Okay, this is going to be one of those good news/bad news posts. For the last few months I’ve noticed my eyesight steadily going away (most of it only since this March), so as soon as I relocated to MO I got myself to an eye doctor to get my eyes checked out. Dr. “L” told me that I do indeed (as I had feared) have cataracts; but that my condition was too mild to get my insurance to pay for the surgery, so unless I wanted to pay for the whole thing myself I’d just have to live with it until things got worse. This was NOT what I wanted to hear, so I sought a second opinion from a Dr. “C”. (It so happened that one of our future neighbors works in his office and was effusive in her praise of his abilities). Well, Dr. “C” just saw me yesterday. Although I’m not going to call Dr. “L” unqualified by any means, I do believe Dr. “C” definitely knows his onions and he has my full confidence. His verdict: Bad News: I do indeed have cataracts. Good News: Dr. “C” does believe that my condition is severe enough now to justify insurance coverage; so surgery IS on the horizon. Bad News: My condition is now worse since I saw Dr. “L”, and may in fact get worse still before I go under the knife. (Even now, NO room I enter seems bright anymore; I dare not drive a car any longer at nighttime, and I even carry a small flashlight so I can read the menus in a restaurant – or not kill myself finding my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night). Good News: Dr. “C” believes that having the surgery will not only stop the degeneration, but allow me to regain most of the sight I’ve already lost. Bad News: I have a fairly narrow window to get the surgery done; Dr. “C” wants me to wait a few months while my corneas heal up some before the surgery, but having it in Nov./Dec. would put me under the knife right in the middle of holiday season. Good News: Having the surgery when I’d be taking time off anyway might not be so bad an idea. Besides, it would be smart to have it while the insurance situation is a known quantity (Who knows what our insurance will or will not cover next year?) Bad News: My condition is already making it hard on Terri and Jordan; if my vision gets even worse while I’m waiting I might not even be able to function. Good News: Any further degeneration would only reinforce my claim’s legitimacy to the insurance company. The more coverage I get from our insurance; the easier it will be to justify digging into my own pocket and upgrading to something like Crystal Lens; a twofer which would nearly eliminate my need for corrective lenses going forward. Am I nervous about having this surgery? Yes, but the current situation is becoming unbearable. What surprised me is how quickly it descended on me once it all started; I thought it was supposed to happen so gradually you just woke up one day and realized you needed the surgery; instead it came on so quickly I genuinely believed I was at risk of permanently losing my sight. In short, if I could have the surgery tomorrow morning I would.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 23:04:44 +0000
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