I didn't know I was going to spend the day in Fayetteville until late last night. The stem on my eye glasses broke, and I haven't had a new prescription since the year 2000, so I woke up after my first sleep cycle and decided to drive over there to LensCrafters and get an eye examination and a pair of new glasses. I've told you about what a miser I am is, but getting the new glasses was a bigger deal than my having to go without food to buy them. I wanted Humana to get used to paying for something to do with my eyes.
I have cataracts in both eyes. I've known about it for years. The problem with having cataracts is that there is a fairly reliable remedy for removing them. That means decisions have to be made about money. I live real close to the bone. I'm also a little stupid about impulse buying. Bad idea when you live close to the bone.
When I first found out about the cataracts, the optomitrist who told me about them said I would have to have them removed in about a year. Later, I acted like that was so. A woman friend of mine got new lens put in for her cataracts and before the process was over she had 20/20 unaided vision in both eyes. She encouraged me to see if i could get it done using Medicare and my Humana account. I got pretty excited.
I went to the eye surgeon who does this sort of lens operation, and told him what I had in mind. He was more than willing to help me. I was scheduled to go to the hospital to get the lens in my right eye replaced, when some doubt about the insurance company paying off came into play. I cancelled the operation.
Something was wrong with the way I was thinking about this. Nobody would spell it out for me so that I had reliable feedback to make a sensible decision with. I decided to let a lot of things pass without being duped. I backed away and did nothing. I felt sort of foolish because i had written about and announced my intentions to the significant others among my family and friends. When I cancelled the operation I didn't exactly know how to explain myself, except to say that I got my own way.
The weeks and months went by and I still seemed to see pretty good with my old glasses. I've had a bunch of new glasses since my early forties. Enough new glasses to know how having them really helps. People asked me what I was going to do about my eyes. If they were bad enough off to have considered an operation in the first place, why wasn't I doing something about them? Why hadn't I been back to the doctor's office.
It's great to have people in my life that worry a little over me. Most people can take a look at me when I'm out in the public's eye and know without question that I'm not much of a neat freak. I'm fairly slack about a lot of cultural things that I oughta be more concerned with. I think more than I imagine has been simply because I haven't been able to see as well, and I appear to be ignoring things that I don't actually perceive.
On the drive home wearing my new glasses I kept looking to see what a difference the new prescription made. The sweet-natured Pisces woman who helped me pick out my new glasses commented a couple of times about how the doctor had really upped the magnifying power because I hadn't gotten a new prescription in a long time. I had driven all the way to this side of town when I began noticing some spots on the windshield, and other living things.
I hadn't seen them when I put the new glasses on and started driving. The drops they had put in my eyes to dilate them still made things look way too bright and weird because i couldn't narrow my focus. I guess by the time i had driven through Fayetteville and hit the open highway, the drops had worn off and I began to be able to focus my eyes again. I guess I really needed the new prescription. I had been a lot blinder than I thought.
I asked the optometrist who examined my eyes what the condition of the cataracts in my eyes are currently. He said they didn't seem to have grown much. I asked him if they were bad enough that my insurance company would pay for the lens replacement with no qualms about it. He told me he didn't think they were bad enough that the insurance people would pay. All I needed right now was a new pair of glasses. That eye surgeon was gonna do it anyway, and I'd have ended up paying for everything out of my pocket.
My eyes are about back to normal from being dilated now that I've been home a while. I'm adjusting to the increased power of the magnification little by little. I'm pretty pleased with getting this done. I know where I'm at with my eyesight, if nothing changes, and these new flex glasses are the cat's meow.
I did another errand while I was over in Fayetteville. I drove over to the VA Hospital to get the phone number of the Durham VA to check with them about my upcoming appointment there next month. These hospital people act crazy about missing an appointment, and threaten to throw you out of the clinic if you miss just one. The nice lady at the Fayetteville VA not only gave me the phone number I needed, but a map to tell me how to get there.
The reason I have to go to Durham is that they have a special clinic for arthritis there. I really, really, really don't wanna miss this appointment. They might have something going on there that gives me relief without having to constantly resort to steroids. I don't know all the side effects, but from the whispers I hear around me, I might not wanna find out until it's too late. In the interim, however, the steroids are my blessings from heaven.
I do not attempt to tell the God's own truth here because I don't know what the truth is or hardly ever. I try to capture the drifting thoughts that randomly appear in my imagination for reasons I may not understand. I don't know if the content I capture with these words is true or false. The Comments settings are turned off to prevent me from having to defend what amounts to little more than fanciful, sometime crude speculation. Great moments in our lives never return.
