I have noticed over the last year that my vision has been “lower” than normal, so I went to the optometrist in April of this year to have it checked. Dr. Craig Sultan told me I had cataracts in both eyes, but the left eye was more pronounced. He changed my prescription for glasses so that my vision was corrected to 20/20 in both eyes, but we were leaving for Brazil and I didn’t have time to fill the prescription.

After we returned from our trip to Brazil in mid-May, I went in to have the prescription filled and buy new glasses. Dr. Sultan gave me a quick exam to be sure the prescription was OK, and discovered the cataract in my left eye was growing rapidly, and told me I should see my ophthalmologist to be sure it was nothing to be concerned about. He then changed my prescription and found he could only correct it to 20/40 in my left eye.

I purchased the glasses, and thought I would wait to see my Ophthalmologist until my next routine (annual) visit to check for glaucoma. I have had borderline, high pressures for more than 6 years, so they want to see me each year to monitor it.

After returning from a business trip to Cincinnati, OH on Friday, August 10th, I watched TV with Jim – and could still see well. We went to bed after midnight, and when I woke on Saturday morning, the 11th, I couldn’t see out of my left eye at all. There was light, but no definition. It alarmed me so I immediately went to see the Ophthalmologist at Kaiser, (Dr. David A. Simundson), who told me I had 20/400 vision (legally blind) in my left eye, but that it was a cataract and nothing more. His chair-side manner left a lot to be desired, because he told me the cataract had likely been there for a long time but that I hadn’t noticed it. When I explained the previous 3 months experience he all but called me a liar. It made me angry so I scheduled another appointment with another Ophthalmologist (Dr. James A. Carolan) for a second opinion.

Dr. Carolan took his time, and performed a sonogram on my eye in addition to all the other tests. He couldn’t explain why the cataract had grown so fast, but was definitive about it, and suggested I consider surgery to correct it. I decided to schedule it, and because his schedule would mean a 1-year wait, he suggested either Dr. Simundson or Dr. Charles Q. Huang perform the surgery because they could be scheduled sooner. I scheduled an October 31st surgery date with Dr. Huang.

Between the exam with Dr. Carolan on August 14th and up to a week before my scheduled surgery date I began a search of ways to possibly correct my vision without surgery.

My dear and close friend Marc Chouinard suggested I try “tapping” exercises, and gave me a web link to a woman, named Carol Look, who practices EFT (tapping) for the eyes specifically (http://www.carollook.com/eyebook/). I bought the book, and CDs to listen and although I believe the exercises could help me, the methodology on the CDs was offensive because her assumption was the audience was skeptical about it working, and the exercises for the first three weeks kept repeating things I didn’t think. I was supposed to monitor my emotions and process those feelings and thoughts after each session. The only emotion I kept having was that I was going through an elementary lesson to learn how to let go of skepticism about the power paranormal healing – when I already believe it works with all my heart and soul. I believe the process is useful, but in my opinion this specific course is too generic for some audiences and didn’t give me much more than I already believed before I listened to it.

I kept my mind open to anything and everything coming to me, and thanks to many of my friends and associates I have learned a great deal more about alternative methods for eye-healing for diseases other than cataracts. One of the most powerful connections made through this time was a referral from my good friend, Lew Brown, to read The DNA of Healing, by Margaret Ruby. You can find it on Amazon.com with this link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157174469X/comebuythisho-20.

The week before surgery, at my Pre-Op visit with Dr. Huang, I decided to go through with the surgery. I had concluded through all of my searching and prayer, that the marvelous breakthroughs in cataract surgery in the last few years were the answer to the dead cells in my lens. I suspect I may have eventually learned to correct the vision without surgery, but I would need to learn how to revive dead cells – and just like re-growing an arm after amputation, this is a feat I am not up to at this stage of my evolution <big grin>.

After a few hurdles I was wheeled into surgery at 1:10pm on October 31st. I was given a mild sedative to relax me by I.V., and in the next 15 minutes I watched the doctor remove the cataract out of my lens with a sonic chisel, then replace it with an acrylic lens, and without a single stitch was done. Read more about the specific procedure here: http://www.rezoomiol.com/procedure.html. Amazingly, I could see through the holes in the metal eye-guard they placed over my eye immediately after surgery and could actually read the posters on the walls!

It took 48 hours for my iris to get back to normal (it had been dilated for surgery with chemical eye-drops). I can now see the world again with CLARITY! WOW – what a magnificent difference! I have 20/20 vision, but the clarity is more dramatic now because I can tell that my right eye has a cataract, and is not as clear as the left eye.

I am happy for living in this day, when medicine and technology are catching up to us spiritually. For me to be sitting here 3 days after surgery, seeing perfectly again is astounding! My gratitude is endless for my clear vision, for a smooth surgery, and for rapidly healing. I am grateful for all my friends and relatives who have prayed for me and sent positive energy to help this process be so successful and marvelous. I am also eternally grateful for my partner, Jim, who is forever by my side through these events, and takes such good care of me when I am unable to do things on my own.

I have not come to a conclusion about WHY this has happened to me, and I will continue to search until I know a more difinitive answer. What I take from it today is that the fear of losing one’s sight is dramatic. I can now empathize with those who have blindness. Metaphorically, I believe it is an acknowledgement on my part, that I can’t do everything on my own. I am such an independent person, I simply don’t let myself rely on others as much as would benefit me in the long-term. I have been struggling with some things in my work because I have some fears about letting go of control, and because of this event will work to find other people I can trust to off-load some of my tasks so that I can move to the next level in my evolution.

Losing one’s sight is a deep lesson about the connection between our eyes (and other senses), and what we can learn from having them as well as not having them.

I will practice the steps described in Margaret’s book to see if I can correct or at least stop the progression of the cataract in my right eye. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress.