"I Can See Clearly Now ..." (Sort of)

Johnny Nash

That song--"I Can See Clearly Now"--was released in 1972, the year our son was born--in fact, it was released on June 23, just a few weeks before his birth on July 16. Here's the odd thing: After an infant is born, you don't see clearly now--at least I didn't--for, oh, a few decades. (Link to that song by Johnny Nash.) Your world, you realize, has begun to orbit someone else ...

Anyway, re: seeing clearly ...

I did not start wearing glasses until I was in my 30s--and then, reading glasses only. That changed as the years and decades rolled on. I still remember my first pair of bifocals: Sitting in the old Saywell's Drug Store (and soda fountain), trying to read the Plain Dealer, I wept because I had not yet adjusted to the bifocal design and feared I would never see well again. But I soon did, my eyes and brain grudgingly adjusting.

And then--about age 60 (when, for me, things began to disintegrate)--my sight began getting worse and worse. New Rx almost every year. And then even a new Rx didn't help. Cataracts. Blurry vision, double vision at times. Shadows and ghost letters on the pages I was reading.

The surgery/remedy sounded too grim to contemplate: slice open my eye, remove the old lens, insert a new one--a plastic one! ... the thought of it.

But I was becoming so frustrated with my inability to see--to drive safely--to read--that I figured, Aw, go ahead and cut open my damn eyeball!

And so they did. About two weeks ago, Joyce and I drove over to the Cleveland Eye Clinic in Brecksville early in the morning. A Tuesday. I was one of many there for the same surgery. A drug under my tongue. And the only thing I remember clearly is being wheeled out of the room; the next thing I knew I was back in the room, and it was over. And I could see. The surgery had taken about ten minutes.

I had to wear dark sunglasses outside for a week; I had to sleep with a plastic guard taped over my right eye for a week; I had to be careful in the shower; I am still taking eye drops.

But my right-eye vision has improved ... dramatically. In fact, today, I have worn no glasses (though I do keep reaching up to adjust them).

They will "do" my left eye on Tuesday, and we'll see how it all settles out, but it looks as if I'll need only a very basic Rx--if any--in the near future.

The world is brighter, more colorful now. More ... clear. My brain (I think) has recognized that my left eye is a goofball and has permitted the right eye to become dominant (it is the one that can see well!), and so I assume there will be another period of adjustment after Tuesday's surgery.

We'll see ... as they say.

Meanwhile, Johnny Nash's voice is in my head, and I am wondering why in the hell I didn't do this years ago!


PS--Johnny Nash is four years older than I ... wonder if he can see clearly now?