Cataract Surgery - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Cataract Surgery

Last month while driving back to Michigan at night after we visited my 93 year-old mother-in-law at Fair Haven in Sidney, I noticed double vision in my right eye, It was the first time driving at night for awhile, since with daylight savings time, most of my driving is durng the day. My wife suggested making an appointment with her ophthalmologist, which I did the very next day. He discovered a cataract in my right eye that was likely causing the double vision and he recommended surgery.

My diagnosis brought back memories of Mom undergoing cataract surgery back in the 1970’s, having spent a day or so in the hospital after surgery with sand bags positioned to keep her head steady and then having to wear a patch over her eye for more than a month until the eye healed and the stiches removed. After that process, she never did have the other eye done. Don’t blame her!

Back then, literally the eye lens was cut out, a replacement put in place and then the eye stitched up, which meant until the eye was healed, the patient had to be very careful not to re-injure the eye. My sisters did all the work around the house during her recuperation, so she was appreciative of their help; however, not being able to move about or go out was a challenge for her, as this was likely the only time in her life until then that she wasn’t active doing something. And if you knew my Mom, she never sat still, always wanting to be involved in some activity. My wife knows the same feeling with me! Glad to have these blogs along with tennis and golf each week to channel my energy now that I’m fully retired.

So my cataract surgery was scheduled a week or so later and it went very smoothly taking all of 8 minutes. While researching the surgery on-line, not a good idea I know, but that’s not the way I’m wired, found that the latest cataract surgery technology does not require drops for the typical three weeks afterwards, but my ophthalmologist did not subscribe to that methodology, being somewhat old school. As evidence, he was taught in med school by an MD neighbor of ours Doc Ray M., who was the head of ophthalmology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Unfortunately Doc Ray died suddenly while fly fishing in the Rockies 20 years or so ago. My eye surgeon had fond memories of Doc Ray and also his widow who still lives in our neighborhood. Plus, I play golf with his son. Old school or not, my doctor performed a flawless surgery and after several weeks of 4 a day drops, I have 20-20 vision in my right eye.

My left eye is not ready for surgery yet, so off to Florida we went last week, with a pair of old glasses that work just fine for the left eye but literally mess with my new perfect vision in the right eye as a result of the surgery. But thankfully, the double vision is gone and night-time driving is much better.

On Sunday, friends of ours invited us on their boat to travel up the Florida coast to view the devastation from September’s Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers Beach both of which incurred 120 mph winds and 15’ surge. My eyesight was perfect, but seeing the terrible devastation from offshore was disheartening. Having been to those areas numerous times over the years and seeing the destruction was gut wrenching. We’re so fortunate our place south of those areas came out relatively ok, even though we lost a car to the 9’ storm surge and 80 mph winds. Our condo lobby and pool area were totally inundated with flooding, to the point that a stray boat pictured below had floated into our parking lot. There are still remnants of the storm evident in our area in Naples, but thankfully nothing like the devastation we observed on Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers Beach.

~~~~~~~~

Receive a weekly email whenever there is a new blog post. Just click here to send me an email request and your name will be added to the distribution.