Ron's Baby Blues

Ron has been dealing with a cataract in his left eye for at least the last five years. Cataracts are funny things. You may have them, but they won't do anything about them until they "ripen". Once they ripen, they are ready to be "plucked". So, we had to wait for Ron's cataract to ripen!

His last eye appointment was in October. He was told that not only did his left eye have one cataract, but it actually now had two cataracts and was indeed ripe for plucking. As a bonus to that, he was also informed that his right eye now also had started developing its own cataract. Lucky guy, huh?

Ron waited until the time was right to take care of this problem. Luckily, the time is now right! He had his first appointment with an eye surgeon this afternoon.

He received a thorough examination from two other staff members and then we had a consult with the surgeon himself. This guy had great bedside manner. He explained everything that would happen to Ron in surgery from the sedation, to the surgeon saying a prayer before he starts the procedure to Ron's recovery. Then he left us in the capable hands of his staff to process all that was told to us and to start making the appointments to go forward with it.

Bottom line - he is starting on the left eye, which is the worst. The right eye is technically not ready for plucking. And, since his vision is good with correction (glasses) the insurance company won't pay for the right eye either at this time. Once the left eye is done, there is a possibility that Ron could have a problem with one eye being so good and the other eye being so bad. If he has problems with perception, the insurance company will then pay for the right eye since it is a question of him functioning in life. So, the right eye is on a we'll see basis.

Here are the details for the left eye though.

Ron goes in this coming Wednesday, August 9th. They will measure both eyes for the size and shape of the replacement lens they will need. Since they end up removing Ron's lens in his eye during the removal of the cataract, they will need to insert a plastic replacement lens. Even though they are not planning on surgery on the right eye, that one will be measured anyway. From there he will go across the hall for a presurgical exam, just to verify that his health is good enough to undergo surgery.

The big day for surgery is Monday, August 14th. We won't find out the surgery time until sometime the Friday before. We are to show up an hour before surgery and they expect the surgery to last a whole six minutes or so! Nice!

I will keep you posted in here as to his progress. Keep the happy thoughts coming that all goes well.