time I was suspicious it was allergy related and remembered that there are sinuses both above and below the eyes. Once home I was confirmed in my diagnosis. As soon as I laid my head back I could feel my sinuses draining. I took an antihistamine and it all went away. That was illuminating; now I will know what causes it next time I have that particular pain.

This morning I went to church with Amy and got along okay, just slow on the stairs, being careful. Afterwards, though, downstairs having coffee I was far more comfortable sitting down then standing up, again where there were people moving around made me feel less secure. Probably because I am partially blind on the right side. Two days ago I bumped into the corner of a wall because I did not realize I was so close to it on that side. No harm done. Just clunked my glasses good.

I made a large potato salad yesterday while Amy was off to church for some Religious Education training. We are eating well and healthy. I have dropped a couple of the pounds I put on while in Greece. Yay!

Aunt Lucy, brother Phil’s wife, says Amy should hang out a shingle: “The O and O Clinic”, from her experiences with orthopedics and ophthalmology.

Be “seeing” you soon.

Encouraging News

When the rain passed, I did go for a short walk yesterday, just around a couple blocks. As I neared the end of the second block, I had been out only 7 minutes or so and thought, I can probably go another block, but when I got to the corner my body just turned the corner. Evidently I had done enough for one day and indeed by the time I was back to the house, having walked only 15 minutes, I was glad to be back.

The shield for my eye that they sent me home with was put on with some tape that nearly ripped the skin off my face when we removed it - at least that's what it felt like. The skin on my face may have already been sensitized by all the adhesive they put on it during surgery. Anyway it was painful. So today when we went for my check-up, I was happy to learn that I could use any adhesive I wanted and I went directly to the pharmacy and got different tape. Last night I piled pillows on my bed to prevent myself from rolling in sleep onto my right side, my preferred sleeping position, which the nurse suggested I avoid. The pillows worked well.

This morning we went back to Dr. Lass' office and I reported that my eye felt better this morning, no scratchiness. He and his intern did a thorough examination and decreed that the pressure in the eye was normal and it was healing well. Dr. Lass said that the Fuchs did not seem to have been affected by the surgery. That was good news! Let's hope it stays that way. Keep on with the drops, keep using the shield at night and after next week, if all goes well, I can remove the right lens from my glasses or replace it with plain glass and I should be able to drive - in the daylight, he specified. It will not hurt to use my current glasses while the eye is healing. The healing eye is less fuzzy today but has a way to go to improve over what it had been before. This is different from what most people report; usually when cataracts are removed, improvement is quickly noticable. I will have to be more patient.

My body must be also recovering. After Dr. Lass' visit today, Amy and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Just walking to and from and around in the grocery store was my "walk" for today. When we got home, I laid down to put in my eye drops and fell asleep and slept for an hour and a half. This is unusual for me; it seems my normal stamina has not returned yet. But I have no complaints.

I'm pleased to "see" that I can manage to read with my left eye well enough to use the computer and Mary in post-op had said there were no restrictions on using the computer. That is good news, too, as TV palls quickly. Amy and I have been engaging in a short game of Boggle, a word game, in the evenings and she is beating me all the time. Now, those results are a real challenge which I shall work diligently to reverse. I have to keep up my reputation, after all.

Be "seeing" you soon.

Step One: First Cataract Removed

We were at the door of the Surgery at 6:20 am. It was raining still, having rained nearly all night with ever-returning thunderstorms rumbling abroad. We stood under a portico until they opened the doors. The receptionist made quick work of checking me in and I was immediately shown back to the prep area.

Carolynn worked furiously for 45 minutes to get me ready for the anesthesiologist and doctor. Blood pressure cuff, heart monitor,  and a whole series of drops, done at intervals, five times at least, to open the eye. In between putting drops in my eyes, she busied herself with installing a port in my hand for the anesthesia, swathing me in warmed blankets which had a double purpose. They did feel good in the air conditioned room but they also somewhat immobilized me. When I got my right arm free to wipe some tears that had run down my face, she said she would do that, and firmly placed my arm along my side under the blanket so I wouldn’t be tempted “to help the doctor”,.she said. She placed booties over my sneakers and a cap over my hair, and helped me take off a ring I had forgotten to remove before I came. She asked me questions often to help mitigate any tension, I assume.  But she worked at top speed, so I knew this was a routine she did over and over. Then she invited Amy and Barry to come in and sit with me until they were ready in surgery.

