It was three years ago this month and I sat in the chair at the eye doctor for a check up. He said "Mr. B you have a cataract!" I said "No I don't I have a FORD!" (Get it?) Ok, maybe not that funny. So my eye doctor tells me there isn't anything we can do about this until the cataract "gets ripe." He said my vision in that eye would, as a result, get progressively worse.
He was right.
So right before Christmas in 2010 I went back to the eye doctor and they referred me to a surgeon who would remove the cataract. Now I had a couple of guys at church tell me they had this done and they said it was a piece of cake. They said, you won't even feel a thing! That's really good cause I have an extremely low threshold for PAIN. I mean, if I get a paper cut I think I'm dying!
So recently I went for a consult with this eye surgeon and after a battery of different tests (some of which I think I saw Bones do on Star Trek) we set the date for the surgery.
Now you cannot drive home after a procedure like this because they give you this medicine that places you somewhere between what's real and "la la Land." So my son drove me to the surgery center and more importantly back home again. The prep time took three times as long as the actual surgical procedure. The surgery itself only lasted about 15 minutes. And my friends at church were right - I didn't feel a thing. I could hear my surgeon talking to me and I remember seeing all kinds of weird colored lights. And one of the attending nurses kept patting me on the hand saying "You're doing fine, it's going to be ok." That really was not very reassuring since I was just kind of freaking out already. But it was over before I knew it.
After the procedure they wheeled me into "recovery" where they could keep an eye on me (get it? Ok not that funny) for a little while to make sure I didn't act strange or have a negative reaction to the drugs they had given me. And after a few minutes they let me walk to the car where my son was waiting to take me home.
I suppose that I had a preconceived notion about what would happen immediately after eye surgery. I thought I would take that bandage off and I would have perfect 20/20 vision. But a few hours after surgery when I came out of that eye patch (I looked like a pirate by the way) I was so disappointed when I realized I could barely see anything! My wife, who was in the eye care profession for about 10 years and really does know about this stuff (although I would NEVER let her operate on my eye!) said "GIVE IT TIME!"
The next morning I had to be in my surgeon's office at 9:30 AM for the first follow-up. Here is where the story takes a dramatic turn. Even though my vision was still very blurry in that eye I still drove myself to her office. I checked in and sat down to wait for my name to be called. They had a flat screen TV on the wall and I covered my other eye to see if I could see the television from the operative eye. To my great wonder I could see that TV image just as clear as day with my new eye! I didn't even care that it was Regis and Kathy Lee on TV - I could now see clearly! Nothing short of a miracle. What a wonderful gift! And I immediately thought of the blind man who was healed by Jesus. How ecstatic he surely must have been to go from NO SIGHT to PERFECT SIGHT at the Master's hand!
I think this adventure has given me a new perspective spiritually too. "I once was blind but now I see" as the John Newton song goes is so much more than being able to see physically- it is viewing our world through spiritual "eyes" that reveal over and over to us the beauty of God's creation and His Grace and Mercy. That too is nothing short of miraculous!
My eye doctor tells me I have a cataract on my OTHER eye too. But I will have to wait until it "gets ripe" to go through this little adventure again! When that happens, I probably will not have to even wear glasses- I will be the "bionic man!"
SEE YOU later, (get it? OK that's the last one)
The Methmusician
