Things are going fairly well. It’s a week since the eye surgery now and things are settling nicely.

Yesterday I had my checkup at the eye doctor. My dad came and picked me up and we took the bus there. It was my first time outside since the surgery. And I could see more of the world than I have been able to for a long time. I didn’t bring my cane, I often don’t bring it when I’m going out with my dad because he will steer me around. But he didn’t need to guide me too much yesterday. Very uplifting. He told me so as well, that I seemed more secure while walking.

The visit at the eye doc went pretty fast. He checked my eye to see if it was doing okay after the operation. And it was. As well as could be expected. The only problem was some “secondary cataract”. He explained to me that when you replace the lens you put the new lens into the capsule of the old lens. And sometimes it can develop some opacity. So apparently I have that. Which means that my eyesight could still get a little better. I just read up on it a little on the net, and it seems it can be treated with lasers. So I wouldn’t have to go through another big operation. That’s nice. But the doc said that we should wait and let the hospital doctors look at me as planned in September. And then after that I’ll come back and see him again. I guess the laser treatment will be at the hospital. So that’ll be around that time, in September.

Encouraged by the improvements I decided to try to do a little shopping on my own today. I went to Føtex in the shopping center around the corner. I brought my cane, but I’m pretty sure I could have done without it. Normally I’d swing it from side to side in front of me, but I didn’t have to do that. I just left it dragging ahead of me. And even that wasn’t really necessary. But it still works well as a signal to others that I am visually impaired. And it still gives some sense of security. So I will probably still take it with me. But it’s nice to not have to depend on it so much.

The shopping went pretty well. I haven’t been shopping on my own in more than a year. My dad has been doing all my shopping for me. But I guess I will be able to start doing at least some of it myself now. It’s not easy, but it worked out okay. It’s hard to find the things I need, but not impossible. i got the right bread. I managed to see how many tomatoes were on sale. Got the cucumbers. I even found the cheese. That damn cheese was sometimes hard to find even when I could see perfectly. But today it happened to be right at the first place I looked on the cheese shelf. What luck. I had to give up on the milk, though. So many milk cartons and other milk products. I need the “mini milk” one. Couldn’t quite find it. But the thing was, I didn’t actually need any milk. So I didn’t feel like spending ten minutes looking through it all with people standing around watching me. Hopefully I will actually be able to find it when I really look harder. I did bring my magnifying glass to help me read. It makes me feel self-conscious, though. I don’t want them to think that I’m some Sharlock Holmes type private investigator looking for fingerprints on the milk cartons.

Paying for it all went okay as well. I didn’t even go through the information desk, as I did the last times I tried shopping before my eyesight got too bad. I went through the normal cash register line. It was early and not many people around, that made it easier.

But all in all a succesful shopping trip I should say. It was quite nice to be able to do that on my own. Reclaim just a little bit of independence. I’m very happy about that. A litlte bit of almost normal life.

Just so it’s not all positivity, I must say that today my eyesight has actually been darker and yellowier most of the day. Instead of the brighter whites I have been having. I don’t know why. The quality of my vision still goes up and down. Usually the yellowness goes away when I go away from the computer, but today it has just seemed less bright all the time. Maybe not enough sunshine. Maybe too much. Maybe my blood sugar has been too high. Maybe the secondary cataracts are growing. Maybe it’s just completely random. But it didn’t stop me from going shopping on my own, so it’s not worse than that. I miss the bright whites, though. I hope they will be back tomorrow. It’s hard not to worry that the improvements will slip away again, that I will go back into a grey haze. I should start riding my exercise bike soon, get the blood flowing again.

In other news, Denmark crashed out of the world cup yesterday. 1-3 against Japan. So I only managed to get two games with my new improved soccer-vision (TM). A disappointing world cup for Denmark, but with our poor form and fitness it really couldn’t be any other way. I’m just glad we were there and that I managed to see some of it. Now I just want the Danish club season to start back up. I might actually be able to watch and enjoy Brøndby games again. That would be really good. I missed that.

Let’s hope the positivity continues. I am looking forward to seeing the goats again, next week. It will be nice to be able to see them more clearly. I will need to see how much they have grown. Much, I bet.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 21:16 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.