First Story: I wear contacts, and as I type this, glasses, too. My right eye doesn't focus at all. My left eye is aging and doesn't do very well focusing.
When I was in high school, I found out that I had Keratoconous (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus for an explanation, and to see how my vision was affected, though my pattern was different, see this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUq80t5Ya2o at Youtube). I had transplants in both eyes in my early twenties, then just over 2 decades later, I had a second transplant in my right eye, and a few years after that, had to have a cataract (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract if you don't know what it is) implant. The stories about how all that came about isn't important for this story. The point was that after my vision, that had slowly deteriorated over decades, was restored, I felt elation and joy at having a gift restored. I have an abiding love for God for creating the beauty all around me. I love color and the detail in creation.
My story of sight restored is nothing when compared to never having had the gift of sight. I knew what I had lost, but I never really completely lost my sight.
Second Story: Imagine having been born with hearing. Now imagine that the miracle of modern medicine, which is also a gift from God. Imagine having the chance to have your hearing given to you for the first time. 29 year old Sarah Churmann was in that situation. The following video is of her hearing for the first time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA&NR
I know there are the cynics who would say these are not examples of miracles, just manifestations of the superior intelligence man has evolved into. Or the faithless who might see the negative side and state foolishly, "Why would a god, if there is one, allow you both to go through those infirmaties in the first place?"
To either, and any others who can't see these as miracles, and because more of an answer would capitulate the argument to the idiots among us, I say, "Uh, you're dumb!"
Yes, It's now obvious:
I'm Karl
I sent a shorter version of this to an email list I host, and one member asked me, "So, what's the prognosis for your eyes?" Here is my response:
ReplyDeleteI may need another cataract implant, but perhaps not. The only reason I needed this one is because of a never-publicized bad combination of anti-biotics and cholesterol medication, which when taken together increase the chance of cataracts about 60% the first time they are used together, and increasing in probability every time they are used together.
In my case, I was using a common statin and a common anti-biotic eye drop after getting an infection in my right eye. I went from no cataracts to needing an implant in only 2 months.
My wife did the research and found that it's known that if someone who is on statins for the treatment of high cholesterol, and then have to take an anti-biotic over a long period of time, they increase the likelihood of getting cataracts a whole lot. My wife, who is also my sweetheart and my best friend, is pretty awesome. She takes very good care of me.
I think I was on Lipitor, but it may have been Zocor or Crestor because I used all three at one point or another. Currently I use none of them because they also severely impact memory, and after using them for nearly 4 years, I found that I was being affected so much that it was difficult to perform my job.
So back to your question...
My eyes are stable, but they aren't that good, except under certain circumstances. For instance, I have very good distance vision and night vision. I have to wear contacts to have good distance vision, and glasses for anything close up. My arms are about half as long as they need to be. But the problem is, when I get text far enough away from my eyes to focus on it, it's too far away to see, unless it's pretty big.
I have progressive lens 'reading' glasses that have a low power for computer work, or if I sit close to the LCD TV so I can see the blades of grass on HD football games :-)
Actually, seeing blades of grass, threads in carpet and leaves on trees were the first 3 things that really struck me when my vision was corrected for the first time with contacts. It was truly an awesome experience. Rather than just crying like the young lady in the youtube video, I was ecstatic--completely and wonderfully ecstatic.
So, there you go.
A longer response than necessary, but at least I got it out. :-)
Karl