Mark, this ain't nearly as serious as your procedure, but a few years ago while cutting grass I caught a low hanging plum tree branch on the handle of the mower. It whipped back and smacked me right in the eye. Put a little cut in my eyeball. Hurt like a SOB. I had that "Pirate at 40" (ok, 50) look for 2 weeks. It was tough keeping that patch on, for that long, but it was worth it. Keep on keepin' on, dude!

Wonderful song....
If the doc says I gotta play pirate for a couple of weeks....Arrrgggghhhh matey, that's the way she blows.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Still not drinking either.

Glad to hear that.
Get well and I will send you that doe picture again. Then you can really appreciate it.

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Still not drinking either.

Glad to hear that.
Get well and I will send you that doe picture again. Then you can really appreciate it.

Laying back and working on healing, Hon.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Great!
I hope the outcome is everything you expected.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Mark, this ain't nearly as serious as your procedure, but a few years ago while cutting grass I caught a low hanging plum tree branch on the handle of the mower. It whipped back and smacked me right in the eye. Put a little cut in my eyeball. Hurt like a SOB. I had that "Pirate at 40" (ok, 50) look for 2 weeks. It was tough keeping that patch on, for that long, but it was worth it. Keep on keepin' on, dude!

Wonderful song....
If the doc says I gotta play pirate for a couple of weeks....Arrrgggghhhh matey, that's the way she blows.

Mark, please follow Scarecrow's very good advice,
Main thing now is to get lots rest and get feeling better.

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Well folks......

It's patch-off for the kittyman.

Went to the eye doc this morning, and things appear to be going normally.
No pain or discomfort. Eye pressure is within acceptable range. The implant is centered very well. I can see out of the eye...focus is not real sharp, lotta floaters from the broken up old lens, some swelling within the eye, a little double vision. All of which is apparently within normal limits 24 hours after surgery.

But if I get my nose 2 feet away, I can read the computer monitor with it. Which is about 100 times better than before. The eye was useless before the surgery.

Instructions are to take it easy, rest a lot, NO heavy lifting or bending over from the waist. Eye drops (3 different ones), 1 drop each 3 times a day, and put the patch back on at night so the eye does not get accidentally hit whilst I sleep.

I can only hope for a bit more improvement as the swelling within the eye goes down and healing continues. If not, at least I have sight back in the eye. And I am very thankful to God for that at this point.

I had a blank lens installed in the right side of my safety glasses for work so I still have correction for my left eye when I go back to work for a couple of weeks, but none for the Bionic one...you are not supposed to wear corrective lenses over it, but rather let it try to work on focusing without any as it heals.
Next appointment is next Tuesday at 4:00PM.

Back to work on July 12th, and then I go through the whole thing again on the left eye on July 26th with another 2 weeks of medical leave after that.

Keep the thoughts and prayers coming.

Thank you all.

Mark

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Great news Mark.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

I was on vacation last week so I missed all the fun, but I suspect your eyesight will continue to improve over the next few weeks and maybe for up to a month or two. It will take time for the eye to heal and as it does, your vision should improve.

Sounds like you made the right decision.

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Excellent, Mark.

Now just the recovery and then 20/20 vision.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

Nice Mark! Great new's buddy! Heal up, and in no time you'll be so thankful you did this.

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Yes! They can rebuild him!

In a month or so we will have the world's first fully bionic kitty!

Get well soon, Mark. Glad everything is going well.

Giz.

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Can we have an update please Mark? I believe you had a follow up appointment last Tuesday.

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Can we have an update please Mark? I believe you had a follow up appointment last Tuesday.

Yes...you can read my last post in this thread, which I made when I got home from that appointment.

Since then, nothing much new....keeping up with the eyedrops and letting the healing take it's course. The focus thing has not gotten much better in the last couple of days. But it's a great thing to be able to see out of the eye again!! I am very thankful for that. If I look at the moon or a star, I only see one of them....not a blurry cluster of them. It's a good thing. My brain is still trying to cope with input from the eye which it had been basically ignoring for almost 2 years.

I'll know a bit more after my next follow up, which is next Tuesday afternoon. It's possible there might be some Lasik or other treatment required yet, or I may still have to wear glasses to get back to 100%...just don't know yet.