On cue, the anesthesiologist came on scene asking the same questions that each new person I met there asked; my name, my birthday, which eye would they be operating on, where did i live, who will take care of me afterwards, etc. Then he went through my chart which had about twenty pages or so, checking and initialing lots of things, joking with us a little. I had already told them that it does not take much to put me under; I conk out completely rather easily. So I asked him what anesthesia he would be giving and he talked with us a while about that, saying he was glad to know that I was a “light” patient, because they preferred that I be closer to awake than asleep though I would likely feel or see nothing during surgery. He was right. I could hear; there was music playing; I could hear them talking to each other and to me. But suddenly it was over and they were stripping lots of adhesive off my head and face, removing all the monitors, putting dark glasses on my face, wheeling me into recovery, and calling Amy.

After that the recovery nurse, a very pleasant lady named Mary, gave me some orange juice and, when I didn’t want cookies, brought me some graham cracker “teddy bears”. Just right! She went over details for today while Amy took notes, and then I was sprung. Be good and come back tomorrow. So a little wobbly but not bad, it was home to Amy’s for scrambled eggs and toast which tasted really good as I’d had no breakfast. More drops; I’m really glad for the labels and markers we put on the 3 different bottles. Lying on the bed, Dr. Lass’ suggestion, seems to be the easiest way at this point to put in the drops, especially since I have to wait 5 minutes between each application. After eating, suddenly I was tired. I slept for two hours; sedation was still wearing off probably.

In terms of seeing, my left eye, with glasses, allows me to move about without running into doors. The right eye is fuzzy but I expected that. I will see Dr. Lass again tomorrow for a check-up and can ask him about removing the lens from my glasses, or having plain glass replace the right lens while the eye is healing. I have a plastic shield I have to wear while sleeping and some wrap-around dark glasses if I go outside.  I was all ready to go out for a short walk this afternoon but it was raining again, so I will wait a while.

So far, so good.

Are My Eyebrows Crooked?

I arrived at the pharmacy at 12:15 p.m. yesterday to pick up that 3rd prescription, just in case they had it ready. They didn't. So I waited about 20 minutes, during which time I picked up a bottle of CVS brand mouthwash. I dislike the sweetened varieties so always buy the plain, which looks very like listerine. I took it with me back to the waiting area and when the prescriptions were ready, I put the mouthwash up on the counter to pay for them together and saw that my eyes had betrayed me once again. The bottle I had was slightly rose colored!

The trip to Cleveland was uneventful. I listened to an audio book to pass the time and stopped at every rest stop to walk around a little or use the facilities. I made better time than I expected as traffic was light and arrived at Amy's at 5:45.

This morning's first pre-op eye drops are in! Putting the eye drops in turned out not as hard as deciphering the name of the eyedrops on the tiny bottles. I have to put in two different eye drops 3x times a day and can do them at the same time, except five minutes apart. I need to label the two bottles somehow so I can tell them apart - can't decipher any of the print on them.

Watching my daughter put on her make-up I remembered I had not put on my eyebrows yet. Years ago when I saw the movie, Terms of Endearment, with Shirley MacLaine playing an aging actress who asks her daughter to draw on her eyebrows for her, it was my introduction to a new "vision" of aging processes. I did not realize when I discovered this activity, that I would one day be doing the same. But now what little eyebrow hair I have left is gray, and in the mirror it looks like I have no eyebrows at all. For several years I have been adding color to my brows, something I never bothered to do before that, unless I was going out for the evening.

The trick it to try and draw the eyebrows on evenly or nearly so. And then try to apply the same amount of color to each. When one is too dark, I try to brush some of it out; when it's too light or doesn't have the same arch or distance from my eye... well, you get the picture. I have a nice magnifying make-up mirror my daughter bought me years ago, but now I require lots of light. So I walk back and forth from the mirror in my bedroom to the bathroom, peering at myself in the various mirrors, and sometimes I just say, the heck with it and go, whether my eyebrows look funny or not.

In terms of lighting required for me to read, it takes two lamps next to my recliner. Or I stand at the kitchen table that has a strong gooseneck lamp in the middle of it, handy for turning onto my recipe book when I'm cooking. Sometimes in the morning even with a magnifying glass I cannot read. That usually does not last long, and is probably due to the Fuchs. The fuzzy spaces I see on my computer are probably due to the cataracts. (That's my explanation, not the doctor's). And fine print is almost impossible. This morning when Amy was helping me label my various eye drops so that I could more readily recognize them, I commented that the drug companies certainly were not interested in imparting information when they included that folded up paper in with the eye drop bottle. The print was so fine, the people who were required to use the drops would never be able to read what they wrote.

