Training Log Archive: PG

So this eyesight stuff is an interesting voyage, one where I really don't know what the outcome will be. I know a little more today, but not much.

Woke up this morning and vision was very blurry, couldn't read my watch (all such comments refer to the "fixed" left eye), was not particularly happy about that. But I have pretty well got myself convinced to give this process some time, though that is not easy -- you want instant results.

At some point this morning, as the vision got much less blurry but still not as good as the other eye, I was starting to think, well, maybe it won't get any better, but maybe this also will slow down its rate of getting worse. Looking for a half-full glass wherever I might find one…. :-)

I had an appointment with the doc early afternoon. By then it seemed like I could see just about the same with both eyes, progress. His assistant put me in the chair, covered my old eye, put the eye chart up on the wall, how much could I read with the new one?

Nothing.

I shit you not.

She adjusts it, a vague form appears at the top, really big but really blurry, I take a guess at "E" and I think I'm right, but no hope for anything else.

Now realize that I have been near-sighted all my life, have worn glasses almost all my life, and I am quite happy with that. Had a good discussion with the doc about that prior to surgery. And so the plan is to keep me near-sighted -- in O' terms, able to read a map, need a contact to see in the distance.

But barely able to read the big E?

I shut my left eye, opened the right, no problem with the E or at least 2 or 3 lines below it. Not real sharp, but something.

Put my glasses on -- could read a bunch of letters now, and the two eyes seemed about the same. What gives? And, I must say, I forgot to ask what gives, so I don't know what was going on.

By then the assistant had put the reading chart in front of me and I did good on that one, next-to-the-bottom line, pretty small print, almost able to do the bottom line. So that seemed OK.

Then hung out for a while until the doc showed up to have a look. He peered through a couple of his machines and then declared that everything looked excellent. The various cuts were healing up, both where the lens exchange had been made and where he'd sliced me with a laser to help with astigmatism. At this point he was clearly much happier than I was.

So we chat a little, and he says it takes time for the eye to settle down, and improvement will come. Of course we don't know how much. But give it a little time. And in the meantime, take the eye drops, wear the shield at night, and no lifting heavy weights, no swimming, no hot tubs, no gardening. But running is fine, even today. I asked about running on trails, he was cool. I didn't ask about orienteering.

So now I do the drops every few hours. The dilation of the pupil is just about back to normal. And, I'm sure rather often, I pick up a map, or look at something in the distance, and cover up one eye and then the other, and see how things compare.

And at this point I would say that the new eye is starting to nose ahead. :-)

A long ways to go. And the right eye starts its journey two weeks from now. But very modestly hopeful.