And at the end of July....we do the left eye...oh my.

Thanks again to all for your thoughts.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Mark thank you for pointing me to that, I must have missed it.
I have changed my settings lately.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

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Mark thank you for pointing me to that, I must have missed it.
I have changed my settings lately.

No problem....thanks for caring enough to ask how things were going...just didn't want to post the whole lot over again.

Done with the last round of drops for the day....off to sleep with the kitties soon. They do still want me to put the patch over it at night until my next appointment. I do get a bit more tired than usual what with the brain working overtime coping with two eyes now.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Mark, thanks
Just do what the doctors order and keep us posted. You darn well know I care.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Great new's Mark! It will heal, it just takes time buddy. Thanks for the updates. And we look forward to seeing your next update next Tuesday.

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Kittyman update.....

Just got back from my 1 week followup after the cataract surgery. Here's how it's playing out so far.

Healing is going along just fine, no problems there. Fully cleared to go back to work next week.

The sight in the eye is approximately 20/60 at this point, and I don't really expect it to get much better with healing, but I would be glad to be proven wrong. Not bad at all considering it was something south of 20/400 before the surgery! I had little or no discomfort from the surgery, and had little problem with sunlight outside. I only wore the shades for a few days afterward.

It is wonderful to be able to see out of it again!!!! In daily walkabout life it is great to be able to see things again....outside in bright daylight it does really well. Simple things like looking at trees and such. You forget how beautiful some things are. And at night, when I look into the sky at a bright star...I only see one star. Not a blurry spot with a bunch of blurry spots surrounding it. For the better part of 2 years, that's all I had. I just can't read much with it.

I have a slight blur way off to my right, only in my peripheral vision. That's the scar from the incision where they inserted the new lens. The doc said it should shrink a bit as healing progresses, but if not, it is way off to the side and is something I would readily get used to. Not in the main field of view at all.

The epi retinal membrane that I was diagnosed with a year before the cataracts took over does not seem to be too much of a factor right now...if the doc is correct, that would be a good thing.

I am getting some double vision from it still....when I look a black text on a white page, there is a shadow of the image, a little larger than the image. Which is part of what messes up trying to read with it. The doc said this is due to astigmatism, which of course existed in the eye well before the surgery, and the implant does not correct for this.

Good news is, she did some preliminary checks, and the eye can be corrected to near 20/20 now with corrective lenses! So I have much hope than I will be able to see at near 100% with it at some point in the future.

Future timeframe.....

On the 26th of July, I get the left eye done.
On the 27th of July, I go in for the post-op checkup on the left eye and will get a prescription to replace the plano right lens now in my glasses with one that will allow my bionic eye to work as well as it can at that point. And I ordered a plano lens for the left eye for the weeks after that surgery.

After about 3 months, they consider healing pretty much complete, and will decide on additional measures to enhance the vision further. From the sounds of it, this could involve YAG laser treatment and/or an actual Lasik procedure to compensate for the astigmatism.

So....sorry for being a little long winded, but many have asked me how I have been doing, and wanted to give as much information as possible.

And hopefully, if anybody else has similar problems or is considering cataract surgery, reading about it will put them a bit more at ease about things than this scaredy-cat was before I had mine done. The second eye won't spook me like the first one did, having been through it.
Piece of cake. Or would that be a piece of kibble? LOL.

It is very expensive for me, as I opted to pay out of pocket for the multi-focal lens upgrade rather than settle for the single vision implants which insurance covers. I would not hesitate to make the decision again....I'd trade a good used car to be able to see any day.

Long story short.....the kittyman is very happy.
Meow meow meow.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Mark, I am delighted! Thank you so much for posting that update. What ever you do , don't look at the picture on the left of this responce. It's scary enough for my father. :)

Steve

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Great Mark! I'm glad it is going as good as it is. As I said before, my mom fell in love with having her eyes done. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to get the 2nd eye done due to her getting sick and passing away. But, I will always remember how she felt when she got out of the surgery, how happy she was to be able to see, and how quick and easy it was. I look forward to hearing how your 2nd eye goes, and what is to come in the future for your eyes. Thanks for sharing the info Mark. I really appreciate it.

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