The LuLac Edition #4,197, December 31st, 2019

LOOKING AT THE NEW YEAR THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS! 

Dr. David DeRose and Dr. Helen Chandoha-Knott (Photo: Facebook)

I always dreaded the New Year because one leaves the certainty of the old for the unpredictability of the new. This year was a year of unanticipated changes in my life. One of my favorite sayings at work is “Let’s clear this one off the table-get it done and over with”. As I end ’19, the table is clear and set for whatever 2020 throws at me.
One last thing I needed to do this year was deal with a vision issue. For those of you who don’t know, I have had no vision in my right eye for decades now. Nothing! When I was told in September that I needed a Cornea Transplant in my left eye, the only working eye, I was stunned. Then I realized I was pretty much kidding myself.
I thought back to the difficulty I had locating stuff on my various desk tops. I was not seeing clearly across the Square when my work partner (Matt Engel) and I did those Farmer’s Market appearances on Monday and Thursday. Then there was faking my way through the innings at the Rail Riders games but the biggest wake up was having difficulty recognizing people whose office I had just left just 5 minutes before in City Hall corridors.
So after a hot 2 minutes, I asked my Doctor for the first appointment he had.
The weeks leading up the surgery were scary. As usual, I took the worst case scenario route and began counting steps in the house and even at work. The surgery was December 17th at Lehigh Valley Eye Surgical Center. My surgeon was Dr. David DeRose whose staff I peppered with over 4 e mails containing a plethora of questions, all of which I am told they found both wildly pompous and entertaining.
The surgery lasted 30 minutes, I was awake while it was happening and after it, I had to lie down for three days straight without a pillow. Being still, even with my trusty cane just isn’t a Yonk thing.
After a week, my Doctor told me that I had good Karma and I’d be seeing things with a clarity I never knew. I’m cleared to go to work in the New Year. My thanks to Dr. David DeRose and the staff at Lehigh Valley Eye Associates in Allentown , Dr. Helen Helen Chandoha-Knott from Engle Eye, Krista at Lehigh Valley Eye Surgical Center in Bethlehem who attended to me right after the surgery, my A.I.D. (Angel In Disguise) Mary Ann, the hundreds of people who humbled me by praying for a good outcome (my sister nearly wore out a rug pacing, no word on how many rosaries she blew through!) and my boss Henry Radulski who assured me I’d be dancing in the streets by New Year’s Eve.
Dancing in North Wilkes-Barre after midnight? I don’t know about that. But…as I told my pastor Father Jack Lambert when he administered a blessing and sacrament of the sick, “I still have a lot to do……….and I want to see what the heck it is I’m doing!”
Thanks to Dr. DeRose, all of the aforementioned, but most importantly the person who made the decision to donate to an eye bank. Restoring sight to patients suffering from corneal blindness is only made possible through cornea donation. The process of cornea donation starts with an individual’s decision to be an eye, tissue, and organ donor, or a family’s consent to donation, and then results in a cornea transplant for a patient suffering from corneal blindness.
I never make promises I can’t keep so rest assured, this new way of looking and seeing will never, ever be taken for granted. It is because of that donor that I’m back on track. That donor will be honored every day of my life.
In the meantime…..Happy New Year to all as I come at you in 2020…..with 20/25 vision!

https://www.lehigheyespecialists.com/davidderose. (https://www.lehighvalleyeyecareassociates.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Valley-Eye-Surgical-Center-531312773614189/.

(http://www.valleyeyesurgical.com/)

https://www.engleeyewear.com/..