Friday, July 20, 2018

A Complications Weekly Link Round-Up




Tuesday, I went to a specialist to see about cataract surgery, and after a huge battery of tests (some of which made one of my eyes want to run screaming into the night), I learned that it's more complicated than mere cataract surgery. Both eyes need a superficial keratectomy first. For those of you who are interested, you can google it; I prefer to think of it as having my corneas sanded down.

Sand one eye down, wait a month. Sand the second eye down, wait a month. Then we get to talk seriously about cataract removal. It seems I have three options:
  1. Honda Civic. I'd still be wearing the glasses I wear now, but the prescriptions wouldn't be as strong.
  2. Lincoln Town Car. My distance vision would be 20/20 for the first time in my life, but I'd still need reading glasses.  
  3. Rolls Royce. Everything's corrected and I'll never wear glasses again.
Which one do I want? But wait-- there are more complications! Insurance only pays for the Honda Civic. No insurance company will pay for the Lincoln Town Car or the Rolls Royce. (Wonder if the eyeglass lobbyists have anything to do with that?) Someone suggested that I wait until I'm on Medicare because my co-pays would probably be cheaper, but I don't particularly want to wait that long. I might if I didn't like to see to drive or to knit or to read, but y'all know how likely it is that I'll give any of those things up!

I'm going to mull over my options while I mosey on out to the corral. Head 'em up! Moooooooooooove 'em out!



►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • Women are taught to fear the bogeyman. The real threat is closer to home.
  • Historical crime fiction is more than an escape.
  • Nearly half the patents on marine genes belong to just one company. 
  • We need more stories about tough women.
  • Looking back on Jurassic Park on its 25th anniversary. (I was there on opening day for the first showing, so I have an alibi for any cold case you're trying to solve!) In addition, here's an article about the movie's unlikely symbiosis with real-world science.
  • DNA leads to a breakthrough in a French cold case. 
  • Why are there laws that restrict what people can wear to the polls?


►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
  • Divers have made an eerie discovery on the 1838 shipwreck that was "the Titanic of its time." This second article talks about some of the gold artifacts found aboard the Pulaski.
  • Napoleon's Battle of Waterloo hat was auctioned for $325,000. 
  • Lincoln museum artifacts could go to auction due to a historic debt.
  • An art expert has claimed the discovery of Leonardo da Vinci's earliest work. Here's another article about it from Smithsonian Magazine.
  • Here's what archaeologists uncovered after digging up Woodstock
  • Peter Paul Rubens' "Portrait of a Gentleman" has been uncovered in South Africa.


►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
  • Three ways bats could bounce back from devastating white nose syndrome.
  • Groundhogs, not vandalism, were to blame for missing veterans' flags.
  • Some animals take turns while talking, just like humans.
  • A teeming manta ray nursery has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • A study suggests that dolphins and some whales grieve their dead. Doesn't surprise me one little bit.

►I ♥ Lists◄



That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!



8 comments:

  1. Oh, Cathy, I'm sorry to hear the cataract question has gotten so complicated! You really do have some thinking to do, and I wish you well as you work out what you'll choose. Thanks as always for the links, too. That Da Vinci painting story is fascinating!

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  2. OK, first of all, those wonky eyes above kind of made me motion sick. And I'm not kidding. Ha! So sorry to hear about the eye issues and insurance complications. Here's hoping you can get it figured out to your satisfaction. Jurassic Park - well, I read the book before the original movie. I knew when I read it that it was something special. I was fascinated with the whole idea of dinosaur DNA.

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    1. Those wonky eyes don't do anything for me either, which is the main reason why I chose them! LOL

      I, too, read Jurassic Park first, which was the main reason why I was standing in line for the very first showing of the film.

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  3. I'm sure everyone is different. I've been extremely near-sighted all my life, worn glasses since third grade. I've had the cataract surgery, both eyes, in the last couple months. I opted for the "Rolls Royce" lens and insurance paid very little if anything, and while I can read the paper in good light without glasses, I can usually read my phone, but I cannot read a book for any length of time without reading glasses. I can't read a menu in a restaurant unless well lit. I cannot see details in photos nor take a photo without glasses. Be aware you will need readers despite what they tell you. You will lose any ability to see close-up well without glasses (I knew I would and there's no choice, so no point belly achin' about it, but it's a significant loss for me). I can see better out of one eye than the other. The eye tech told me my eyeballs might keep changing for 5 months because I was so myopic. I still have a sensitivity to light where they made the cut to insert fluid (part of cataract surgery). You might want to talk to other patients, some of my friends did not get the most expensive lens but still can see pretty well close-up. I know people who have required more complicated procedures but I know nothing about it. Good luck. If you wear thick glasses, get a contact BEFORE the surgery so you can see out of your "unoperated-on" eye the first day. I had nothing and listened to music all day. Only thing I could do. I couldn't see. My glasses were too thick to pop out a lens and still see. The glasses were lopsided in weight and threw off my trifocals. I know this is TMI but seriously talk to other folks before you make a decision.

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    1. No, actually it isn't TMI, and I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me this. Thank you, Teresa!

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    2. And so far, my night vision hasn't improved. You will see concentric circles emanating from a white street light, for example, and then I still see the starburst effect, too. It makes every drive at night seem like Christmas!! I believe this light show will diminish with time. I do think I can read back-lit street signs better and that's important. Colored lights aren't quite as bad, e.g. traffic lights. Of course, when all is said and done, I'm just thankful that I can see and that the eye issues I've had in my life were correctable so I could still read!

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    3. That would be my priority, too. I've had bad eyes almost my entire life, so having a trouble or two, or waiting for something to slowly correct itself doesn't bother me.

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