It is now over two weeks since my left eye was operated on, & one week since the right. I am still incredulous about what I had become used to & thought of as normal eyesight. The world really is a much brighter & more vivid place now. Yesterday I drove the bus & trailer into town wearing no glasses!
The surgery itself was quite interesting, the first I’ve had without a general anaesthetic. Although not completely knocked out, I only have sparse memory of the procedure. All I could see was out of the eye being operated on, the other was covered. The view simply consisted of a white circle, in which two small rectangles were moving, the tip of the tool being used. At one stage the the white took on a slightly yellowish tinge. I recalled that the IOL (Intra Occular lens) had a yellow tint, so asked the surgeon, “Is that the implant you’re putting in now?” He replied that it was. Next thing I recall is being offered a cup of tea & some sandwiches. It still surprises me that I was pretty relaxed about the whole affair, given that I was allowing someone I hardly knew render me blind, before giving my sight back. I suppose reading all the literature about cataracts being one of the most common operations performed worldwide must have worked on me. As it is, I had no qualms going back for the second op. Without doubt this was the ‘easiest’ surgery I’ve ever had. Post-op a little minor discomfort for a few days (gritty eye). Supplied painkillers not needed. Results are able to be seen (pun intended) within 24 hours & are literally brilliant.
I have a couple more weeks to wait before I know if I’ll need to wear glasses, but it seems likely I’ll only need them for reading.
MrsTea had an eye examination yesterday. She thought she might need Px reading glasses to replace her $2 shop ‘magnifying’ glasses. Unbelievably, she was told that she too has a cataract in one eye! It seems however that there is no urgency to have it sorted. At the eye clinic all the other ‘winkies’ were probably 65 plus, & here’s us two old crocks with cataracts both at 50!
To make use of my new found visual clarity, I spent this afternoon soldering up a small electrical circuit to allow us to run the fan of our Gas catalytic heater from the bus’s house batteries instead of the ‘D’ cell batteries it was designed for. I needed to reduce the voltage from 12v/15v to 3v or less. I had read that reducing to around 1.5v was effective. Now I am an electronics ignoramus, so needed some help. BBarry coached me through the process from his current location somewhere out in the wilds of the Kimberly, northern WA. (The wonders of mobile broadband!).
The circuit shown below is easy to make, with the components available from Dick Smiths or similar for just a little loose change. The components I ended up using were slightly different, as the ones on the diagram were not all available. I used two 68 ohm resistors twisted together in parallel for R2, & the diode was different too. Result was the output voltage was 1.67volts. This drive the fan very effectively & quietly. The circuit is enclosed in heatshrink (except for the regulator which is attached to a piece of aluminium as a heatsink) & all resides inside the original battery compartment. A dual polarity socket is surface mounted into the battery compartment cover, which keeps everything neat. Easy to return to battery use if need be.
Regards Cuppa.
