Tuesday Afternoon of 18 May, 2004

I last saw my eye doctor in September 2002. Money is tight when you are in a Chapter 13, so I didn’t get around to my "annual" checkup until yesterday, when it discovered that I had a fast growing cataract in my right eye. Which explains the blurry vision that I thought meant I needed a stronger prescription.

In any case, the cataract surgery is scheduled for 8 June. I see Donna (my physician) on 1 June for pre-op work such as another blood test, ECG, and X-ray. When I was talking to Donna this morning (to arrange for this), she mentioned my blood work done last Friday was excellent all around, especially the cholesterol levels.

I talked to my supervisor at work, and he agreed to let me have 5 days sick time, 8 – 12 June. My scheduled days off are 13/14 June, so that should be enough time to recover.

And just to show that it is not all doom-and gloom, I should mention that today, for the first time in 8 months, I had my car washed. Had enough money to justify this luxury. Plus I was tired of all the jerks writing "wash me, pig" in the dust on the car.

And just because I have so little spare time, I joined www.marketocracy.com (http://www.marketocracy.com/) for free and have started running my own virtual mutual funds. There is absolutely no justification for this, other then the standard cat attitude of "just because". Some of that attitude is rubbing off on this Cat-Daddy. "Cat_Daddy" is my Marketocracy name for my funds.

The cats, of course, are quite comfortable. My bed has become more or less neutral ground where the cats have agreed to gather without hissing or swatting. Of course, 1 in 20 cataract operations go awry, and we can only hope that I will be in the other group.

Dear Andrew,

I hope your surgery goes well. Cataracts are serious but fortunately they are one of the eye maladies that doctors can do something about.

Jema

Andrew,

I too wish you the best on the upcoming surgery, you deserve a break.

River

Andrew,

I assume that they are doing the lens implant?

The stitchless technique has a higher success rate. You know that there is no hurry to have this procedure done. Since your supervisor has already approved your time off, you may want to talk to some who have had the procedure done.

But otherwise, I am sure that you will be O.K.

You will probably correct to at least 20-30; I have seen some get 20-15 back and since the implants are more like a young lens, it can eliminate the need for reading glasses, as long as you close the eye that does not have the new lens.

Good Luck!!

A-1

Good luck in your surgery, Andrew. I know of a number of people who have had the surgery, and it seems to have turned out well for all of them. One of them said that he thought his vision was better after the surgery than it had ever been.