Miracle On Eyes

For many of us in AI-world, the idea of waking in the morning and gazing at one's bedside clock to check the time is as involuntary and unthinking a process as breathing.  For others however, this simple task requires a quite voluntary and active process.  Many of you are aware of what the inside of your shower stall looks like - again, for others of us, the tile pattern, letters on the faucet, where the soap dish is, are all part of life's mysteries.  Packing bags for traveling requires forethought for all of us, but for some it also requires several pairs of prescription glasses along with a few boxes of contact lenses, many bottles of solutions, 3 oz. or less lest the gendarmes at Heathrow or elsewhere take them from you, and then the reading and sunglasses we all carry.  Plus, these must be in the carry on.  They simply cannot be lost, for if they are the next stop will be for a cane.  Most of you can tell the difference between a bowl of sugar and a bowl of milk with your naked eye.  Some of us get our fingers wet trying to figure it out.  I could go on, but you get the idea.

Recently, AI-XVII Champion Rich Heimsch decided to take the leap and have his cataract afflicted lenses replaced with brand spanking new plastic lenses.  Not only would they be unobstructed by cloudy, blurry spots but they would also be of the prescription that would allow him to see 20/20 without glasses or contacts.  It worked.  His reaction, "wow!"

Then about 3 weeks ago, after much much gnashing of teeth & consultation with Mr. Heimsch and several other friends along with umpteen visits to the ophthalmologist, your bloviating blogger also took the plunge.  There were no cataracts for this reporter, so the surgery, known as RLE, was 'elective.'  Confident that nothing could possibly go wrong after obsessing over the 17 pages of warnings and remotely possible side effects and sending myriad question-laden emails to my surgeon's office,  I, too, allowed a doctor wielding a laser and 10mg of valium to blast my existing unfocused lenses to smithereens with ultrasound, suction out the detritus and insert brand new ones.

It's a revelation.  For the first time since my kindergarten teacher told me she didn't really care if I could see or not but I better shut up, I can see unaided. 

I notice the shower stall needs some caulk.....