I am a bit hopelessly blind waiting for cataract surgery and the rest of me works in mysterious ways too. I am officially eligible for holidays though and because I burned up my real holidays sitting for a deferred exam I am taking them, the hols, student vac, this weegend, fitting a couple of weeks in where I can.
It happens when an exam is deferred. Student life becomes continuous. By the time you knock off the deferred subject, the next is kicking in already.
I am in my New Age. Time is redefined, most especially I see (so to speak) since those heady days when, looking back, some of us did not give much of a thought to time, rather more to playing the fool.
I knew that of course so much do I value the play of foolery.
Myself I cannot fully express how valuable I have found it playing the fool in either the guise of Sandshoe or Hon Shades.
Foolery made light work of a lot of loss as if, looking back, there was none. This is not to discredit the more serious issues that impose sadness and loss on the human condition. Of course not. The rag bag of old textiles and new syntheses of who and what we are has many ages. All of them are new to each of us. We have never been where we contemporaneously are each time we arrive at another.
Glory be she’s taken a serious turn. Well of course. II am sweating every day on my latest exam results.
Boy I know what you mean at so many levels in your comment. I too am starting the journey with cataracts. Apparently it is early days – which is apparently the best time for getting new lenses. It scares me a lot. Iv’e always had a bung right eye from birth – my pupil is not in the centre of my iris. I was blind in that eye at birth, then I got light and dark, then colour and eventually my eye provided a bit of useful information – perception of movement.
So I relied on the good left for all these years and now it’s doing the cataract tango too.
I gather that they will operate on the bad eye first and my optom guy said, I’ll have the best vision in my whole life and not need glasses. If that works, they’ll have a shot at the “good eye”. But the thought of somebody poking around in there with me fully awake and immobilised is terrifying. But like a roller coaster – once you’re on, there’s no getting off !
Life in general has been pretty good. I’m still working but struggling to find work (happy 71st birthday, Emmjay). Currently working 1.5 jobs – some part-time work for when my contract at JCU Townsville runs out at the end of November. Bad time to be between contracts is Christmas because no hiring happens until February by when everyone is desperate and willing to work for crumbs !
So glad to hear you’re studying ! Keeping an active mind is two-thirds of being healthy. Sadly, the last third involves exercise. And I’m glad and proud to say I’ve just clocked up 12 months of going to the gym 4 X 1 hr a week. My GP strongly suggested that I lose 10kg and while this is proving difficult, I scored an Exercise Physiologist who has struck the right balance between making me fit and killing me. No actual weight loss but I AM turning lard into muscle – useful around the house for doing floor gymnastics like … standing up.
It’s been a while since I’ve visited. I had cataracts removed in 2020 during COVID. Its amazing surgery, I was going blind in one eye and very difficult to drive at night. I had multifocals as well as very thick readers. Nowadays I don’t wear glasses generally. I have readers even though I can read without them, saves the eyes from getting tired. My short-sightedness is now at 0.25 just a fraction out. My Ophthalmologists says I have better than 20:20 vision i.e. reading the fifth line on the chart. I can read the sixth line at least.
The one thing I do need is sunglasses and they are prescription. At this time of the year its bright outside so sunnies are necessary. I also wear them when driving even though glasses are no longer endorsed on my licence.
One problem I have found is low light, I go see a show or a play and its blurry. Saw a show recently and couldn’t see the stage clearly as it was dark, had to wear my sunglasses. Weird in the dark. I’ve now got a pair of distance glasses for that and driving at night.
Much the same experience coming up for me with slowly developing cataracts.
Pretty good multi focals. Super powerful lenses for on-screen work. These are great but they have a very small depth of field – focal length – arm down to 2nd knuckle and it’s crystal clear – but only an inch either side of that. Cannot walk around in them !
I heard that private surgery – no waiting but $4k per eye. Did you go public and wait ? I also heard that it’s a 2 year wait so if I don’t want to shell out, I’d better get in the queue now.
Apart from that, hitting the gym 4 x 1 hr per week and feeling OK.
Coming to the end of my contract with James Cook Uni, Townsville. Thankfully there’s a few more jobs around now – I have an interview on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
I went private, from memory $3.3k per eye, got a bit back on the private health. One of my cataracts ripened fairly quickly, if I’d waited I would have been blind in the eye. It was getting that way when the surgery was done.
