My surgery
I want everyone to know that my surgery, scheduled for Tuesday, November 4th, went well and so far without any complications. The surgery was to remove a cataract from my left eye that I have had for several years. Where I could see through the eye, the cataract made everything very blurry and hazy. Basically I was seeing out of one eye, my right one. Living seeing out of one eye creates a type of two dimensional reality that a lot of other systems must work to compensate for. I was tired of just getting by in a 2 dimensional world. The amount of light that the cataract would let into the left eye seemed to also reduce my color sense.
So yesterday I went in for surgery. I spent Monday night at my sisters. She lives in San Francisco, where the surgery was performed. She drove me both to the surgery and back, since I was in no shape to drive. I was given a strong anesthetic so I would not feel pain, and though the anesthetic dulled my sense of things greatly, I was basically conscious for the entire operation. It lasted about 30 minutes. The procedure went basically without pain and I experienced no discomfort after the operation. I was given an eye-patch to cover the surgically repaired eye and told to come back for a check up today at 2 pm.
The operation was performed by Dr Dean Hirabayashi, an old friend of my sister. She has known Dr Dean since their days at the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. I went in at 2 pm for the post-op, and I am happy to say that after the patch was removed, I could tell that my whole field of vision had been restored. Literally everything seemed new and fresh. I wear dark glasses when outside. I need to take eye drops, one set with antibiotics, several times a day.I shouldn't do extended driving for about a week. I can do light to moderate things physically, but I need to be careful for awhile. I'll be back at the dojo in a couple of days, but I'm not sure yet when I'll be back on the mat. I go in for another check up with Dr Dean next Wednesday and I'll know more then. Just as my friend Mary Heiny was very careful after her successful hip surgery, so I need to watch things for a little bit. But I'll be back on the mat in some form soon.
I was able to watch election coverage Tuesday night with my sister and her family. When I learned that my surgery was scheduled for electiion Tuesday, I made sure to register to vote by mail and did so. Like most people I know I was happy to bask in the glow of Barack Obama's victory. After the last 8 years it is such a relief to see a change in leadership. It is very much like the first Star Wars movie when the Deathstar is blown up. I am not comparing George Bush to the evil empire, but I remember last night recalling the title of the first film released in 1977, "A New Hope". And hopefully that is what we know have.
So it struck me that with restored eyesight I would see the world with new vision and that hopefully we as a nation can from this point go forward with new vision. It all starts at the top. One has only to look at Bay Area sports franchises to see what ownership has done to about all the franchises. I remember the Kennedy years, when we saw life as a great adventure. Hopefully together as a nation we will move forward again with that feeling. I remember Kennedy as someone who united the nation. Hopefully Obama will as well. And that we can move forward into Osensei's dream of a world founded on the original purity from which comes love and hope.
So yesterday I went in for surgery. I spent Monday night at my sisters. She lives in San Francisco, where the surgery was performed. She drove me both to the surgery and back, since I was in no shape to drive. I was given a strong anesthetic so I would not feel pain, and though the anesthetic dulled my sense of things greatly, I was basically conscious for the entire operation. It lasted about 30 minutes. The procedure went basically without pain and I experienced no discomfort after the operation. I was given an eye-patch to cover the surgically repaired eye and told to come back for a check up today at 2 pm.
The operation was performed by Dr Dean Hirabayashi, an old friend of my sister. She has known Dr Dean since their days at the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. I went in at 2 pm for the post-op, and I am happy to say that after the patch was removed, I could tell that my whole field of vision had been restored. Literally everything seemed new and fresh. I wear dark glasses when outside. I need to take eye drops, one set with antibiotics, several times a day.I shouldn't do extended driving for about a week. I can do light to moderate things physically, but I need to be careful for awhile. I'll be back at the dojo in a couple of days, but I'm not sure yet when I'll be back on the mat. I go in for another check up with Dr Dean next Wednesday and I'll know more then. Just as my friend Mary Heiny was very careful after her successful hip surgery, so I need to watch things for a little bit. But I'll be back on the mat in some form soon.
I was able to watch election coverage Tuesday night with my sister and her family. When I learned that my surgery was scheduled for electiion Tuesday, I made sure to register to vote by mail and did so. Like most people I know I was happy to bask in the glow of Barack Obama's victory. After the last 8 years it is such a relief to see a change in leadership. It is very much like the first Star Wars movie when the Deathstar is blown up. I am not comparing George Bush to the evil empire, but I remember last night recalling the title of the first film released in 1977, "A New Hope". And hopefully that is what we know have.
So it struck me that with restored eyesight I would see the world with new vision and that hopefully we as a nation can from this point go forward with new vision. It all starts at the top. One has only to look at Bay Area sports franchises to see what ownership has done to about all the franchises. I remember the Kennedy years, when we saw life as a great adventure. Hopefully together as a nation we will move forward again with that feeling. I remember Kennedy as someone who united the nation. Hopefully Obama will as well. And that we can move forward into Osensei's dream of a world founded on the original purity from which comes love and hope.
posted by jack wada at 4:12 PM
1 Comments:
yeah, me too. Remember my shodan exam in 2000. It was me, Bob Schumacher, and Tim from Los Gatos. Anyway, I have had monocular vision all my life, but catatacts had also begun to attack me. My left eye which was already 25/400 decended to 25/1000, and my right eye was about 25/400 on the day of my shodan exam. I was trained well by David Brown, and I passed the exam. You probably didn't notice, did you? Anyway, I had my lens removed and had interocular polymer lens inserted. I told Bob about this, and when he had cancer he had the same thing done. As a result the remaining year of his life was one of much brighter colors and clearer vision. I'm sure you have great kansha after this number of years being impaired.
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