cataracts and enchantment

[amw]

One of my colleagues recently shared with me his frustrations of trying to get new glasses that didn't give him a headache. After he went back to his eye doc and they retested everything, he made the choice that i didn't and continued with the original glasses as prescribed. He said after persevering for a few days he didn't have a headache any

Comments

[wanderingmogwai]

I found out i have astigmatism during an exercise in biology lab during my college years. Not a huge deal at the time but unless i was actively reading i never wore the glasses. Now at age 55 I have cataracts forming in both eyes. Both of my parents had the same and had them removed surgically in their 70's. In both cases a huge success. At least it's JUST cataracts, right? There IS an actual solution!

[anais_pf]

Something sounds not quite right about that diagnosis. I am 68, and I need glasses, but my eyesight is not terrible. I am checked regularly for, and take preventive medicine (eyedrops) for, glaucoma. Therefore, I need to see a glaucoma specialist evey three or four months. They ask me every time about changes in my vision. Last time I allowed as how I have gradually lost my night vision, to the point where I prefer that someone else drive after dark. Also, colors that used to seem more vibrant are a little greyed out now. The doctor told me that I might want to consider cataract surgery sometime in the not too distant future, because cataracts are impacting my daily life (and the younger one has the surgery, the shorter the recovery time). So, my point is that my experience and diagnosis and doctor's recommendation sound a bit dissimilar to what you are being told. Also, if a cataract is the main thing that's making one of your eyes so blurry, why wouldn't they fix it now? You might want to get a second opinion

[amw]

This already was the second opinion! Or third, I guess. Previous eye docs didn't even mention anything other than a vague "there's some damage but nothing to worry about" and said I needed to fix my prescription first, in particular getting progressive lenses. Which I tried and they gave me a worse headache and dizziness than I already had, so I went back to different lenses, first astigmatism-corrected, then not, each one with varying levels of blurriness and discomfort... It's that ongoing struggle that sent me to this place for yet another checkup, and it was comforting for someone to finally just be straight-up about my problem. That actually gave me the confidence to go back and try again with a new prescription, this time a dedicated indoor/computer pair of glasses, just to see if it makes the fatigue any less - knowing it anyway won't fix the blurriness.

With regard to surgery, I wonder if the reason they discouraged me from getting it now was because it will only be covered if they can prove a certain level of impairment, and

[geminiwench]

"that adults re-enchant the world by believing in conspiracy theories."

This! This is poetry!

There's no such thing with a free ride, our body shows the mileage of our story... the choices we did make, and the choices we didn't.
Cataract surgery is actually super-amazing... they implant a new lens.
That's such crazy talk, but... everyone I know who's had the surgery got **huge** relief from it.

But... I also didn't have eye problems as a kid, which really impacts the way we think of ourselves and see the world... literally and figuratively.

It just really is shitty watching your health **age**. Not just your body, but what aging does to our *systems*.
We're all slowly dying and it's getting more and more personally apparent.... isn't this fun?

Apropos of nothing: After my recent trip through Zion, I think it's a shame your U.S. bike trip was down the Mississip,
because your original plan to go down through Idaho, down to the deserts of Utah/Nevada
because I think you would love that area
even though the food mighta been just as bad.

[amw]

A "southwest adventure" has been on my bucket list for years! It's such a dream destination for me i am almost afraid to go just in case it's not as good as i hoped. I've gotten a close a couple of times, like heading through SoCal/Inland Empire/Central Valley, which is area that everybody hates but i find quintessentially American in simultaneously grotesque, depressing and amazing ways. Vegas, also, my favorite place in the whole country. Tacos! Aliens! Cactii! Plus Utah, where i only briefly jumped off the Amtrak in the middle of nowhere to stay at a motel, walk through the desert, and bump into a gun nut teaching her child to shoot a pistol just right there by the side of the road. Never seen roadsigns so riddled by bullet holes in my life. Oh and that northern Nevada road of nothingness, nothing but burnt out trucks and sage, looked like a post-apocalypse sci-fi. Awesome. Maybe i have seen a fair bit of that corner of the world? But i never really had enough time to stay out there to enjoy it for longer periods, i always had to

[geminiwench]

No water, no services, and no shade either!
Although actually I think all those parks (Zion, Arches, Bryce, and Grand Canyon) are all river-carved so there are rivers running through them. There is something about the smell of fresh running water inside a desert. Our bodies are actually honed to find water in dry areas, and all that dust and dryness just seems to make the water smell strong and sweet in a way that I've never smelled in more temperate locations.
It seems like you would like the West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho desert corridor's scenery... or even up here in the scablands of central/Eastern Washington/Oregon, which is a lot like the Alberta landscape you liked... low scrub and sage clinging to zero topsoil and rocky basalt with errant giant boulders showing up every once in awhile that were once carried by glaciers and floods all the way from the Rockies.

[siglinde99]

I’m sorry about the diagnosis. Some parts of getting old can really suck. At least it’s treatable, eventually, and everyone I know who has had it done says the recovery was quick.

[coercedbynutmeg]

Mid-40s seems a touch young for cataracts, but if you're blue-eyed and spent a lot of time outside, maybe not? At least the surgery to get them removed/repaired is a lot less brutal than it used to be. I think they do it with lasers and it's outpatient with a follow-up a week or so later. My mom (also blue-eyed) had hers dealt with in her 60s. Was not a major upheaval for her, and she doesn't need glasses anymore.