LASER EYE SURGERY TO RID THE CATARACT LENS OF THE FILM IT HAD DEVLEOPED ON THE BACK.

In my perpetual pursuit to maintain my senses in working order, I underwent a bit of laser surgery to my right eye yesterday. It seems that epithelial cells begin to form on the back of cataract replacement lenses on some of us. Apparently these grow more quickly in the young, but given my familial genetic makeup those little suckers were piling up so fast I was going to go from twilight to dark all too soon. The exact name is a medical term my anxiety-ridden brain at the time didn't file it in proper long term storage.

Despite being told by many, who perform the surgery and those who have undergone it, telling me it is simple, I had to experience it to believe it. The total procedure couldn't have been easier. First a technician took my blood pressure, noted that it was a bit higher than she would have considered normal, as I informed her that it is usually within normal limits but I hadn't eaten since breakfast (it was now after 4:30 PM) and I was anxious about the surgery scheduled it was likely higher than usual. She gave me drops to dilate my eye and told me she would seek me out in the waiting room in a few minutes to put some other drops in my eye to comfort and heal. Finally, about a half hour after I had been in delightful conversation with anyone who happened in the waiting room, Susan, the doctor's assistant, checked my eyes for dilation and ushered me to the room where the procedure was to take place. I had more drops added to numb my eyeball.

The laser contraption looked like the one in an optometrists office, chin in the groove and forehead resting against the metal the checks for glaucoma, peripheral vision, etc. Apparently that configuration has many uses. After filling my eye with goop and plugging in a miniature eye-glass/microscope-like-monopod resting on my eyeball, the doctor looked through the eye piece and gave tiny, frequent bursts of laser, widening the clear space on the back of the lens to prevent the cells from reattaching. The condition he was correcting is called posterior lens capsule opacification

At no time did I feel pain or any discomfort. Since my left eye had not been dilated, I was permitted to drive myself home. Fortunately the 2 miles home was in the opposite direction of the sun, making the trip free of difficulty. Before I left I was given an appointment one month hence, at which time I would have this eye checked and the second eye lasered. The brightness of that which I was seeing in my right eye was markedly more brilliant. I played, covering alternating eyes, to check which was giving more brightness. The eye just lasered won hands down! My vision has moved from twilight to sunrise.