Then I can’t always see where the space is to start a comment back and so I randomly guess until type begins to appear.
That’s really nice to hear from both Algy and Emmjay’s experiences. We cannot know the short and the long and the tall of our feelings about being vision impaired unless we share them. The loss of peripheral vision is affecting my mobility fairly profoundly. I have become timid as a result of the unaccustomed sense of isolation it imposes.
It as well feels to me these days as if I am growing blinder every nearly second. Actually seeing what my left eye looks like entirely covered with a cataract was one of the most distressing experiences. that’s pretty ugly that it looks exactly how it feels. Well dead.
Amazing what sightedness is in retrospect. It’s a whole heap of personality, determines our outlook (no pun intended), our expectations. I have been on the waiting list for Queensland government supplied surgery for a couple of years. Getting on a waiting list is a priority.
I wish (of course) we could revive the PA to its hey days, but may it be a meeting place for as long as can be. I hope for that.
I wish I could report employment that is meaningful.
I am meeting with three of my JCU significant others on a Zoom meeting tomorrow to discuss my studies. I think I’m not going much further. Pity albeit. I am 18 points short of a 72 point LLB.
Sorry for this ridiculously slow response. I wish you could rack up those last 18 points. Can you seek assistance from the university – tell a student counsellor about your problem and see what they can do. Some of them are amazing.
How are your eyes going ? Mine are slowly sliding towards having the cataracts removed. Optometrist said “within the next two years”. But I think he’s beimng optimistic. I get dry watery eyes after a few hours reading anything despite having two pairs of specs – one multifocal and one pair just for screen time. The latter is very good for that but it has a super shallow depth of field and it’s scary to walk around wearing the screen specs. Everything is blurry.
I think of you often, our Dear ‘Shoe. And I hope you are well .
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I am a bit hopelessly blind waiting for cataract surgery and the rest of me works in mysterious ways too. I am officially eligible for holidays though and because I burned up my real holidays sitting for a deferred exam I am taking them, the hols, student vac, this weegend, fitting a couple of weeks in where I can.
It happens when an exam is deferred. Student life becomes continuous. By the time you knock off the deferred subject, the next is kicking in already.
I am in my New Age. Time is redefined, most especially I see (so to speak) since those heady days when, looking back, some of us did not give much of a thought to time, rather more to playing the fool.
I knew that of course so much do I value the play of foolery.
Myself I cannot fully express how valuable I have found it playing the fool in either the guise of Sandshoe or Hon Shades.
Foolery made light work of a lot of loss as if, looking back, there was none. This is not to discredit the more serious issues that impose sadness and loss on the human condition. Of course not. The rag bag of old textiles and new syntheses of who and what we are has many ages. All of them are new to each of us. We have never been where we contemporaneously are each time we arrive at another.
Glory be she’s taken a serious turn. Well of course. II am sweating every day on my latest exam results.
Christina
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Our Dearest ‘Shoe, so lovely to hear from you !
Boy I know what you mean at so many levels in your comment. I too am starting the journey with cataracts. Apparently it is early days – which is apparently the best time for getting new lenses. It scares me a lot. Iv’e always had a bung right eye from birth – my pupil is not in the centre of my iris. I was blind in that eye at birth, then I got light and dark, then colour and eventually my eye provided a bit of useful information – perception of movement.
So I relied on the good left for all these years and now it’s doing the cataract tango too.
I gather that they will operate on the bad eye first and my optom guy said, I’ll have the best vision in my whole life and not need glasses. If that works, they’ll have a shot at the “good eye”. But the thought of somebody poking around in there with me fully awake and immobilised is terrifying. But like a roller coaster – once you’re on, there’s no getting off !
Life in general has been pretty good. I’m still working but struggling to find work (happy 71st birthday, Emmjay). Currently working 1.5 jobs – some part-time work for when my contract at JCU Townsville runs out at the end of November. Bad time to be between contracts is Christmas because no hiring happens until February by when everyone is desperate and willing to work for crumbs !
