| Perhaps not surprisingly, I have a stonking headache today. At 9:00 a.m. this morning, I finally had surgery on my left eye—well over a year later than originally planned. Some of you may remember that in April last year I underwent surgery on my right eye to remove a cataract and open up the drainage angles, which had begun closing. Without treatment, I was told I would have suffered permanent blindness in that eye. The left eye was originally due to be treated just three months later, but for one reason or another it never happened. At first, it was thought I was going blind in both eyes. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. The immediate threat was confined to my right eye, although my left eye still had narrow-angle issues that needed correcting as well. The result has been an awkward fifteen months. Following the surgery, my right eye developed excellent distance vision but very poor close-up vision. My left eye, on the other hand, was almost the complete opposite—better close vision with glasses, poor distance vision, and permanently blurred without them. For the past fifteen months I’ve had to wear temporary magnification glasses whenever I’ve been doing admin work, yet often remove them completely when gardening. Having one eye focused for distance and the other for close work has been far more challenging than I ever expected. At times it has been genuinely painful and has caused constant eye strain. Now comes the recovery. I’ve been instructed to take ten days off, and I’m determined to treat it as something of a holiday—the only holiday I’m realistically likely to have for quite some time. Hopefully, in about 18 months, once I’ve recruited and trained another Garden Butler (or Butlerette!), I’ll finally be able to take a proper break from gardening. Tomorrow I can remove the protective shield from my left eye, and I’m hoping the blurriness will begin to settle. Interestingly, the vision is significantly more blurred this time than it was after the surgery on my right eye last year, although I’ve been reassured that’s not unusual. Recovery can vary from one eye to the other. So now it’s simply a case of resting, following the instructions, and giving the eye time to heal. We shall see. |
A Year Later: Finally, My Left Eye Surgery
The Earthly Comforts Journal 