Update

L's first cataract surgery went off without a hitch! During his post-op appointment, the surgeon said that his vision had improved MORE than she had hoped.

L actually cried with joy when his "new" eye stopped fluctuating long enough for him to see clearly. When he covers his left eye, L can actually see the branches on the trees in our back yard... without glasses! For the past 50 yrs, all he has been able to see without his glasses were colored swirls. Anything further than 5 ft away is crystal clear with his new eye! His close-up vision will be corrected when he is able to get his new glasses. Unfortunately, that won't happen for another 6 weeks.

Wednesday afternoon we experimented with every combination possible that would help L see enough to function until his 2nd surgery. The first thing we tried was taking the right lens out of his glasses. This resulted in double vision. Then I covered the right side of his glasses with black electrical tape. This eliminated the double vision, but he got woozy from the lack of depth perception. The taped-up glasses enable L to read, but only for a couple of minutes at a time as his left eye quickly blurs from the strain that's been put on it.

L returned to work on Thursday, armed with his taped-up glasses hung around his neck for close-up work. He never realized how much close-up work he does with all the prep work involved with cooking, and reading the waitresses tickets. Working with the grill and fryer was a whole other problem. L said he would do just fine, IF he had 5 ft long grill tools. He wound up cooking burgers and steaks purely by feel. Thursday was a slow day so L managed to finish his shift.

Friday was another story...
The restaurant was busy and L's left eye quickly blurred from the strain. This meant that the only things he could see, had to be farther than 5 ft away from him. L had to return home, in defeat, within 2 hrs of starting his shift.

L's 2nd surgery is scheduled for August 26th, which is the next time his surgeon will be here. The surgeon told L that if he couldn't function, she would do his left eye on August 14th, if we could travel to her location. Soooo....it looks like we'll be making the 2 hr trip to the surgeon on August 14-15.

We have been telling our Boss, since May, that both L's optometrist AND his surgeon didn't think he'd be able to function between his surgeries. Did she listen? Nope. She gave her son this coming week off, to travel to Missouri on vacation! Her son is the only other person who is trained to cook the afternoon/evening shift. Will she cancel her son's vacation? Probably not. She'll probably decide to work the double shift herself. This will make her a total bitch to work with during my morning shift with her. Will the fun never end?

The hard part will be keeping L from going stir-crazy for the next 12 days. He can't see well enough to do yard work, housework, read, or run the computer. The only thing he CAN do is watch movies, IF he sits about 6 ft from the TV so he can read the subtitles. (He can't hear well enough to hear the TV.)

The ONLY other thing L can do is have conversations with Z and I. This could be a good thing....but not THIS weekend! Our contractor will be starting our roof and porch construction on Monday. This means that Z and I have to empty out our porches before Monday AND get the lawn mowed before the lawn is occupied by scaffolding and construction equipment.

We'll make it, with our sanity intact, if we ALL keep looking at the big picture. 2 weeks from now L's vision should be good enough for him to function(with the aid of dollar store reading glasses), and we'll have a new roof and porches on our house. Surviving the next 2 weeks will be the KILLER!