7/27/07

My grandmother had eye surgery today. We only found out about it yesterday. A cornea had suddenly become available.

We all went to the ophthalmologist in Amarillo. I didn’t see her before she went in. From start to finish, it took about three hours. Once it was done, my grandfather was allowed in first.

He’s 83, almost deaf, and blind in one eye from an accident he had 60 years ago. I remember when I started working on the farm. That was something like 15 years ago, before he retired. He’s aged severely since that time. He’s covered in liver spots and he has to stand immobile for several seconds to gain his balance when he gets up from a chair.

We understood that the surgery was only supposed to take one hour. About two hours into it, he went up to the desk and quietly asked if something had gone wrong. One of the women went into the back to find out, and returned to tell us that everything was going smoothly, and that it would only take about half an hour more.

My grandmother looked terrible when we finally went in to see her. They only doctored one eye, but the other was swollen, too. She looked like newly hatched bird as she lay there unmoving. My grandfather was standing beside the bed.

I could imagine that 20 years ago, he would have looked strong standing there, maybe even fierce. Now, with his baggy clothes and gnarled hands, he looked like a husk.

The doctor explained the drugs he was prescribing and they worked out the details of a follow-up visit tomorrow. My uncle, dad, and I crowded out to bring the car around. Then we all went to the drug store to fill the prescriptions.

At the drug store, the pharmacist asked my grandfather for my grandmother’s social security number and birth date. He recited them without hesitation.