Tag Archives: glasses

Eye to Eye: Epilogue (Part 5)

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Two days have passed since I had cataract surgery performed on my left eye. Suffice to say that it was more or less a repeat of what I went through last month with my right eye—yes, they made me wear that disgusting gown, and no, I wasn’t allowed any coffee during my hospital stay. Yeppers, that’s life huh.

I’m presently on medical leave and am writing this blog post in Word with a humongous 20-point font (reason being I went from severe near-sightedness to far-sighted after the surgeries). I’ll have to copy and paste this into Windows Live Writer before I publish it to my blog—where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I’d like to thank the following people who helped me through this testing period of my life:

  • My optometrist, Ms. Valerie, for urging me to get cataract surgery done on my eyes rather than be saddled with a new and even thicker pair of glasses.
  • Mr. Lee, my ophthalmologist, for working his magic on both my eyes. His calm and reassuring demeanor certainly minimized my fears about the surgery.
  • The staff of Loh Guan Lye Specialists’ Center for their friendly yet professional manner in making sure everything went well for me during my stay there.
  • My American friends, especially Crystal, Leisa, Doris, Heather, and Kelly for rallying me through with their thoughts, prayers, and their love. I couldn’t have done it without you wonderful ladies (yes, they love me, what can I say)
  • Last but not least, all my students and friends for their support and prayers.

I will be able to adjust all the fonts back to a normal size after I get my reading glasses. At least they won’t resemble Coke bottles!

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Eye to Eye

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I’ve suffered from myopia (short-sightedness) ever since I was 10. Practically all the male folk in my father’s side of the family had this, so I guess this was a hereditary thing. And my mom’s side wasn’t too good either. So I had to wear glasses during my school days, and the lenses got progressively thicker and thicker and thicker. Being young and naive then, I just shrugged it off.

Then while I was on Summer vacation in 1981 my dad recommended me to see an optometrist friend of his, and he encouraged me to wear soft contact lenses. Wow, what a difference! No more glasses perched on my nose, and vision was excellent. I wore contacts for close to 20 years. However, I felt like my vision was deteriorating again after 1998. A visit to the ophthalmologist confirmed the reason—I had cataracts developing in both eyes.

Fast forward to the present and for the past year or so I’ve been having difficulties again, especially with seeing far distances. People would be calling me before I could even recognize them, and I absolutely hated the Coke bottles perched on my nose. Fortunately I could still drive, but I had to exercise more caution while driving at night. Enough was enough, and I made an appointment to see the eye doctor at one of the private hospitals here.

Mr. Lee (my ophthalmologist) recommended that I have my cataracts removed, one eye at a time. However, the surgery in my case was going to be a little more complicated, as I had severe myopia. Firstly, he’d have to order the artificial lens from the US (so guess I’ll have something American implanted in me after all). Secondly my eyeballs measured about 10mm bigger than normal eyeballs, so he’d have to dig deeper to get at my cataracts. And the third issue is so complicated that I won’t write it here and risk everyone giving up reading this post. Suffice to say that he recommended I have GA (general anesthesia) due to these circumstances.

I’m scheduled to have my first surgery on June 17, 2009. Hopefully all will go well, and I should “see” an immediate improvement in my vision. Wish me luck!

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