So glad to hear you’re studying ! Keeping an active mind is two-thirds of being healthy. Sadly, the last third involves exercise. And I’m glad and proud to say I’ve just clocked up 12 months of going to the gym 4 X 1 hr a week. My GP strongly suggested that I lose 10kg and while this is proving difficult, I scored an Exercise Physiologist who has struck the right balance between making me fit and killing me. No actual weight loss but I AM turning lard into muscle – useful around the house for doing floor gymnastics like … standing up.
Anyway – time to go and water the roses.
Lots of love,
Emmjay
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It’s been a while since I’ve visited. I had cataracts removed in 2020 during COVID. Its amazing surgery, I was going blind in one eye and very difficult to drive at night. I had multifocals as well as very thick readers. Nowadays I don’t wear glasses generally. I have readers even though I can read without them, saves the eyes from getting tired. My short-sightedness is now at 0.25 just a fraction out. My Ophthalmologists says I have better than 20:20 vision i.e. reading the fifth line on the chart. I can read the sixth line at least.
The one thing I do need is sunglasses and they are prescription. At this time of the year its bright outside so sunnies are necessary. I also wear them when driving even though glasses are no longer endorsed on my licence.
One problem I have found is low light, I go see a show or a play and its blurry. Saw a show recently and couldn’t see the stage clearly as it was dark, had to wear my sunglasses. Weird in the dark. I’ve now got a pair of distance glasses for that and driving at night.
Its amazing surgery and makes such a difference.
Trust you’re both well
Algy.
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Dear Algy.
Much the same experience coming up for me with slowly developing cataracts.
Pretty good multi focals. Super powerful lenses for on-screen work. These are great but they have a very small depth of field – focal length – arm down to 2nd knuckle and it’s crystal clear – but only an inch either side of that. Cannot walk around in them !
I heard that private surgery – no waiting but $4k per eye. Did you go public and wait ? I also heard that it’s a 2 year wait so if I don’t want to shell out, I’d better get in the queue now.
Apart from that, hitting the gym 4 x 1 hr per week and feeling OK.
Coming to the end of my contract with James Cook Uni, Townsville. Thankfully there’s a few more jobs around now – I have an interview on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
Very best wishes for you and the A tribe 👍🙏😁
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I went private, from memory $3.3k per eye, got a bit back on the private health. One of my cataracts ripened fairly quickly, if I’d waited I would have been blind in the eye. It was getting that way when the surgery was done.
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Then I can’t always see where the space is to start a comment back and so I randomly guess until type begins to appear.
That’s really nice to hear from both Algy and Emmjay’s experiences. We cannot know the short and the long and the tall of our feelings about being vision impaired unless we share them. The loss of peripheral vision is affecting my mobility fairly profoundly. I have become timid as a result of the unaccustomed sense of isolation it imposes.
It as well feels to me these days as if I am growing blinder every nearly second. Actually seeing what my left eye looks like entirely covered with a cataract was one of the most distressing experiences. that’s pretty ugly that it looks exactly how it feels. Well dead.
Amazing what sightedness is in retrospect. It’s a whole heap of personality, determines our outlook (no pun intended), our expectations. I have been on the waiting list for Queensland government supplied surgery for a couple of years. Getting on a waiting list is a priority.
I wish (of course) we could revive the PA to its hey days, but may it be a meeting place for as long as can be. I hope for that.
I wish I could report employment that is meaningful.
I am meeting with three of my JCU significant others on a Zoom meeting tomorrow to discuss my studies. I think I’m not going much further. Pity albeit. I am 18 points short of a 72 point LLB.
LikeLike
Sorry for this ridiculously slow response. I wish you could rack up those last 18 points. Can you seek assistance from the university – tell a student counsellor about your problem and see what they can do. Some of them are amazing.
How are your eyes going ? Mine are slowly sliding towards having the cataracts removed. Optometrist said “within the next two years”. But I think he’s beimng optimistic. I get dry watery eyes after a few hours reading anything despite having two pairs of specs – one multifocal and one pair just for screen time. The latter is very good for that but it has a super shallow depth of field and it’s scary to walk around wearing the screen specs. Everything is blurry.
I think of you often, our Dear ‘Shoe. And I hope you are well .
Love from Emm
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Yep
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