Well some may have noticed I haven't been on the site as much in the past few weeks other than to check on things, post a blog, try to respond to messages and do the usual spam, porn removal task that go with owning the site. You might even have noticed I haven't been too social. I'm sorry about that. I've been preoccupied with a problem I debated about mentioning to everyone, but finally decided it was time.
Several months ago I went to the eye Doctors thinking I'd got something in my eye while I was in the brush on my tractor. Or heaven forbid I was coming down with Macular Degeneration which my Mom has and can be hereditary. That scares the crap out of me. There is no cure and it's almost impossible to slow down. You go blind from it period. Some faster than others.

Well after the usual zillion drops, bright lights attempting to read those stupid charts a prognoses was made. Good News no signs of Macular Degeneration or any other eye disease YAY! Whew what a relief! BUT ya the deal cincher. I have fast growing cataracts, in both eyes. Well that kind of upset me since I'm 51 and really haven't had any vision issues. Being 50% deaf is bad enough ya know what I mean. So after the usual Q & A, I walked out,  sat in the car thinking about what had been said. Eventually I left and drove home. I told my husband, my family and eventually a couple of friends. Then I started reading about cataracts, lens, surgeries all the data I could find so I'd be informed when I finally went to the surgeon. I managed to find a silver lining behind this dark cloud. I might not need glasses after this! Hey I can stand not hunting my glasses when I want to read something. It won't hurt my feelings not to ask the hubby if he's seen my glasses when they're on my face and he gives me that silly grin that makes me so mad.

A lot of people go blind because of cataracts. They're expensive to have removed, about $3000 per eye with NO complications. Insurance companies won't pay to have them removed until your vision is REALLY crappy. Not something a trucker can afford to wait on to happen because we have to see to do our jobs. Glasses won't correct the problem. I might be one of those people, we don't have health insurance like the rest of Americans that are struggling to stay afloat in these times.
Well I decided to ignore "them" for a while. I wasn't driving because of the elbow and knee surgeries. I guess in my own stupid little way I was hoping the Doctor was an idiot, made a mistake, faulty test results or they would miraculously go away on their own. You know the usual things you WANT to happen when something you're not prepared to accept pops in to your life.

Anyway I went to a specialist yesterday to have some more test done. After $335 bucks and 2.5 hours later, after billions of drops, retina scans, ultra sound machines, charts and these airplane landing BRIGHT LIGHTS the Doctor comes in. He told me what kind of cataracts I have and all the gory details including the surgery. They have a name, posterior polar cataracts, not a common type and not the easiest to remove. Long story short it might take two surgeries per eye to get my eyes straightened out. They don't cause as many issues during the day but at night they are murder. The halos from bright lights and floating spots they can drive you nuts.

My name should give you a clue as to when I prefer to drive. So in a few weeks I'll have surgery on my right eye, hopefully only one, then a few weeks later the left eye. I can see fine during the day, even at night as long as there are NO on coming head lights blasting me.
The reason I decided to mention this is so that maybe you'd take the time to get your eyes checked once a year at least, more often if you have diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration or any other problems that might affect your eyes. Smoking is one of the contributing factors for cataracts along with steroid injections and other things. I didn't go every year I went every two, if I had time. Well take the time because there isn't a way to replace your vision if something happens.
Truckers are the wost ones about taking care of themselves and their health. Not because we don't care but time is such as precious commodity for us and we don't want to spend home time at the doctors unless we just have no choice. Take the time to get a check up not the run of the mill DOT physical that we know and love, get a real check up. Include your eyes, hearing and guys, get a prostrate exam if your over 40. The sooner they find a problem the less money, time, pain and worry you'll have getting it fixed. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for the ones you love.

Tags: Cataracts Vision Polar Cataracts

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