Tag: sight

YAG x 2

In April, I had cataract surgery on both eyes with fancy, extended depth of focus implanted lenses.

Things went well and I’m not wearing glasses full-time, which hadn’t happened since I was six. However, I have run into a couple of common aftereffects that I’ve been dealing with over these past months.

One is an aggravation of my existing problems with dry eye, which I whined about a bit here. We are treating it in several ways and it is improving.

The other was that I developed some filminess or cloudiness in my vision due to posterior capsule opacification, also known as secondary cataracts. The treatment is to use a YAG laser to make an opening in the capsule to allow light through and rectify the cloudiness. (YAG stands for yttrium aluminum garnet.)

I had YAG treatment in both eyes earlier this month and I’m happy to report that it worked well for me. The filminess is gone, which is great because we weren’t sure if part of that was due to the dry eye. I do have increased floaters in my eyes which will probably calm down over the next few months.

I’m able to read my computer without enlarging the text for the most part now and, for the first time ever, made it through a choral rehearsal on Sunday without glasses. I do have a pair of glasses that I can use for fine print and low light situations, as those will continue to be challenging even when all the healing is complete.

It’s been a joy to be able to see without devoting extra brain power to assist. Over these past months, I’ve been having to concentrate consciously on visual processing. It’s been tiring. I’m grateful to be able to look around and just be able to see what’s in front of me without extra effort.

One of these days, I might even get a new headshot taken without glasses, even if it takes a bit for me to recognize myself after 57 years of wearing glasses all the time…

dry eyes

I try not to whine here at Top of JC’s Mind, at least not about personal things.

But, today, I’m so frustrated that, in the name of honesty, I’m going to.

In April, I had cataract surgery with fancy implanted lenses, which was really amazing and means that I no longer need to wear glasses all the time as I had for decades.

The problem is that my previous issues with dry eye are back with a vengeance, clouding my vision.

This was not unexpected, as the surgery and all the drops you have to use after it do disrupt the status quo and increase the risk of dry eye, but my symptoms now are worse than they have ever been.

I’ve been back to my optometrist and am doing all the things I am supposed to be doing – preservative-free artificial tears, special hotpacks, taking flaxseed oil – but improvement has been slow. This is also not unexpected, but it is frustrating.

I can still see well enough to drive but close tasks are a chore. I have some over-the-counter reading glasses that help with some close tasks but, because my current state of cloudiness is caused by the dry eye rather than my focusing ability, the glasses magnify but don’t clarify.

This is making it hard to read things that are not printed in a large font. I can usually adjust when I read on screens but it’s hard to read things on paper. Kitchen work is annoying, too. It’s not that I can’t do these things but it is so taxing that I don’t especially want to.

I have another visit with the optometrist scheduled for next week to make sure there isn’t something else going on, like development of a secondary cataract or some kind of inflammation or infection.

Meanwhile, I’ll try to have this be my only whining post…

One-Liner Wednesday: cataract surgery

I had my first cataract surgery yesterday and it’s very weird to adjust to that while not being able to wear glasses to help the other eye see clearly.

This informative post/excuse is brought to you by Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/04/05/one-liner-wednesday-time-flies/

(In)sight

An amazing video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyDdVJ81Ixs is making the rounds. It shows a woman who was deaf and is hearing for the first time. What isn’t being as widely reported is that the woman chose to have cochlear implant surgery now because she is rapidly losing her eyesight, upon which she relied to read lips. Her brain, never having had to deal with sound before, will take time to learn how to interpret speech, but, as her eyesight continues to dim, she will still be able to communicate as her ability to understand spoken sounds improves. In the end, it’s not the method of taking in information and expression that matters; it’s that there is a way to experience and share thoughts, joys, hopes, and fears.

The Scripture readings at my church for the Fourth Sunday of Lent http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/033014.cfm  center around sight and include the story of Jesus curing a man who was blind from birth on the Sabbath. As the story is told, it becomes apparent that the greater gift is that Jesus reveals his identity as Messiah to the man, who has been thrown out of the synagogue for defending Jesus in the face of questioning by the religious authorities. As the deacon who was preaching noted, the cured man received not only physical sight, but insight. Those who clung to the rule of no work on the Sabbath had physical sight, but not insight into the healing power of God, which is beyond the human boundaries of time and circumstance.

In the end, it was the ability to be open, to take in new experience, to grow, to change, to ponder, to learn, to communicate one’s own truth, to connect on a deep level that was important. No matter the state of our individual faculties, insight is possible if we are attentive.