The Blink of an Eye

I first noticed something strange in the months that followed a trip to Maui.

I had purchased a pair of glasses at the Kate Spade outlet store in Lahaina*, the beautiful town that burned a few months after our visit. They were slightly below my prescription but I could still read with them on. And they were 60% off, a steal, really. Less than a year later, they were still pretty, but almost useless.

Diminishing eyesight isn’t surprising as we age. But the speed of it was unexpected. It usually starts in our forties or fifties and I had certainly experienced that. But this was a steep decline out of the blue and mainly in one eye.

Eye Test Number One

I took those Kate Spade frames and had prescription sunglass lenses put in them. To do that, I had to get my eyes checked. That optometrist found nothing unusual. But my right eye’s sight continued to diminish slowly. I recently drove at night and couldn’t tell a stoplight from a taillight. It was terrifying, to put it mildly.

A friend recently had LASIK and said it changed his life. I wondered whether I was a candidate for this laser technique to reshape the cornea. Then, I discovered more friends who’d had it and were happy. It was like driving a new model of car and suddenly seeing them everywhere. Happy LASIK clients were all over the road, so to speak. Unfortunately, I’m not a candidate for it because of the shape of my eye and – oh yeah – I have a cataract.

So here I am, a mere child, with a cataract! Say it isn’t so! Oh, wait…

The Fix

They can’t fix my sight with a laser but they can replace my lenses with artificial ones.

Lens replacement surgery has been going on for ages. They do it when someone has cataracts or to restore poor vision. The people who have cataracts call it “cataract surgery.” It’s the same operation just with different reasons for doing it.

Lens Replacement Surgery with a Cataract to Blame

Some people get queasy when you talk about surgery of the eye. Imagine how a patient feels. I have no choice but to watch! But once they get in there and replace my lenses with artificial ones. it’s over. It won’t be possible to get another cataract and my vision will be nearly perfect. I might still need readers for up-close text but otherwise, even at night, I’ll see well. And I’m told I get a laser light show during the surgery that puts Laser Zeppelin to shame.

It’s been frustrating to need three different levels of lens strengths. Trifocals and even bifocals have never worked for me. I don’t need glasses to walk down a hallway, for example. But at the long-term care home where I volunteer, I can’t read name tags with or without glasses on. They say, “Hi Lisa!” and I say, “Hiiiiiii.” Sometimes, I get up too early because I can’t read the digital clock, even with my glasses. There are many worse things to have, I realize.

I’m lucky I’ll get my sight back because I know people who would love to have vision problems of any kind. That would mean they could see.

My surgery is tomorrow, May 7th. I should be back online in a week. Maybe sooner. We’ll see – literally.

If you’d like to catch up on how beautiful Lahaina is doing in its recovery from the devastating August 23, 2023 fire, the town posts updates HERE.

A PS for Buyers of Pieces of Us

For those who purchased my new novel here, first THANK YOU! Second, the books are arriving tomorrow, surgery day. It may take a couple of days before I can see well enough to send them off. Derek will help! I hope to have them on their way by Friday, and if that’s not possible, then Monday for sure. Thanks for your patience!