So, I’m sitting in the chair looking at the eye chart across the room on the wall, with that little doohickie in my hand, blocking one eye while I use the other. I do my best to read what I can, and as I look over to my husband I see him chuckling. “What’s so funny”, I asked him. He briefly tells me that some of the letters I was reading off the chart are not actually used on these tests. Letters such as Q and many others apparently confuse the brain. I went to my friend Google and asked what letters were not used. I should have asked which ones were used, because the list is actually quite small. The only letters used are C, D, E, F, L, N, O, P, T and Z. I have been seeing and reading Q’s, along with many other letters on these dumb things for years. How did no one ever mention this part to me, so I could avoid all this confusion?

I learned a great many things during this appointment, aside from my inability to read out loud properly. I have not one Cataract my friends, but I got a twofer… yay me! I was only aware of the problem with my right eye, but I was blessed with one for each eye.

The next question the doctor had for me was, “Did you ever damage your eye before, like an accident maybe?” I answered no, and was immediately taken back in my mind to when I was around 5 or 6 years of age. I had a sudden memory of being propelled into the dash of our car from the back seat… lights flashing, paramedics running everywhere, and then a memory of walking through the curtains in an emergency room from bed to bed looking for my mother and brother. All these years later in an eye exam room, I remembered!

So not only can I not read an eye chart, I apparently have a medical history that I forgot about. Funny how the brain works sometimes.

Anyway, he thinks that there was trauma that makes it look like I have Glaucoma, but not really have it… yet! Not sure about it for the time being, and they will know more when they remove the silly cataracts. They do not know why I developed them so early, as most patients arrive with this issue while in their 60’s and 70’s. I do have deep blue eyes and have spent most of my life out in the sun though, so that may not have helped the situation.

I will say that the idea of having someone put something in my eyeball, while I am watching, does put this vessel into a bit of a tale spin… I do NOT like being touched! Triggers up the wazzoo for this wild child!

I am so grateful that they have this little melt on your tongue thing that makes you not care what they do… and if I want to write anything, I need my eyes… so I am mustering all the courage I got and letting God do the rest. I have a surgeon with a wonderful bedside manner, as well as a very professional way of explaining the process and answering my questions, so God has chosen my path and I will walk in faith to do what must be done for my continued health.

Two things I discovered through this process, aside from not being able to read an eye chart, or remember major events in my past…

The first odd but encouraging thing was, when they dilated my eyes I gained 6 hours of the best vision of my life, as long as I had my glasses on. No clue why, but maybe it had something to do with being able to see around my cataracts better with my pupils wide open… don’t know, don’t care… just loved being able to see things clearly. I did not realize how long it has been.

The second discovery was the fact that my doctor has a great sense of humor, which is something that put both myself and my hubby at ease. I am considering finding a pair of those ridiculous contacts that make your eyes look different. I think I want the ones that make my eye look like a cyborg. I want to hand them to my surgeon as they wheel me in for the procedure…

**Be honest… you know that you would do this in a heartbeat if you thought they would go along with it!**