Ridiculous things

Isn't it ridiculous that I can't leave a comment on my own blog? I say yes! I don't know what Google is doing to make Blogger so rickety and unstable, but they're doing something wrong. Well, at least I can still upload posts. I think... This morning I can't even leave comments anonomously. The comment field is not working at all.

On another subject, I'm having my second cataract operation today. The cataract was removed from the right eye back in June. Now I'm having the cataract removed from my left eye, which is my dominant eye. It does most of the work of giving me fairly clear vision.

The whole process has been fairly chaotic. The first cataract operation did not improve the vision I get when I cover my left eye. The vision in the right eye seems to me to be exactly the same as it was before the operation. I thought my vision using that eye would improve. Our 89-year-old neighbor, who now lives in Blois, was here a couple of weeks ago. I told her I was having the cataract operations this summer. She said she had had them some number of years ago. I asked her if her vision improved as a result. No, she said, adding that she never could tell that the operations made any difference.

My sister, who is a retired optician, told me that she doesn't think doctors should tell patients that the cataract operation will improve their vision spectacularly, as if by some miracle. She pointed out to me that most people who have the cataract surgery still need to wear glasses afterwards. My doctor told me that I would no longer need glasses to do everyday things like drive the car, watch television, and maybe read my computer and tablet screens. Then he said he would give me new prescription for corrective lenses at the end of the process in October.

All I can hope for is no degradation of the clarity of what I see when looking through my left eye, the dominant one. I'll let you know tomorrow. I'll let you know if I can see well enough to do a blog post on my laptop computer, for example. Or I'll ask Walt to do some typing for me (and you).

Last week I called the clinic in Blois where the surgery will be done to ask what time I should get there today. A couple of days later I got a message saying my heure d'entrée was 2:45 p.m. I needed to let the taxi driver who will take me to Blois and bring me back to Saint-Aignan know what time he should come pick me up.

Then late yesterday afternoon I got a call from the clinic to ask me if I could come in at 10:30 a.m. instead. There had been a cancellation. I told the caller that that might be complicated for the taxi driver, with such short notice. I said I'd rather keep the 2:45 appointment. Her attitude changed. She rather curtly told me I had no choice. You don't expect the doctor to stay here until 6 p.m. just to accommodate you, do you? She was obviously exasperated by the whole thing.

I told her I wasn't sure I could get ahold of the taxi driver to advise him of the schedule change. She asked me for his number, so I gave it to her. She said if she didn't call me back, that would mean my appointment had been changed. An hour or more later, the taxi driver called me and said he would come get me at about 9 this morning. I apologized to him for all the trouble. He didn't say he'd had to scramble to re-arrange things, but he did say that after he picks me up this morning he also needs to go pick up another customer as well before we drive up to Blois. He's allowing 90 minutes for the drive rather than the usual 60. I can only hope he'll be available to drive me back home this afternoon.

The taxi driver has been very easy to work with and very reliable, so I'm sure all will go well. The 50-mile round trip to Blois and back from Saint-Aignan costs about 175 euros ($200 U.S.). It is reimbursed partly by French Social Security health insurance and partly by our private complementary health insurance policy. The doctor doing the operation says I should not plan to do any driving for the rest of the week.