Good News for Al!

Al has been going to the same ophthalmologist’s office for sixteen years, as long as he has been diabetic, to watch his eyes for diabetic retinopathy. For thirteen years his eyesight was stable and he needed no change in his eyeglass prescription. For the past three years, his prescription has changed yearly. He thought it was due to the diabetes. Last year he tried contact lenses but his eyes were too dry. This year, he decided to switch to my eye doctor.

You remember my eye doctor? The one that God arranged for an ophthalmologist who worked only with cancer patients to sit next to him on the plane when he went to a seminar? That was when I first started having problems with my eyes because of the adverse effects of the chemotherapy.

So Al already knew my doctor and what a wonderful job he has done taking care of my eyes. He wasn’t in the treatment room for 15 minutes when the medical assistant said, “Mr. Cherry, I can’t get your prescription down to 20/20 because of the cataracts. However, the cataracts are ready to come out, if you are willing to have the surgery.” Now that was music to Al’s ears – and mine! He had been wondering how long he had to wait until they could come out because the stigmatism was really bothering him, especially driving at night! Well, three hours later, after he had undergone every test the doctor’s office had, the doctor finally came in. He said, “You have been on every diagnostic machine we have!” He examined Al’s eyes and said that his diabetic retinopathy was minimal! Wow, that was good news itself! Al has been obsessive-compulsive about his sugar to prevent such complications. He asked if we had any questions about the surgery. Initially we replied ‘no’ and stated that his assistant had explained everything thoroughly. But then I asked, “Wait! What about time? We have our trip to Antarctica scheduled and we leave November 20.” The doctor knows about our travels because he has been seeing me for over two years now. He said, “We’ll schedule it as soon as possible.” Yea God! Al will get his eyes fixed in time to see the penguins in Antarctica!

That was September 28. We left the office with his surgeries scheduled for October 16 and October 30. Al had the first one three days ago. He got a toric lens and will probably need glasses for reading only. The first day his vision was blurred off and on. Today, three days post-op, he said his eye was perfectly focused when he woke up this morning! During the day, as his eye became tired, the vision started to blur but it cleared up when he rested.  He is probably using eye muscles he hasn’t used in years because his eye could not focus. He was amazed at his new ability to see so clearly! We went to a meeting tonight, his first time driving in the dark, and again, he was thrilled at the clarity of his new vision – no more astigmatism  no more haloes around the lights! He is like a kid in a candy store, a kid at Christmas, or a teenager in an electronics media store! I had the same reaction when I had my cataract surgery 10 years ago – it’s like scales falling off of your eyes, as you see things you haven’t seen in years and now wonder how you ever got along with such poor vision! Praise God! He is dropping so many blessings in our laps that I need a bushel basket to hold them all!

Pictures show Al’s father’s day present, the big whirligig hummingbird yard ornament. He picked it out himself. We were driving one day and all of a sudden he made a U-turn, saying, “I saw something back there that I want to check out.” It was a plant nursery and we bought the last hummingbird they had. Several people have stopped by our house to ask where we got it. There is a story behind the pink flamingos. I had to move them into the back yard for protection because they are now an endangered species. When they were in the front, one of them was stolen! Al was furious because they represented my mother, me, and my two sisters. He even put up a sign asking for its return, but, alas, it never came back! So for the theft of a ten dollar yard ornament, Al purchased an industrial surveillance system! Nothing has disappeared from our yard since! And motorcyclists don’t rev their bikes loudly and do wheelies in front of our house in the middle of the night either! One picture shows colorful pentas in the tub. The other shows the first red blooms of the season on the bougainvillea, obviously a gift from God in honor of Al’s new eyesight! Now Al has a sharper view of the beautiful flowers he and God have helped me grow in my healing garden!