Seeing the World Anew

Being able to see the world clearly seems like a simple enough thing, right? But you can't take it for granted.

In the sixth grade I had my eyes checked by the optomitrist and left with my first pair of glasses. I actually thought it was cool to have glasses. That just shows how dumb sixth-graders are.

By high school I was ready to try contact lenses. So I saved my cash from mowing lawns and bought the lenses. Loved them. My high school love life, lame as it was, might have been a lot lamer without them.

Not long after graduation my eyes decided they had enough of lenses. I tried disposables, etc., and nothing worked. So in college I was back to being a four-eyes.

Glasses are a blessing for folks with really terrible eyesight like mine. I never HATED my glasses. I was actually thankful I had them. Prescription swimming goggles, prescription snorkling lenses -- they were expensive, but I was blessed to be able to see underwater. Most folks don't have access to glasses. (The Lions Club has a great project to take old eyeglasses to folks who need them.)

But glasses rubbed my face and caused small infections near my eyes that moved to my eyes themselves - about an infection a year. If I woke up to my daughter crying, I had to fumble for my glasses to be able to help her. I didn't want to lose precious time if there was an emergency worse than a missing paci.

About two weeks ago I had Lasik surgery. The biggest issue for me was trusting a doctor to do such a delicate procedure. I found the trusting doctor in Clayton Blehm of Waynesville. I met him through the network of parents in our town who trade babysitting. And I asked my family doctor who did his Lasik: Clayton Blehm. "You'd have to be pretty drunk to mess up Lasik," my doctor said. And Clayton is Seventh Day Adventist. He doesn't drink. All taken, choosing Clayton to operate on my eyes was a no-brainer.

I was so confident and relaxed the morning of surgery, I didn't even really NEED the two Valium they gave me before the procedure. (Okay, so maybe the drugs didn't HURT.)

The operation was painless, took about 15 minutes, and was kind of cool with all the green and red lights, actually. I slept for 24 hours (the Valium had something to do with that). I was driving short distances in three days. The fourth day was a little uncomfortable when Clayton took the protective lenses off my eyes, but it wasn't too bad. A week later I was driving 800 miles to Milwaukee, with just a tiny bit of blurriness in the distance. Two weeks later I have 20/20 vision. (He's never had a patient who DIDN'T achieve 20/20. How's that for batting average?!)

I can now wrestle with my kid without getting my glasses jarred. "Where are your glasses, Daddy?" my girl asked this morning. "My eyes are fixed," I said. "I don't need glasses. I can see you now."

She never looked prettier.

What else did this do for me? I'm motivated to see the world more clearly around me in everything and ACT to make it a better place.

Being able to see is that simple. And that profound. I'll never take it for granted.