Just got back from my annual eye exam, with its usual consequences to my vision:
Of course, there’s that “cataract” thing in my right eye that’ll need attention at some point… but as I’m almost completely blind in my left eye, I’m kinda nervous about it.
AND I have a “routine” colonoscopy scheduled for next month.
This “getting old” thing isn’t for young people, lemme tell ya.
The older I get, the more complete is my understanding of the adage, “Youth is wasted on the young.”
A Jack Vance fan!!!
> Of course, there’s that “cataract” thing in my right
> eye that’ll need attention at some point
Given what may be coming, I’d advise you to get that handled as soon as you can afford it. Getting a new lens installed sometimes gives “perfect” vision out of that eye–at least at far distances. Given the length of some of the rifles you like to shoot the front sight might once again be usable 🙂
> AND I have a “routine” colonoscopy scheduled for next month.
I had my first one this year…Apparently my colon is as torturous as my mind and I don’t like having things shoved up there…
Cataract surgery makes all the girls prettier.
Don’t sweat the cataract surgery. Mine was almost done at a drive through window. The procedure took about 3 hours. I was pretty much out of it on that day and had to rely on a friend for transport back from the clinic, but I was good to go except for two weeks of eye drops on day two. The doc corrected me to almost 20/20 on both eyes for distance work and I still wear readers which I can buy at WalMart for about $4.00 a pair. My night vision is lots better. My eyes were very bad – 20/400 and 20/600 before the procedure so I think that I did okay. Your experience of course may be different, but mine went very well.
Getting old indeed. Had a colonoscopy earlier this year, happy to report all clear. Also smooth sailing during radiation treatment for prostate cancer.
I too had cataract/lens replacement surgery in both eyes in the spring of 2020. Easy-peasy, very satisfied with the results. Yes, I can see iron sights on my lever guns again. There are different levels of lenses to choose from. Kim, you have my email address. I would be more than happy to answer any questions/discuss as you see fit.
Had a colonoscopy at about 60 years of age. Told them then and will repeat it as often as necessary. I will not drink the cleaner or allow any ham handed quack to poke a camera up my butt again. They had one shot and missed it. never again.
No such thing as a “Routine” Colonoscopy. When my doctor suggested one, I asked if there were any indicators or tests that showed I needed one. He admitted there were none and ordered a DIY test kit that came back negative. So no camera for me. Your milage may vary.
Cataract surgery is about as routine as a surgical procedure can get, since almost everyone develops cataracts if they live long enough. I had both of my eyes done last year, and the results are amazing. In addition to no longer having cloudy vision (my right eye was semi-useless by the time I had the procedure), I went from being nearsighted to farsighted. I need reading/computer glasses now, but I can watch a movie without glasses for the first time since I was a child, and I can drive without glasses for the first time EVER. Definitely a huge improvement. The procedure was painless, and recovery was easy.
Colonoscopy is also no big deal. I have had several over the years, and I’ll never understand why some people are so apprehensive about it. You go in, they give you drugs, and you go to sleep. When you wake up, it’s over. So the procedure itself is nothing. The preparation the day before is inconvenient and mildly uncomfortable, but it’s a small price to pay for not dying from colon cancer. One of my grandmothers (my mother’s mother) actually did die that way when I was a child, and it was pretty awful.
My mother was her caregiver during that time, and she’s never forgotten. She has had more colonoscopies than I have, and as a result, a tumor was detected and removed from her colon when it was very small. It was caught before it could do any significant damage. That was two or three decades ago. Today is her 88th birthday, and she’s in excellent health. So HELL YES, I will have a colonoscopy whenever my gastroenterologist tells me it’s time. Given my family history, I would be a fool to object.
I have a very high tolerance to most drugs. I woke up while the doctor was in full rant mode. Did not appreciate it. Therefore I will not give them the opportunity to abuse me or my pocket book again.
Just make extra sure of your lens replacement MD. The wife early on had coke bottle glasses and got lens replacements…that needed tweaks…and still weren’t right.
The “no glasses” promise progressively proved to be bullshit.
Fast forward about 10 years and we’re in Houston with a world class MD who, uncharacteristically for a doctor, off handedly mumbled “these lenses should have never been used on you”, before taking them out and replacing them with a new pair that she hasn’t made a single complaint about.
