Nighthawk of Sleet

[ismo]

I did not visit Madame today, because her daughter was taking her to get an infusion. I hope it will improve her energy level. This was convenient, because I needed to drive the Sparrowhawk to get his first cataract surgery. He was quite apprehensive about it. I'm afraid I misled him a bit in my desire to reassure him. My own surgery seemed very simple and painless, and I recovered rapidly. but when I was called in to pick up the Sparrowhawk, he was actually reclining on a stretcher with the IV and the blood pressure hookup and the whole nine yards. He seemed much more knocked out than I had been, and said his cheek was numb because they'd put so much numbing agent on his eye. They made him stick around for awhile and have some juice and crackers before they put him in a wheelchair and pushed him out to the car. I got him situated in the recliner with blankets, another snack, hot tea and plenty of water. Then he took a series of naps. By nightfall, he was feeling a bit better. He has the funny little colander-like protector taped over his eye at the moment, but after his revisit, he'll only have to wear that at night to make sure nothing pokes him while he's sleeping.

I was so amused by the people sitting across from us in the waiting room. They were so very typical of a certain type of west Michigander. I would say they were upper middle class and very Dutch! All three were tall, thin, blue-eyed, with very white teeth, and wearing similar blue Patagonia zip-up pullovers. It was a man and his wife and their son, who had kindly driven them to the clinic. After we had engaged in a little friendly extrovert-type chat, three more people entered the waiting room, and there was much greeting and shaking of hands, because it turned out they were all neighbors and had bought or sold each others' houses or the houses of their kinfolk at some point! And I guess they were all of the age when you get cataracts and have to have surgery. I learned eventually that the man had only one eye. The other was a prosthetic for the one he lost to a BB gun at age 9. So he was quite legitimately worried about the success of this procedure. I didn't seem them on the way out, but I hope that all went well for him.

The Sparrowhawk's eyes are very sensitive, and everything takes a toll on him. I hope that once he's allowed to take off the protective shield, he'll be pleased by the results and forget his worries. On the way home in the car, he announced that he was going to go to Pearle Vision and have them remove one lens from his glasses so he could still wear them for his other eye. I said "Sweetie, you will not be telling Pearle Vision anything, because you will not be going there or anywhere else today, except home to take it easy." It took him a minute to work that out and submit to his fate. "Oh. Yeah. . ." There's an advantage to being in the driver's seat . . . .

Comments

[siriosa]

my fav thing about the cataract surgery was the halos at night. headlights? halos. street lights? halos. it only lasted a few days, but after that i got to truly appreciate my neighbors' gardens in daylight: colors were back, baby.

best case scenario with the multifocal lenses is 20/20, but they expected me to need glasses for reading or distance. i had a powerful smug when i didn't.

[oracne]

This is similar to Charlotte saying she needs to get the starter on her car fixed, and me saying she has a drainage tube coming out of her gut, she should not be driving anywhere.