Two weeks ago Kevin had cataract surgery on his left eye, which was the worst in terms of not being able to see. He’d had a vitrectomy on Dec. 9th, where they sucked all the fluid out of his eye and replaced it. An “oil change,” as Kevin calls it. The operation took away all the blood that had been causing his loss of vision but it also sped up his cataract, which they knew it would do.
So, cataract surgery two weeks ago and it worked immediately and he was so tickled that his vision was great in that eye. He stood in the kitchen and showed me how he could read all the writing on the many things we have posted on the fridge.
His right eye cataract surgery was Tuesday the 25th and now his eyesight is so amazingly good.
I spent some time looking through old posts and found that his right eye first went dark on July 5th, 2014. That’s a very long time to have bad vision. When he went blind in his right eye they did lots of laser surgery for several months, zapping the bad and weak blood vessels that had formed, and he then finally had surgery about a year later. We took our big trip to Wales in 2015 and right after we got back his left eye went bad. It wasn’t as bad as the right eye and he put up with his compromised eyesight for a long time, until it finally went totally black last fall.
So, nine years of poor vision for him and it’s wonderful that he can finally see well. As other people have said, colors were also off because of the cataracts so he’s still saying, “everything is so vibrant!” and “I can see the blades of grass all the way down to the lake!”
He only needs reading glasses, and on Tuesday afternoon he said he’d go to the drug store and get them the next morning. But I looked at him as he was sitting on the couch holding his big ipad all the way out at arm’s length, trying to make out the words. I said “This is ridiculous” and we went to the store and bought him the readers. So now, quite perfect.
Things are also good because Les has been fine plus hasn’t gone missing in the closet.
Meanwhile…here’s Riley, monitoring the always-serious outdoor cat situation out the window. His job in life is to make sure they don’t try to break in.
Actually, one night this week Spot was in the back yard, desperate to get inside. Kevin was asleep but he woke up and reported the shenanigans to me.
Lester went in the cat door and Spot managed to slip in behind him. Riley sat there on the floor, growling and being very hateful as Spot tried to creep quietly past him so he could finally be inside and live the good life as part of the inside family. Kevin told Spot to go back out, which he did because he’s a very good boy except if he lived inside he’d immediately spray and pee everywhere. Poor kitty.
Pumpkin gets supervised time downstairs just about every day, for a half hour or so. This day he was so content to be curled up out in the hot tub room.
I decided to make Easter cookies for people this year plus also egg-shaped cupcakes. It was a last-minute decision and I made a huge amount of them and because of all the baking and cutting and decorating it took a whole lot of time even though I didn’t really have much free time because it was so last-minute. But I was pleased with how they turned out, and also loved the little bunny faces and the chicks.
We launched my boat on April 10th, definitely a first. Mom and I cruised down Long Bay, my favorite place, and we started commenting that many of the trees seemed dead. We finally realized that of course all the trees weren’t dead, they just hadn’t started to turn green because it was the beginning of April. We went on a boat ride yesterday and everything was vividly green and Kevin was delighted to able able to see everything.
I went to a new dentist and the hygienist had a lot of plants in her room which I thought was awesome, and this is a baby weeping pussy willow. I had to take a picture because that’s what we have in our front yard. Ours isn’t very tall but of course it’s a giant compared to this one.
Pumpkin is always so pleased to be downstairs…the other cats continue to be afraid of him but I’m hoping that eventually they’ll realize he’s no longer a threat? Meanwhile I’ll take him downstairs every day. Yesterday he went into the hot tub room but Sweetie was sleeping on one of these shelves so instead Pumpkin curled up in the corner of the room, underneath our giant fern and behind many bags and pots and general gardening detritus. He didn’t mind to be lying on a bed of fern leaves and after a while I had to call Kevin to lure him out in order to take him back to his solitary confinement.
It’s always cats cats cats. Plus it’s been mostly cool this spring but I’m starting to panic a little about the huge amount of yard stuff I need to accomplish. Trying to remain calm, that’s my goal.
Ok then,
Mrs. End of April Hughes.