the next day

Well that was one weepy evening! I felt like someone had dumped half the Sahara Desert into my eye. Every time the lid went down, it heaved shreds of glass and sand particles across the eye ball, releasing the next torrent of teary nonsense. All the meds in the world were not going to end that for me so I finally gave up and went to sleep, sealing my eyelid shut with tape handily provided by the surgical center.

And in the morning, the skies had cleared. The sands had shifted. The shreds of glass had cleared. I opened my eyes and they felt close to normal! And I thought how unpredictable this world is! The surgery on my first eye had been difficult, but the recovery was quick and easy. The second eye? Breezy surgery, tougher recovery! 

Resuming a more or less normal routine, I'm out of bed and out with the animals at not too late an hour.

It is unfortunate that my fall bulbs and plants arrived yesterday and they really should go into the ground very quickly, even as I am reading all these post surgical instructions about the need to not bend, lift, or steal (well, not steal) for the next few weeks. I will find a way to plant! But not today.

I am, however, up for baking and since I have bragged endlessly about how I can make blueberry muffin with eyes closed, I set to it. With eyes mostly open.

Breakfast, with Ed and with muffins.

Afterwards I embark on my new and exciting life without glasses. Sort of. My doc tried to give me both worlds: one eye that can read and one that can see distances. In trying for both, I probably wind up a little short on having a great result on either. First on my list of new acquisitions is a pair of reading glasses. Ed, who needed readers too after his cataract surgery nudges me toward his choice: a pack of six for $10. Use one from my batch!  You have never seen less attractive glasses. Still, to his point, you dont have to spend a lot on these things! Even fancy readers are going to be one twentieth the cost of bifocals. I am in a new, much less expensive world of glasses.

My surgeon inspected her work this afternoon. She is one who usually gives a good spin on anything coming out of her eye clinic, and this time I really have to agree -- the eye, despite its issues, seems to be functioning decently! 

I cant believe you did twelve surgeries yesterday -- I say to her with not a small amount of admiration.

Actually fourteen. My kids tell me they dont want to be doctors because I work too hard. But honestly, you can work as hard as you want to. For example, I get Monday mornings off. To do paperwork...

From the clinic, I scoot over to pick up Snowdrop. 

We note the cold. "I borrowed a friend's gloves today!" 

She notes my absence of glasses and tells me she likes me with them on. 

Oh, but I have better ones now! For reading! Reading? I want to try them!

I have to think someday soon she'll need them. Her mom was already wearing glasses in second grade. Maybe earlier. How good it is that we have these tools to help us navigate very tiny letters!

Much later, as I drop the girl at her brothers' school (where their mommy will be claiming all three), I see Sandpiper in the playground. I go over to say hello, but then of course, this makes him eager to go home. Except I really should not be carrying him today...

Don't worry, gaga, I can carry him!

Evening. Eye is healing, and, too, I am nearing the post-oral surgery time when I can eat popcorn again! Well, maybe not just yet. But soon! The week is ending so well for us here, in our little corner of south-central Wisconsin...

With gratitude and so much love...