Day 7 - Bandages removed

Wednesday, 22 July 2009
The double vision in my right eye continued to improve today. After another post-op visit, the bandage lens over the right eye was removed. It felt a lot better than the attempt on Monday. There was irritability, but nothing near the previous sandpaper experience.

The vision test revealed that the right eye had progressed from 20/100 back to 20/40. Here's an interesting observation about the eye charts: They measure how well you can pick out letters. They have limited usefulness when dealing with cases of extreme double vision, like I had. In my case, I had two very divergent double images. To the point where I could distinguish letters on the eye chart at 20/40. So, even though my vision was whacked out, I still rated 20/40 on the eye chart. In the great state of Texas, it's legal to drive if the worst eye is 20/40. This means--you guessed it-- that with my left eye at 20/25 and my right eye at 20/40 (with whopping double image) I was now legal to drive. Here's another funny thing about that eye test: Even though my left eye scored 20/25, my far-sighted vision was still pretty darn out of focus. Despite this, the doctor told me I was now legal to drive. So, with a co-pilot, I did drive home. It was a very nerve-wracking experience. I now very much wonder about the visual acuity of some folks out here on the road. It makes me really, really nervous to think that someone with 20/40 vision in both eyes can legally drive. 20/40 may sound good, but I can assure you from first-hand experience that the road still looks pretty darn blurry. It's light years ahead of my old 20/400 and 20/600, but blurry is blurry, and it makes for unsafe driving.