Ocular mission accomplished

Yesterday Walt and Tasha drove me up to Blois, our département's capital city — it takes close to an hour to get there by car — for my appointment to have the laser treatment needed for my eyes — after my four-month wait. That part of our trip went without a hitch, but not without incidents. More about that later. For now, let me just say that it was an adventure overall.

This morning my eyesight is amazing. I really don't need new glasses, at least for now. My eyes are seeing everything in clear-and-sharp mode. I hope it stays like this for years. More tomorrow.

 

One week from today...

 .... my previously sharp eyesight should be restored. I hope the doctor is right about that. It  has been four months since I started seeking help from the eye doctors up in Blois. The laser treatment  to improve mycurrent eyesight is scheduled for next Monday afternoon (Sept 28.)

I m really sick of squinting and trying to use a magnifying glass to read my books and and the normal-sized text on my laptop PC's screen.

The doctor says my eyes will return to the way they were six months ago just a few hours after the laser zaps them. We shall see... clearly or not. I'll let you know on Tuesday.

Progress, I think

Yesterday at noontime I had the scheduled meeting with my French ophtalmologist over in Montrichard, 10 miles downriver from Saint-Aignan. It went well from most points of view. Walt and Tasha drove me over there just in case the doctor told me I needed a driver to take me back home (dilated eyes and all...).

The doctor was genuinely shocked when he examined my eyes by shining some kind of bright light into my eyeballs. He said that a "secondary cataract" had formed in my left eye (which before the cataract surgery had always been my strong eye; my right eye had always been blurry, since childhood). A secondary cataract was also starting to form in my right eyeball, he said. Both of the secondary cataracts needed to be removed he said.

A secondary cataract is like a cloud or veil over the artificial lens implant that needs to be removed. That veil over the implant that he had put in my eyeball two years ago to replace the natural lens, which was removed. He said the removal of the secondary cataract(s) would be done later, using a laser. The laser work has been scheduled for September 28 up in Blois, he said. You will need somebody to drive you home from Blois, he added. Blois is 25 or 30 miles north of Saint-Aignan, on the Loire River.

I had suspected that the laser treatment would be done in Blois,if at all, and not in Montrichard, which is a village more than a town. Blois is what I'd call  a big town, and it has a big hospital. Driving there and back is less convenient for us, but not prohibitively so. (I happen to know that local taxi companies charge 150 euros round trip to take me from our house to Blois and back. Given those prices, Walt will just have to do the driving again.

I'll have one more appointment with the doctor in Montrichard in October as a follow-up to all of the above.

The main thing about all this is that I can stop worrying, for now, that my eyesight may never be right again. The doctor says it will. Time will tell. Maybe I can relax again, at least until further developments reveal themselves.

  

It'about time

I've been silent for at least a couple of weeks. I'm healing. I take my bandages off pretty much every other day. I  see that some of the wounds are healing faster than others. Some are still bleeeding a little bit and need bandages still. 

Meanwhile, my appointment with the eye doctor is scheduled for a week from tomorrow at noontime. I hope for a big improvement in my eyesight, or at least some good advice about what the next steps will be to give me a complete recovery.

I'll try not to remain silent for so long next time.

The weather here has been very pleasant for a couple of weeks now. I haven't been able to take advantage of it. Weve had small amounts of rain from time to time, but not nearly enough yet. High temperatures have been in the low to middle 70s ºF.