We can certainly recommend the Houston surgeon, not so much the North Dallas radio ad famous “Jiffy Eye and brake repair” one.
I’m something of an evangelist when it comes to cataract surgery. The only thing that hurts is the fear beforehand. Let’s face it, NO ONE WANTS THEIR EYES MESSED WITH! Having said that, they squirt your eye with soothy stuff so you can feel nothing, then they squirt your eye with more stuff so you can feel even more nothing, they tell you to stare at a light, you do, then you see a very fine thing come into the side of your eye and go away, you still feel nothing, it comes back and all of a sudden that eye works again, still feeling nothing. You get up and, (in my case), walk to the rest room, hang about for half an hour and then go home. My wife drove me, we went in the supermarket on the way home, with me exclaiming at all the things I could now see clearly, not in sepia tones but in FULL COLOUR! When it came time for my other eye to be done, I was ready for a piece of sake. The only hard part it putting drops in your eye(s) for x weeks afterwards. I am completely chicken so I got other people to put them in for me. If I had to do it again, I’d be there in an instant. I’ve also had 3 colonoscopies, I learned from the last time I had a tooth out. No anaesthetic. Then what was going to be a big deal turns into a little deal. If you’re not knocked out then there’s no big fuss. Takes about 5 minutes while you watch your colon on TV, (a long pink tunnel), nothing to it. Each time was less than an hour from getting there to going home, the folks who had anaesthetic were there 5-6 hours and felt like shit when they woke up. I try to do without anaesthetic now, whenever it’s allowed. I’ll gladly bend your ear off if you want me to but there really is nothing to it, apart from being able to see again and not necessarily dying of something ghastly up your jacksie, (rectum just in case you didn’t know).
Glad everything is good, brother
I had my eyes dilated a couple of weeks ago for a retinal exam
I’m on the slow wait path for cataract surgery and for hearing aids
Been colonoscoped 6 times with my next one scheduled for the Spring
I’ve had nary a polyp or anything worse
I hate drinking the turpentine and shitting my brains out beforehand
The prep is the worst part. That and asking your brother to drive you there and home.
Personally, I can’t wait for cataracts and the resultant surgery . I’ve had severe myopia (-11.5, -15.0) my entire life and look forward to not wearing glasses any longer. My Dad had eyes like mine and went through the same thing and he said it was just unbelievable that he was 20/20 afterwards.
The best thing about a colonoscopy is when they hit you with the shit that killed Michael Jackson.
“I can’t wait for cataracts and the resultant surgery.” I can relate. In addition to the cataracts, I also had Fuchs’ dystrophy (FD), which is chronic edema in the cornea of the eye. Basically, your cornea retains fluid and swells, which blurs your vision. I first became aware of it when I noticed that my right eye wouldn’t focus first thing in the morning, but this usually cleared up after an hour or so. Over a decade or so, the duration got longer, so that the right eye was blurry for most of the day. Then my left eye started down the same path.
My eye doc was aware of all this, and for several years he had me treating the FD with eye ointment when I went to bed and eyedrops when I got up in the morning. But we knew that was only buying time. By that point, I was also developing cataracts, and we agreed that when it was time for cataract surgery, we would deal with the FD at the same time.
So I was actually looking forward to cataract surgery. The FD was making my vision blurry, and the cataracts were making it cloudy. By December 2020, my right eye was pretty much useless, and the doctor and I decided it was time to schedule the surgery. I had one eye done in January, and the other in February. The defective lens of the eye was removed and replace with an implant, the usual procedure for cataracts. At the same time, the cornea was removed and replaced with an implant, because that’s how you cure FD.
And just like that, the cataracts and FD were GONE. It was like getting new eyes. I do still have glaucoma, which was diagnosed two decades ago, but as long as I put in my eyedrops every day, the glaucoma can’t harm my vision. Think about what that means. In my life, I have had THREE different degenerative eye diseases, any ONE of which could have left me unable to see. But two of them were completely cured by surgery, and the other one is so effectively controlled by medication that it poses no threat. I should be blind, but I’m not, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine.