Blurry, Near Philadelphia

I reported earlier that although the doctor and I are both pleased with the result, so far, of the cataract extraction and lens implantation, wearing my glasses is stressful. Not wearing my glasses is more stressful. The operative eye is corrected for distance, for "walking around." The nonoperative eye needs the graduated trifocal glasses for everything. So with the glasses on, I'm blurry. With the glasses off, I'm blurry. At work, where I need to use the computer most of the time, by 11 in the morning I've got a low-grade headache that hangs around much of the day.

Now, in the past five weeks or so, I've learned a lot about perspective. I'm well aware that in the total scheme of things, this is an inconvenience, nothing more. By golly, though, it is a lengthy inconvenience! It's been one week now, and two more to go before the second procedure. After that, while that eye heals, I imagine I'll get drugstore glasses -- a pair for close reading and another pair for computer distance work. Ultimately I'll have a new prescription for those functions.

What amazes me, though, is sewing. When I'm sitting with Bernina, when I'm rotary cutting, even when I'm ripping out (and as you know, I've become an expert at that of late), the blur doesn't bother me! I scarcely notice it when I'm sewing. Joe isn't surprised by this; he is quick to point out that when I am sick with bronchitis, I hardly ever cough when I am sewing. Amazing.

Equally as amazing as the whole procedure of making a slit in an eye, using some kind of device to break up the cataract and a second device to suck out the broken up material, and then inserting a lens that is 1/8 inch (and yes, we quilters know what 1/8 inch is!) into the eye. Amazing.