Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Medical Fun!

Nothing more boring that reading about someone else's medical problems, but this is my blog, so here goes.

Been having trouble reading a driving at night.  As I rapidly approach 68, this usually means only one thing--Cataracts!  Yep.  Now, the cataracts themselves would be bad enough but...  I also have normo-tensive glaucoma.  I am told that this might have been caused by a blow to the head by a frying pan.  I don't remember this but then I wouldn't, would I?  Not that surgery will fix this but it makes the cataracts worse. 

Not done yet.  Mom had macular degeneration.  I have Drussen.  Soulns like a single-malt to me.  "I'll have a double Drussen on the rocks, please."  But no, it means that I may be at increased risk for macular degeneration myself.  Again the surgery won't fix but it means my vision is affected yet more. 

But wait!  That's not all.  I have fairly strong near-sightedness.  This--so I am told--makes the cataracts worse.  So, surgery is on the horizon, the very near horizon. 

My doc prefers to one eye at a time.  Makes sense, I suppose.  But that means that between the first eye and the second, I will have great distance vision on one eye and need a strong prescription for the other.  So, I plan on bumping into things a lot for a while.  Oh, and with my known vision problems we will be going to a single vision intra-ocular implant rather than the continuously variable kind.  So, I still get to wear glasses for reading, knitting, etc.  Well, I have been wearing glasses for 57 years, I guess I can do this.

So, looking forward to new things.  Will be nice to step outside and only need sunglasses.  Maybe I should get a pair of those Oakleys with the built-in internet connection.  What do you think?