Seein' Single!

Shortly after our twins were born, Elisabeth (who was 4 at the time) asked me why I always tilted my head to the side and closed one eye. I had no idea what she was talking about at first -- and then I realized that I had begun to see double and was trying to compensate for it.

I went to an optometrist who proclaimed that I had a severe vertical imbalance, probably having something to do with the birth of the twins, and he prescribed glasses with prisms in them. After that I immersed myself in raising four kids born within five years, with nary a moment to myself, so glasses and prisms were fine with me.

Fast forward about ten years. I'm getting pretty tired of wearing glasses and go to an ophthalmologist who diagnoses my problem as "fourth cranial nerve palsy" which led to a severe vertical imbalance, probably either caused or brought on by the twin pregnancy and birth. To make things worse, he tells me that I can't wear contacts and I can't have surgery, but also informs me that I'm now officially old and therefore I need reading glasses! So now I have TWO pairs of glasses -- one for reading and computer and one for distance, and I am forever switching the two. (I'm told that bifocals and progressive lenses won't work with my affliction, so I spend inordinate amounts of time futzing with my various pairs of glasses.) In business meetings and presentations, it's really ridiculous, with as much effort spent putting on and taking off glasses as on the content of the dang presentation! But I didn't think I had a choice, so I just dealt with the situation.

And that's how things stayed for years and years and years.

Until this week. On Tuesday I went to another new optometrist (because of insurance) in order to get an eye exam and update my frames. This optometrist spent a good amount of time with me, baffled -- as they always are -- about the severity of my vertical imbalance. Finally she tells me that she thinks there might be a solution to my problem -- surgery. No, I tell her, I was already told that surgery isn't an option. She suggests that I see her colleague, a surgical ophthalmologist... and that's where I went today.

And GUESS WHAT (she asks in all caps)? I will be having surgery in two weeks and after that I won't need any glasses at all except the generic Costco variety for reading! I am still in absolute shock! This whole eye and glasses problem has occupied a huge amount of time and energy for almost twenty years and the notion that one day I can just be through with it is amazing and phenomenal and delightful for me!

Delightful and scary, that is. This is not Lasik surgery. Instead, it is done at a hospital under general anesthesia and... well, what if something goes wrong? I know -- these are thoughts that anyone anticipating any surgery goes through, so I just need to deal and move forward and DO IT!

I've always had vision and I've always been focused, but now I can finally do it without spectacles!