Getting OLD

So I took a little break here. In case you didn't notice on my profile, I'm 53 years old and...yes, this is definitely the age where things start to break down. I'm not worried about it, not even close. I guess working so closely with my Ancestors has gotten me accustomed to the idea of both aging and death. It gives me a slight advantage as far as not freaking out about all of this.

I mean, you've got two choices in the end: Getting older or dying. Right now, getting older is still the better of the two choices. And so I persevere! 

Right now, my battle, aside from the normal aging crap, is something called Fuch's Dystrophy.

Its one of those less than 5% of the population kind of thing, so don't feel bad if you've never heard of it. My dad has it, so the good news is that I was forewarned. I knew there was a significant chance I'd have it as well. The even better news is that its something that can be fixed. Well, repaired at least.

What Fuch's Dystrophy means, in layman's terms anyway, is that my corneas don't release the water from my eyes. I'm not blind, but...you know those old black and white films, where there'd be a femme fatale, and the hero would see her and the world would go all woozy and they'd smear Vasoline all over the lens so she looked all glowy and soft and haloed? 

That's my world, at least when its light out. Like there's Vasoline over my eyes. And at night? Its gorgeous. Its like being in the middle of Van Gogh's "Starry Starry Night." But yeah, not really conducive for driving. Its hard to do a lot actually. I've got cheaters in every single magnification because i use one for the computer, one for reading, one for cooking, etc., etc., etc. I feel fine driving during the day, but even in gloomy weather I want to wear sunglasses because of the headlights and streetlights. Yeah, great!

So the fix for this is corneal surgery. My dad's already on his second or third set. They last about 20 years, give or take. And actually there's a new surgery now, so we're note really sure. The first people to receive the surgery from my doctor are still going, and we're already up to 15 to 20 years. So its looking good for me. Once upon a time, like for my dad, they would just replace the entire cornea. Now, what I'm going to receive is more of a...patchwork. They're going to take pieces of cornea and just replace the bits that need to be replaced. The whole thing is supposed to take all of two days to heal from. I won't be able to see perfectly at first, that will take from a few weeks to a few months, we'll see. Then we're on to the other eye.

The weird part of all this was the hole in my iris.

Yep, I had to have a hole in my iris. Now, what freaked ME out was that this is supposed to help keep the cornea patches in place. Which I sort of understand in a physics sort of way, right? Like a vacuum, there's a force sucking it onto my eye. BUT that would mean there's nothing behind my eye. Okay, so that's creepy. And I don't think that's why it works because I have to keep it open until the surgery by use of steroid drops which implies it'll close up after the patchwork. Phew.

Now, my husband was freaking out for an entirely different reason. See he's old, too. He had a blocked blood vessel behind his left eye, and he has to have INJECTIONS IN HIS EYE.

EWWWWWW

I would much, much, much rather have surgery, even with holes in my eye, than have monthly shots in my eye. He was worried because those things are painful, damn painful, and so he assumed that this hole I got on Tuesday was going to be miserable. Also, he has to be damn careful afterwards. He's not allowed to be out in public, and he has to be very careful about bacterial and so on. He wanted me to ask my doctor like a thousand questions about post-procedure care because he was just sure there would be a laundry list of precautions.

But no, there wasn't. The big difference, aside from the over-and-over thing that really sucks, is that there was nothing foreign in my eye. It was a laser. It took three minutes, maybe, if you include getting my head at the right angle. One tiny little blast from the tiiiiiiiiiiny little laser, and it was done. Boom!

Yeah, it hurts a little. More in the morning before I've done the drops. My vision is a little worse, probably from the swelling. And after the drops the worst feeling I get is like there's something in my eye. So not a big deal.

The surgery is scheduled for May 11th, and I have to lay on my back (watch the comments, lol) for two days so I likely won't be around and about for a couple of days there, but I'll let you know how it went when I get back!

~*~Camylleon~*~