For almost a year I had seriously considered cataract surgery for Kate. I held back because I had a concern about potential effects of the anesthesia. In addition, she seemed to be getting along pretty well even though her vision was about 20/60. Two recent changes made me believe now was the time to act. The first was that I noticed that she was pretty shaky crossing streets and going up or down curbs or stairs. Even more striking was her inability to see where puzzle pieces should go even when there was only one remaining piece. The second was how poorly she did on her last ophthalmologist’s visit. She couldn’t even see the big “E” that covered the whole screen. The doctor said she was legally blind in that eye. As a result we made the appointment for surgery.
Among my concerns was that the surgery was scheduled for 11:00 this morning. That meant I would have to wake her earlier than usual. Fortunately, that turned out to be relatively easy. When I went into the bedroom, she was already awake and said hello. When I walked over to the bed, she gave me a big smile. To me that meant she recognized me. I told her I wanted to put some drops in her eyes. That startled her, and she wanted to know who I was. I gave her my name and told her I was her husband. This was one of those times she just wasn’t convinced. I decided to divert her and focused on getting ready. I told her we had to get ready for her eye doctor’s appointment, and I really needed her to get up. She was very cooperative.
We had a little time after she had dressed. I took her to the family room and asked her to sit down. I sat beside her and opened her “Big Sister Album.” She is always taken by the cover photo of her with her brother when she was five or six. I told her it was a picture of her and her brother. Then we opened the book and saw pictures of her with her mother and father. We went through several pages, and it seemed like her confusion was over. We didn’t, however get to pictures in which I was included, so I don’t know if she was beginning to recognize me or not. She was so engrossed with the album I suggested we take it with us. She liked the idea although I am sure she had no idea where we were going. I know she couldn’t remember we were going to see the eye doctor.
After checking in, we sat down in the waiting room and started looking at the album again. She loved seeing her baby pictures and commented on how cute she was. She asked me to identify her mother and father. Then we looked to the page on the right. I pointed to a woman and asked if she knew who that was. She said, “Nana.” She was right.
We didn’t get very far until we were called to the surgical area. It was very clear that she had no idea why she was there and what was going to happen, but she was very calm and cooperative with the various people who were assisting. Our appointment was at 11:00, and the surgery was over just after noon. They called me in about 12:20, and brought her to a recovery area five minutes later. We were on our way home before 1:00.
The only issue it looks like we are facing is keeping her from rubbing her eye. They put a rather substantial patch on her eye and told us to keep it on for six hours. I gave up after four hours. By that time she had taken the patch off twice, once when I left the room to brush my teeth and another when I was sitting in a chair ten feet across from her. She had frequently asked if she could take it off since leaving the doctor’s office. She simply can’t remember that she had surgery or that she has to wear the patch.
The doctor called around 4:00 to check on her. I told her the patch was off. She said that is all right but that I should do my best to see that she doesn’t rub her eye. We have an appointment with her at 11:20 tomorrow. I assume she will probably look at the eye to see how it is healing. I trust it will go well.
I took the patch off when we went to dinner assuming that I would be able to watch her closely from across the table. We had no problems. After we got back home, I saw her begin to rub her eye and had to put the patch back on. I hope we don’t have any problems while sleeping.
