Four years ago my Ophthalmologist told me that it was time. But I checked with my Optometrist, and he said no. But in the past year it has been harder and harder to see things on the computer. And it has been extremely hard to drive at night. I see halos around headlights.

I went to another Ophthalmologist. I found out I’m seeing 20-70 in one eye and 20-40 in the other. The doctor said it was time. Fine. How much? $8,200 for premium lenses. Say what?

A second opinion proved more reasonable. $1800 for a toric lens in one eye (for astigmatism) and a regular lens covered by insurance and Medicare at no out of pocket expense. Dr. Lyons (is his name a sign, since Jesus is the Lion of Judah?) said I should only need glasses for reading. He said even computer work should be fine.

I liked the fact that Dr. Lyons said that it was not essential that I have the surgery now. He guessed I could wait another five years before it was critical. But he said if it was his eyes, he’d do the surgery now since my vision should be so much better.

The surgery went well Thursday. However, after the surgery, everything was very blurry. (They had warned me that would happen.) It was like seeing through cheesecloth or a wire mesh. I tried wearing my glasses. I had asked them to pop out the lens on the side of my surgery. But that didn’t work. Somehow the two different corrections clashed.

I found out I’m seeing 20-25 out of the corrected eye. The blurriness is gone. The doctor says it is healing well.

This will be an interesting week until I have my left eye done. It is hard to type since I don’t see well up at computer distance with my uncorrected eye.

The doctor said I can do my normal 8-mile walk; I plan to try. Mike Lii is coming and walking together will make it much easier. It is just strange to see great out of one eye and very little out of the other.

I chatted with the nurses in the operating room. I found out they like trivia. So I asked them some questions I heard on Jeopardy. Largest landlocked country? Kazakhstan. Second largest landlocked county? Mongolia. They asked what I did and when I told them they then asked for Bible trivia. Number of books in the Old Testament? They asked if it was between 30 and 45. I said yes, and then went to sleep. Next thing I knew, I was being taken to recovery.

I am thankful that we have this option available.

What does this have to do with the promise of life or eternal rewards? I’m glad you asked.

Being able to see well enhances our ability to glorify God. In my case, this should help me with my preaching, teaching, videos, driving, and my overall work at GES and at church. This surgery might extend my ability to work at GES for another ten years or more. In fact, if I work long enough that I shift to part-time, it probably won’t be due to my vision.