I Went From Legally Blind, to Seeing Clearly, in About a Month

mfrench

mfrench

Senior Member
II went from what my eye doctor suggested to be legally blind (not doubting him, as I had to live it), to having sight in both eyes, in really short order.
I had my right eye operated on to remove a really thick cataract, which i thought was FUBAR, to clear sight in that eye. That was in mid-March.
Then, just today, I had my left eye operated on this afternoon. Its a tad blurry, as the doctor said that it would likely take a week for the swelling to reduce. Bt, I can already see quite well through it.

Bausch & Lomb lenses have replaced my OE components.

I impressed the doctor with my ability to grow a thick cataract (right side). The left side, he suggested is more what he typically encounters, with my right eye being exceptionally bad. But, the results, in combination have me able to see again. This is a total trip. We live in amazing technological times.

The new lenses:
enVista-product-packshot.png


My new little hurricane lenses, ^
 
What a blessing. The wonders of modern medicine. I hope you have a speedy recovery bud!
 
[smiling smilie goes here]
Thanks all! deeply appreciative.

Ahh yes, the rodents.
With my new bionic right eye, I popped a rat and a mouse out at 40', after only a couple of days of rest following surgery. A mouse at 40' is a small target, and they're quick.

That right eye, about the best way that I can convey its condition prior to the implant, is,....
Like heavily frosted privacy glass, like in a houses bathroom. And, add a coating of muddy water residue over it, just for the obscuring bonus. I could detect light, and changes in it like shadows. But, I could not identify how many fingers the doc held up, directly in front of my face.
The left eye was my soldier, but, it was quickly going away.
 
airdronian said:
GWS. Those gophers won't stand a chance now.
Click to expand...

I eliminated 6 mice this morning with a pellet pistol; Beeman P17 .177
The new bionic eyes are definitely working.

My ammo,... Definitely different.
I use Q-Tips cotton swabs cut in half. They are cut in the middle, at a sharp angle. I use them like darts. I do this because the space that I got them in (the mice) is all concrete blocks (my generator shed), and hard pellets just bounce right back out. The Q-Tips go blunt on impact, and don't ricochet. They're definitely effective.
 
mfrench said:
I eliminated 6 mice this morning with a pellet pistol; Beeman P17 .177
The new bionic eyes are definitely working.

My ammo,... Definitely different.
I use Q-Tips cotton swabs cut in half. They are cut in the middle, at a sharp angle. I use them like darts. I do this because the space that I got them in (the mice) is all concrete blocks (my generator shed), and hard pellets just bounce right back out. The Q-Tips go blunt on impact, and don't ricochet. They're definitely effective.
Click to expand...

Mike, I am thrilled for your eyesight but that Q-tip ammo thing is messed up, man. Who even thinks that way??* 🤣




*You do. I know that. It's brilliant. And terrible.
 
Well, after having been whacked a few times by conventional pellets ricocheting out of the concrete shed; and, after pretty much total failures with traps, I started thinking how i could handle the rodents. Because of our cat, I won't use poisons to control them.

How did it come about?
One night, while at dinner (at a cafe), I got a frilly burger pick on my burger, as I ordered it without tomato; they mark the custom burger with a burger pick.
I looked at that burger pick, and flashed back to 10y.o. Mikey, who used to take those burger picks at restaurants, and shoot them through a straw into the acoustic ceiling panels,... and a light came on; An Ahaa moment! So, I took that burger pick home with me, and, immediately dispatched a mouse with it with the pellet pistol (it looks like a semi-auto Glock-type cop sidearm, but is a low power single shot air pistol in the smallest caliber).
Well, that was my only burger pick of the day. So I started thinking about alternates, and, Q-Tips came to mind, as Sarge has hundreds of the things in a box in the bathroom. So, on the next occasion I had, with mice in the gen. shed, I grabbed a Q-Tip, and cut the cotton end off with nail clippers. I cut it as a sharp angle, and went mouse hunting. The Q-Tips did a great job. I then realized that I could get two from one, if I cut them in half.
So, I've also used them in the engine compartment of our vehicles, and inside of them as well. Pellets might really mess things up under the hood.
Mice have caused tremendous wiring damage to the vehicles; and, I don't want that to happen with the generator. So, that space gets extra attention now.
Besides,... we found a harmless King Snake in Sarges car, while driving, mind you. So, we know that at least we have snakes on our side in the cars. And Sarge is fine with snakes, and snakes in the car, as long as they aren't Rattlers.

I had no idea until a few years ago that I could shoot, let alone, shoot accurately, as I was not raised around guns of any form, or hunting. So, this shooting thing is fairly new to me. No one told me that Q-Tips wouldn't work, so, I tried.

How about improvised Blowguns?
1/2" electrical conduit steel pipe, a finishing nail, and a 3x5 index card, and,... an air compressor. The 3x5 card gets cut, and then conically twisted and taped to the nail. This creates a nail dart.
In my college beer drinking days, we'd use this improv blowgun, and shoot it through beer bottle caps across a fairly wide living room. The beer caps were placed on a piece of plywood, and the nail darts would pierce the caps. They were really accurate.
Add the air compressor to drive the dart, and, you could put that thing through a wall.

All of this weirdness added up to my mouse eradication program.

this is the battleground
DSCN8705.jpgDSCN8710.jpgDSCN8711.jpg
 
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I posted about the Burger Picks/Q-Tip darts on an Air Gun forum, and, people were dumbfounded, and, then slowly caught on. There are a few of them now using them for basement target practice in those areas that get white for a 1/3 of the year (or longer). They dull out on contact if missed, and are far safer in that regard. No one needs to get an eye shot out (I'm a wee bit sensitive to that these days)..
 
Air guns were a hobby of mine at one time. Highly accurate and almost silent. For flies in the house I use salt and petroleum jelly. Just wipe up afterwards. Glad to hear of the successful eye surgery. Irish Spring soap is said to repel rodents in vehicles.
 
The pain factor?
The worst of it is the sulfuric acid eye drops - oh dear god, it burns. Just kidding about the drops being acidic, but, damn, they sizzle on contact.
Just before the surgery, in pre-op, I got five rounds of five different eye-burner eye drops, that even with one of them being a numbing agent, they still burned like a biotch.
I was totally alert for the surgery, and felt absolutely nothing. I talked with them as the procedure was going on.
They said that they gave me something to mellow me, but, I cannot say that I felt any effect from it, other than it felt like ice rolling through my veins when it was applied, flowing from the back of my hand IV, and up my arm. It was a weird sensation.

Now, post-surgery, for the first week, I get three different drops of these special acid eye drops formulations four times a day for the first week. Then the second week, it goes to twice a day, until I run out of them. They are two different steroids and an antibiotic. Sarge said one of them fizzes up across my eye when it is applied; that is a special sensation.
 
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MrEd said:
Now I know what I'm in for...
Going for cataract evaluation this morning for my left eye.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it, Ed. If you end up in the process, its not painful at all.
My complaining about the eye drops is just me being a geek. Its really not that bad; though, they do sting a bit, it is ultimately worth it.
Best wishes to you.
 
When we were kids, a friend and I used to dip the wooden end of the long medical type Q-Tips in lead and let the end drip to a point for squirrel hunting. They weren't the most accurate arrows, but were OK at close range. Could only use one or two pumps in the old Crossman .22 cal. pellet gun or the projectile would break on impact. The experiment didn't last long. We ran out of swabs in fairly short order and I discovered that I really didn't like the taste of pine squirrels.
 
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