Friday, January 27, 2012
Becoming a Cyborg.
(4)
I was pleasantly surprised by the reception I received at Kaiser. The people who 'received me' were obviously an integrated team who knew about the kind of apprehension their patients would be feeling. Their interaction and preparation relaxed me. I was very impressed. I relaxed, ready for anything.
When the time came to do 'the procedure' I was wheeled into the operating room, layed out on a table, and told to 'pray to Jesus.' (Just kidding there.) Kootch, meanwhile, went to the local caffeteria for a snack. Then it began. A nurse had inserted a venous catheter just in case I might need 'sedation' but I needed none. The surgeon positioned a very bright light just over my right eye. It was the brightest light I had ever seen. And colorful! Indeed, for the next 20 minutes or so, I was treated to a 'once-in-a-lifetime-for-that-eye' cascade of color as the defective lens was removed and the new plastic lens was installed. Wow! Wow! Wow! I remember saying that I had not 'seen such color since my last LSD Trip.' Indeed, those colors were much brighter than the ones I had experienced on LSD - uncomfortably bright - whereas those glorious LSD colors remain to this day unique and never duplicated, only memories. And not only bright colors but weird intense sounds as some sonic device attacked the defective lens (I think). (Being zapped by microwave radiation from my left side, judging by a sudden nasal sensation - stopped now at 1907.) When it was all over they wheeled me to the 'recovery area' where Kootch waited for me. It was over! They had installed the plastic lens. I had become a Cyborg.
I was pleasantly surprised by the reception I received at Kaiser. The people who 'received me' were obviously an integrated team who knew about the kind of apprehension their patients would be feeling. Their interaction and preparation relaxed me. I was very impressed. I relaxed, ready for anything.
When the time came to do 'the procedure' I was wheeled into the operating room, layed out on a table, and told to 'pray to Jesus.' (Just kidding there.) Kootch, meanwhile, went to the local caffeteria for a snack. Then it began. A nurse had inserted a venous catheter just in case I might need 'sedation' but I needed none. The surgeon positioned a very bright light just over my right eye. It was the brightest light I had ever seen. And colorful! Indeed, for the next 20 minutes or so, I was treated to a 'once-in-a-lifetime-for-that-eye' cascade of color as the defective lens was removed and the new plastic lens was installed. Wow! Wow! Wow! I remember saying that I had not 'seen such color since my last LSD Trip.' Indeed, those colors were much brighter than the ones I had experienced on LSD - uncomfortably bright - whereas those glorious LSD colors remain to this day unique and never duplicated, only memories. And not only bright colors but weird intense sounds as some sonic device attacked the defective lens (I think). (Being zapped by microwave radiation from my left side, judging by a sudden nasal sensation - stopped now at 1907.) When it was all over they wheeled me to the 'recovery area' where Kootch waited for me. It was over! They had installed the plastic lens. I had become a Cyborg.
