I am relieved to say that there are just five more pages to work through in the 12th Generation and with luck that will happen to day. Likely I will also get started proofreading and indexing. While I am doing that I can also work on the autosomal DNA chapter and check the appendices for footnoting and relating back into the text. I have decided that I will do an addendum of charts for the book as a separate file because putting more images into the file will make it too large. Early December and the finish line is in sight.
Managing on one's own at 78 is not easy given my limitations which to me are minimal but in fact they are rather restricting. It is just that I have lived with my eyesight all of my life so I do not find it complicated as I have developed work-around systems to deal with the difficulties. It is just that my work-around doesn't resonate with everyone. But I have lived a life where that is true anyway so I just move on. Try to regroup/reorganize and that will happen eventually. I think seeing that the life expectancy is 82 years was a sort of wake-up call to me to just sit back and wait. I want to get the books written and I do rest my eyes a great deal in any given day although that doesn't help cataracts but in actual fact I have not spent all that much time in the sun without sunglasses as I am not an outdoors person except to do things like running, hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking and these are pretty much limited activities not done every day. except for the running which I do inside the house these days anyway so not in the sun.
I think what I need to do is get referred by my family doctor to an ophthalmologist as it was perhaps a mistake not to stay with an ophthalmologist given that my eyesight was always looked after by one since I was less than one year of age until I was in my early fifties. Then move forward once again to cataract surgery. That is how my father progressed and my eyes are the same as his; I am beginning to think I have his compulsive work habit as well as his stubbornness. Certainly getting my colonoscopy was a very smooth happening with just three calls really and the procedure was done and completed and I needed the time restrictions for that as well as one must be picked up at the hospital. This is just real surgery not a procedure and requires convalescence, returning the next day for an appointment and daily eye drops which I will not be able to do on my own. I do hate to admit that because I really do prefer to just care for myself but I just keep reminding myself that I am 78 and life for old is like life for the young; you do need help sometimes. But I prefer to pick who helps me and I am not a person to make friends solely to have someone to look after me. I can pay someone to do that and not be a bigot. My daughter is willing but it must fit into her schedule; she is very busy. My other daughter is a busy family medicine specialist/hospitalist/emergency room physician and simply does not have time to take on my care - there are several thousand people who depend on her skills and looking after me is actually trivial in comparison so a waste of her time as far as I am concerned and a real inconvenience to her patients (and the other doctors who work with her are equally hard working up in the north). My medical insurance does cover nursing care but I do not need a nurse I just need to be picked up after the procedure, given eye drops, taken back to an appointment the next day and looked after 100% of the time because I will not actually be able to see very well as my other eye is very limited or legally blind as the motor vehicle people say. Whether or not I have the second eye operated on is not very important really; it doesn't do any work anyway. I must admit to being interested in the lenses although I said the Monofocal Lens after the office discussion which was going to give me the Toric Lens ($2000) mostly because I had no idea what the physician was talking about so just listened. That is the best way really to just listen. Then do your research because not all options were presented for whatever reason. So I really do need to start back at the bat so to speak and get to the first base once again. When that will happen I have no idea actually. For a person completely relaxed about cataract surgery as my father (and mother) had the surgery fourty years ago and appeared to be completely content and happy with their then simple lens I was quite content to go the same route as all I want to do is write books. I had no idea I needed to research my appointment before going to be honest. I think that this doctor did not actually understand what I was saying including the limitations on my ability to get it done so I did repeat it all to the secretary. Having worked there I would have told the doctor the patient's needs and written it in the file and he/she would have referred the person if they could not do it. But have told that story already so just need to move forward but it is Christmas time and I like to ski so probably I am going to enjoy all of that for a bit and get the Siderfin book done and start the process for the Pincombe and Blake books. Then I will return to the process of getting my good eye operated on as I am not likely to bother doing the other one since it will not make any difference in my life; it simply does not get used anyway. But it does seem rather idiotic not to take advantage of the advances in medicine and fix the one eye! It is a simple procedure but does require a skill set that I do not have personally.
I do understand the frustration of people dealing with their medical needs at long last as I really thought it was easy to get everything done but then I wasn't getting anything done; just an occasional doctor visit to get blood work done. An excellent procedure at Montfort and life was just moving along nicely with the book until I complicated my life with cataract surgery because I felt rushed when I visited the optometrist who said he would have referred me what is now four years ago and did refer me this past January although he did say I could think about it and be referred this January coming. He did paint the real picture of me having my good eye operated on and being basically as blind as a bat except I am not capable of echolocation (my interpretation of his comments not his comments!)! Bats are not actually blind either but their eyes are very sensitive and they use sound particularly in the dark. When I went for my cataract referral appointment the room was packed with people (I was wearing a mask but not many people were last May/June). The wait was quite long and the appointment was about ten minutes which I felt was pretty short to discuss lens so did research when I got home. Especially if you are going to spend $2000 (partly covered by insurance, claim it on your income tax and I am willing to spend it I just need details). I prefer doctors who have trained here in Canada as well I will admit to that. I am not in favour of bringing in doctors from other countries where they have trained and not have them fully retrain here. Besides their countries have paid to train them and they should just stay there where they are needed. We should train our own.
Well this is the basement cleaning day and I am up early once again as I think my sleep is being disturbed by all of this friction. It crossed my mind that although I said that the dates of 7 Dec and 14 Dec would not work that I may well get a call for a surgery time today or tomorrow which could tick me right off but I will just notch it up to ignorance and personal hatred by the secretary (not sure why actually) who spent at least ten minutes telling me about her mother's cataract surgery and why I should have the expensive lens since I was calling the same day as the original appointment to save the doctor doing measurements on my results to prepare for the Toric Lens as I wanted the IOL lens. Someone else should certainly have been given the times as that was a month ago now! Time will tell.
Perhaps I will end up writing my life story instead from memory if I go blind since I am a touch typist and Microsoft does such a good job of spell checking! It will be a good laugh for sure. I am capable of laughing at myself.
Tea time and jumping jacks. Then breakfast in a bit.
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