Hausfrau Speaks-Thank You

Thank you, Twister, Truly and Sherry! The doc told me I would see the greatest improvement this first week! I’m already seeing fewer spelling errors in my posts! YEA!!!

Each passing hour gives me a few more percentage points of vision…and each hour, I am overwhelmed with what I am able to see! As my DH says “It’s impossible for me to understand, because my vision is corrected to 20/20, I’ve never had cataracts, I’ve always had vision in both eyes!” Well, you all know my PollyAnna outlook…in a way, I’m grateful for the years that I had little vision in one eye, and no vision in the other…because, with “my eyes opened” now, I have a greater appreciation for my improved eyesight, and I have more compassion for those who are now enduring the problems like I used to have…and especially those whose vision is even less than I had! 

Sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly “why” we have been given a particular challenge to overcome…perhaps it’s only humans that have a need to understand “cause and effect” (you never hear of a beaver asking why it was HIS foot in the trap, now do you?). So, its human to have questions…and to have ANSWERS to those questions…it’s also very “human” to blame/credit our Supreme being!….I’m guessing that even the cavemen were crediting (or blaming) the Supreme Being for the challenges and often the answers, too! 

Now, don’t misunderstand…I love God…and I do my best to live the life that would make my Gramma proud of me (and God too!) One of the BIG lessons I learned as a 3rd Grader was that no matter HOW MUCH you PRAY…if you don’t study, you will still flunk the test! So, I’m not going to “blame God” for my eye issues, I’m blaming genetics (science). And I’m not planning to give ALL the credit to God for the “repair”, either! But I WILL credit the Good Lord giving my Surgeon his steady hand, and giving him a “natural talent”! And He gets credit for inspiring a researcher to think out the answer to Endothelial Dystrophy…

I KNOW *I* would NEVER, in a million years have thought up THIS thought…”I have an idea! Let’s take a razor to Ugg’s eyes (he’s dead and won’t feel it anyway) and slice off this here part, and then, we will slice off this HERE part of Uggina’s eyes and replace it with the part from Ugg! And THEN, everything will be good as new for Uggina!” Nope, I would have never have been able to think that part up…I AM grateful to be living in the 21st century, when such scientific wonders are successful…AND well within the financial affordability of most Americans.

My great grandmother had the same disease I have. Corneal transplants were being done early in the 20th Century, but Medicare was not put into law until 1965, and I cannot find what Medicare covered in 1970. But, as she was close to 85 when Medicare began, there is no way to discover if Medicare would have covered the procedure, and impossible to know if she would have been a good candidate for the transplant. If *I* had been born at ANY other time in human history, I would have just had no answer to my challenge at all. My Tribe would have left me somewhere with a “skin” of water, if I was lucky…and perhaps some dried deer or antelope meat. And they would say goodbye and left me to die…because I could not be a productive member of the tribe.

Actually, they would have probably done so long before my eyes became an issue…my degenerative spine would have kept me from trekking across desert or woodlands…

No doubt, our lives are more complicated than the lives our ancestors had. But, in many ways, they are much easier. One thing I’m positive of is “These are the good old days!”

Thanks to each of you for your words of support, encouragement and caring. My life is fuller because of you.