GBE BLOG ON:WEEK #74 Cobwebs
My Cataract Surgery-
Knifing the Cobwebs off my Cloudy Lens
My cataract surgery was long overdue as I’m a real chicken when it comes to hospitals, in spite of my husband, son and daughter in law being doctors. Finally, with strict orders from the family, I mustered enough courage and reluctantly agreed to let my eyes go under the knife!
D-day arrived! As the paramedical staff led me to the operation theatre I felt like I was being taken to the guillotine, nay, the electric chair! By simple logic, I concluded that since the hospital is so very plush with modern state of the art equipments, the guillotine would be an outdated gadget. So the electric chair it is!
Inside the theatre, I felt trapped and chained by the green robe, the cap on my head and the huge machine above my face. Any thought I had about fleeing the theatre in panic, was swiftly abandoned by the formidable masked medical specialists surrounding me. Then, my surgeon’s soothing voice wafted over my cotton stuffed ear asking me to relax and assured me that the procedure would be over in no time at all. The anesthetist being a woman sensed my panic and kindly touched me to calm down and I clung on to her hand for dear life!
Suddenly in a flash, my eye was taped, eyelashes clipped and the bright light was switched on. I was fully conscious and because of the anesthetic drops instilled in my eye, I felt no pain as the surgeon made the micro-incision on the side of my cornea.
Having no other choice than to lie still, I decided to humor myself by listening to the machine which was making very interesting noises, like the sounds of my video game! In between the intriguing sounds, I think the machine made very dramatic noises thrice. I assumed that maybe the first dramatic noise was when the ‘phaco’ device emitted ultrasound waves to soften and break up my cloudy lens. The second time was possibly when it is removed by suction. The third dramatic sound was perhaps when the original lens is replaced by the folded lens,by inserting it through the tiny incision. The folded lens is supposed to unfold once in place in the eye. Of course these are my presumptions as I'm totally ignorant of medical topics! Then, there was just short beeps like when my video game is nearing the end and as suddenly as it began, the tapes over my eye was peeled off , my lashes unclipped and I was asked to get up. Halleluiah! It’s over and done! The procedure took just about 6 minutes but those 6 minutes felt like 6 hours!
When I walked out of the theatre back to my room, I nearly died! Died? Yes, died of relief! I don’t think that there is any word or idiom called ‘died of relief’ but that’s exactly what I experienced at that point of time. Anyway, since there were no stitches, I was allowed to go back home right away. After a week, I underwent the same process on my other eye!
The first couple of days after the surgery, I viewed the world through slight blurry eyes, but now, everything is so very crystal clear. In fact, everything seems a lot brighter and the colors sharper like when I auto-correct or auto-bright my blurred photos! *Hearty Laugh* I now survey the world with a blue-ish tinge which is supposed to be normal as I am looking through clear lens that is no longer cloudy. It seems, within a few months my brain will get used to my new clear vision and these colors would go away .Whatever!
Well, now that I have got over my cataract surgical episode, I look back and laugh, ‘What’s the big deal! It’s a cake walk!’ But then, I would never ever like to go through this experience again, however simple! :)
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