Vision for Christmas

I have been losing focusing ability in my eyes throughout the past year - my glasses are no longer working for me. I had visited an ophthalmologist in Illinois but she said that there wasn't any way to correct it (she didn't say "because of your cataracts", but I got that impression). Because we're trying to move to physicians located in the Mesa, I went to the eye institute here a couple of weeks ago. I saw an optometrist, and she confirmed that I have cataracts that need to be removed. I scheduled an appointment with the surgeon, but the surgeon's schedule was booked out and I could not get an appointment until second half of January. I was concerned that scheduling the surgery on each eye after that appointment, and then follow ups at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after could run past the end of our planned stay in Mesa. So, I was calling the eye institute every few days to see if they had a cancellation -- I would get the same nice scheduling lady each time, and she would say, "I'm so sorry, nothing before the day of your appointment," until a few days ago, when she said, "Oh! We have had a cancellation for December 19! Do you want to come in then?" I jumped at the chance and went in to see the surgeon on Thursday...

While we were in the waiting area, we could watch HGTV on the big screen, or information about the Swagel-Wooton Eye Institute on another screen -- at one point, information about the doctor whom I would be seeing displayed.

A technician took me to several machines to take pictures and test my eyes...

... then to an exam room where I tried (pretty unsuccessfully) to read the letters at a distance -- at this point, I was reading close up -- much easier close up!

The technician trying out different combinations to figure out which gave me the best distance vision.

Eventually, my eyes were dilated, and I went to another exam room to see the surgeon, Dr Brozek. There was a poster/picture on the wall with more information about Dr Brozek.

Dr Brozek came in and performed a number of measurements on my eyes.

The eye institute had given me information about a number of different intra-ocular lenses that might be available to me -- along with the price list of how much they would cost because anything but the basic is not covered by insurance -- the multi-focal lenses could cost up to $4100/eye, and the Light Adjustable Lens could be up to $4900/eye. I had read material and reviews on the different lenses, and was not at all sure what I should do -- I had prayed ahead of time that God would make it very clear what I should choose. When Dr Brozek completed his exam, he said that I was *not* a candidate for the pricier lenses because of my astigmatism -- so I could choose the standard lens (which insurance would cover), or a laser-assisted surgical technique that may help to reduce my astigmatism (at $2100/eye). He told me that the laser-assisted surgery would only provide about 10% improvement over the standard lens, and that glasses after surgery would correct if I didn't do the laser-assisted surgery. I am fine with continuing to wear glasses -- I like having glasses with transition lenses that darken automatically in the sun (and not having separate sunglasses), and I would need to continue to have glasses, at least for reading, anyway. Having one pair of glasses that work for distance and reading and sunglasses is ideal for me -- so God had made it very clear what I should choose! And it happens to be all covered by insurance too!!!

So, then we went to the scheduler... she said, "Would you like to get this taken care of this year?" 

I said, "This year? like, in 2024????"

"Yep - we have a few appointments available this year still!"

So... my right eye (which is the worse one) is scheduled for cataract surgery early on 12/23 (Monday), and my left eye is scheduled for surgery on 12/26 (Thursday)!!!

I have long worn glasses -- and my glasses have always given me good vision -- up until this past year. It seemed that all of a sudden I could not see road signs clearly, could not see the aisle markers in the grocery store, could not distinguish what things were that I might see just a short distance across a campground. Not being able to get a new prescription that would correct these deficiencies had me concerned - especially since it seemed to come on quickly. One of the technicians at the Eye Institute indicated that cataracts build slowly over time, but at some point, their presence makes a distinct issue with one's sight -- the final straw on the camel's back, so to say. I am hopeful that by soon after Christmas, I may be on my way to, once again, having vision that can be corrected through the use of glasses! I would appreciate prayers that the surgeries will go well and I will be able to adjust to my new vision.