I See...

Last night I squatted down by Mom's chair and gently reminded her that she had an appointment with Dr. Lerner in the morning. She looked confused. "I don't think I know who that is. Who is that again?" she asked.

"The eye doctor," I told her. Way deep inside, where she couldn't see, I felt my eyes want to roll, but really it made me sad.

"Why do I have to go there?" she balked, "I can see just fine. Who made that appointment?" She was obviously less than thrilled.

"I did" I said. "You haven't been there in three years."

She balked some more. "What are they going to do?" she queried.

"Check your eyes," I said and I walked away. She wasn't any more cooperative about the whole thing this morning, insisting she could see fine, and still not recalling Dr. Lerner, but getting up and dressed in spite of it all. Thankfully she is fairly obedient. ;)

Not everything Mom says or does surprises or baffles me anymore, but Dr. Lerner isn't stored in her short term memory banks. He did my eye surgery forty-five years ago when I was three or four years old. (He was my age then... Go ahead and do the math. I'm 48 now.) She was still confused when we arrived at the office and he hasn't moved any farther than across the hall since I was a child. Thankfully, she appeared to have collected her recognition of him by the time she was called back into the office.

We spent a long time at the eye doctor. Mom's glasses aren't working for her distance vision anymore. No wonder she keeps taking them off and losing them.

"What is this letter?" the doctor asked Mom.

"Is it an E?" she replied.

I heard him chuckle a little when he said, "This is a test." It's not like he could give her the answer and still find out whether or not she could see it. I found myself smiling just a little too.

Mom can still read things that are close, but she really needs cataract surgery. On a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the worst, she is a 4. As he explained the problem to her, it was obvious that she was not taking it all in. Thankfully, this doctor, who stopped preforming surgeries himself at age 78, has an understanding of "being an old fart and considered useless". "Don't you believe it!" he said. (He obviously has no intention of quitting his practice any time soon...)

I highly doubt that Mom could survive any type of major surgery, but I have been assured that cataract surgery is not a stressful or painful procedure, and since the only activities Mom is still able to enjoy require decent vision, I think interocular lenses are in her near future. She is sure to be hesitant and confused when it actually comes time to have it done. In fact I think she's already forgotten all about it.  Please pray that she will not be too terribly upset with us and that the surgery is highly successful. Maybe afterward she'll even enjoy watching birds outside and doing jigsaw puzzles again.