Oh I SEE

Tomorrow morning, I have to get up, get ready, and boot it down to the Westin hotel for a seminar.
The subject? My eyes.
Seriously.

I went to the eye doctor back in the beginning of September because my vision was becoming quite blurry, so I suspected that I just needed an update on my prescription.
I get in, get my exam, and yes my Rx had changed, so I get new glasses - pretty routine.

A couple weeks go by with my new prescription, and I am noticing that things are still quite blurry and fuzzy. I was having a really hard time seeing anything in lighted areas.
So I called my doc back and they tell me to come back in to see if they gave me the wrong lenses. Still pretty routine.
The lenses turned out to be correct, so my doctor asked me to do another eye exam. I do, and sure enough, my prescription is totally different from the previous one. He doesn’t know how this happened, but figured that the new prescription results would solve the problem. So I turn my frames in, and the put in new lenses with the new Rx.
I could tell right off the bat after trying the new glasses that nothing had changed in terms of my vision distortion, but the doc said to give it a couple of days and see if my eyes adjust.
Well they didn’t. In fact they got worse.
So back I go after the weekend and he does another eye exam. This time my prescription had changed from 20/40 to 28/64 in a matter of 3 days.
The doc was stumped and getting frustrated.

They proceeded to give me every vision test and light sensitivity test they had in the lab, and everything looked normal. No one could figure what was going on.
Then my doc consulted with another specialist in the office and had him look at me. He couldn’t see anything wrong either. They both consulted with another specialist and had her come in and take a good look at my eyes and she was able to figure it out. She said “A-HAA! It’s cataracts, and it’s quite severe.”
Excuse me, WHAT???
Apparently the other doctors hadn’t noticed this because they weren’t looking/testing me for it. That’s because the average age to begin screening is about 60 for crying out loud.
I’m 30 people. WTF.

As I am sitting there freaking out, the docs are all taking a look for themselves and going “ohhhh yeeeaaaaahhhh” and discussing it amongst themselves. I was like HELLO - WHAT WHY HOW BITCHEZ.

None of them know why and all they can think to ask me is if I have been doing steroids.
Let me check - ummmm no.
They are all perplexed as to the cause, but tell me I have to get in for surgery ASAP to fix it or I may lose vision in my right eye almost completely. They really are concerned at the pace in which my vision is deteriorating.

So I have an appointment with an eye surgeon next Friday, and I assume the appt. for surgery will be booked then. I was told they want to get me in before Christmas, which doesn't seem like a rush to me, but I guess the normal waithing period is up to 6 months.

Anyways. Back to this seminar.

I guess there is an eye disease conference being held by the Alberta Ophthalmology Institute going on at the Westin tomorrow, and I was selected as a candidate for guinea pig duty due to the rarity of the disease in my age group.
So I have to go down there at 9am tomorrow, get my pupils dilated, get up on stage in front of about 200 people, and have my eyes hooked up to a microscope and blown up on a giant screen for all to see and discuss.
Should be interesting.

The good news is I get $100 for participating, so rawk.
The bad news is I have stage fright and am nervous as all hell about getting up there in front of so many people.
It’s only for an hour or so, so that’s not too bad I guess.
I just hope I don’t have to speak or answer any questions…