7:30 a.m. (2012), prepping for my Course 3 class at OREA, I impatiently jerk my glasses from my face and begin to polish away the persistent smudge that is clouding the vision in my left eye. The overhead I have thrown up is a grey-black blur. Out, damn spot, out, I say, smiling as I quote good old Lady Macbeth. This attempt at smudge removal, no matter how sparkling my glasses may be when I leave home, has become an unwelcome morning ritual.
A nightmare late night drive up Brock Road to Uxbridge this past autumn finds me white-knuckling it. The lights of oncoming traffic glare with blinding halos. I am momentarily disoriented, unable to discern in what lane the cars are travelling. Please, I silently pray, be in your correct lane. It becomes shockingly evident that I am also experiencing difficulty in spotting objects on the road when I cross a set of railway tracks without even noticing them on approach. And then the rain begins. Damn! Now I lose sight of the centre and shoulder lines on the shining black surface. I might as well be driving blind. As panic sets in, neck and shoulder muscles feel like they are being twisted in a vice. When at long last I pull into our driveway, my forehead drops onto the steering wheel and hot tears of relief stream down my cheeks. Badly shaken, I vow from hence forth to avoid night driving.
December 2013. A day I have put aside with happy anticipation for Christmas shopping at Upper Canada Mall abruptly ends before noon. My vision, blurred by a tangle of fizzing, garishly colourful electric lights, has resulted in a violently throbbing headache. Disheartened that I am now even sensitive to bright store and Christmas lights, I grudgingly head home.
Cunningly providing no grave, painful hints, insidious in its growth, the inocuous cataract in my left eye has developed so slowly that I was, at first, unaware of my declining vision. How frequently have I heard friends and family mention cataract issues? How frequently have I dismissed the malady's importance? Of course, now that it is me, I get it. Typical! But so profoundly has my eye sight declined that my window on the world today is a murky, dirty windshield.
Thank heavens the solution is a simple one - cataract surgery. So on Tuesday, January 21st, I will head downtown to the Bochner Eye Insitiute, to the capable talents of Dr. Stein. This is a first! The first time I have eagerly anticipated a surgical procedure. Bring it on!
Here's looking at you.......soon!
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