We called the Surgery Center this morning and I am scheduled first in the line-up for tomorrow morning and must arrive at the Surgery at 6:30 a.m. Wear comfortable clothes, no make-up, (hey! no eyebrows needed tomorrow; no chance I could see well enough at that hour to draw them on anyway) no jewelry, and nothing by mouth after midnight tonight. Since we have to leave the house at 6 tomorrow morning, I will definitely be in bed long before midnight!

Be "seeing" you soon. I hope.

Prescription needed

Yesterday I had not heard from the pharmacy by late afternoon, so I decided to extend my daily walk over to the pharmacy and inquire if they got the order from Dr. Lass' office. It was a lovely day for a walk, sunny and not too hot or humid.

At the pharmacy, I talked to the young pharmacist whom I had not seen before. As soon as I said Dr. Lass' name he said immediately, I know we got the order. I thanked him and started to turn away. He said, "Wait a minute; we had to order one of the medications; it should have come in today." So I waited about five minutes while he conferred with his assistant and the upshot was that they had two of the prescriptions, but not the third, and there would not be another delivery until Monday at 11:00. I had already told him I intended to leave for Cleveland Monday. I grinned and said, "I'll be here at one o'clock". He said "we'll have it ready for you".

So, reassured, I walked home and two hours later get a call from the pharmacy that my prescription order is ready. What? It was an automated call and I suspected that someone else had sent it because they had two prescriptions ready. Today I called the pharmacy to inquire and sure enough that is exactly what happened. They are still waiting for the third.

I had originally hoped to leave Monday morning for Cleveland, but will have to wait for that third prescription. Oh, well, that gives me some extra time to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. I'm not sure the freezer has really been cleaned out in a couple of years. There were a few items in there that I could no longer recognize. Then I took advantage of some grocery coupons to stock up on new things for the freezer so I would have some meals readily available when I return home next time. Just to make my grocery shopping easier as I don't know how well I will be seeing after surgery or how long it will be before I can return home again.

Traveling again

Hello.
I've decided to re-activate this blog to keep my family and friends abreast of my wanderings over the next few months.

On July 31st I had an appointment with eye specialist, Dr. Jonathan Lass, at University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. This meeting was to get his opinion on my eyesight problems and his recommended course of action.

I have Fuchs Distrophy, a condition of the cornea that results in a deterioration of the cell layer behind the cornea. This layer controls the passage of fluids back and forth through the cornea and if not working well can cause sight problems. My local ophthalmologist has been reluctant to remove my cataracts because any eye trauma risks making the Fuchs worse.

Dr. Lass recommended removing the cataract from my right eye, the worst one, and see what transpires. If the Fuchs does not significantly worsen (thicken the cornea) then he would remove the left cataract also. If the Fuchs does worsen, then he would recommend a partial cornea transplant. (Amazing! A partial transplant!) Dr. Lass has done considerable research re: Fuchs Distrophy and he is head of the Eye Bank in Cleveland. I feel that I will be in good experienced hands.

Surgery for removal of the first cataract is scheduled for August 20 and Dr. Lass will do the surgery himself. I have been home for a week but will be returning to Cleveland and will stay at my daughter, Amy's, during any procedures, so she can drive me to and from and help me with whatever, as she is always more than willing to do.

This morning I called the RN who had scheduled my appointment to ask when I would get prescriptions for the pre-surgery medications I will need. When the doctor's office had asked for my pharmacy, I told them I used CVS in Covington. I had heard nothing from the pharmacy to date. The RN called me back to tell me I should have received the prescriptions when I was at the doctor's office. She will call them in today. I double checked what was on the paper the doctor gave me, with her, because two of the medications had been crossed out and something else written in. (You know doctor's handwriting). Angela, the RN, had heard of both of the substituted medications so they are commonly used by Dr. Lass and she explained there will be three prescriptions in all, two pre-op and add another post-op.

Putting any eye drops in my eyes is not easy. Some of it always comes dribbling down my cheek. I suppose after I've done it several times a day, for days, practice will make perfect, right?

Be "seeing" you soon. I hope.