In the eye of the gardener – LASIK and gardening

It’s a beautiful day today and I plan on getting lots and lots done in the garden today. All without the ball and chains commonly known as glasses and contacts. I just had my three month checkup for the LASIK surgery I had done. I now have perfect eyesight and all I can think is why didn’t I do this sooner.

For me as a gardener, not having to wear my glasses or contacts while working in the yard is like a miracle. I have had glasses since I was 7 years old. My eyesight was so bad that I could not see clearly even a few inches beyond my nose. I had no choice to wear contacts or glasses if I wanted to be able to see.

In the garden, glasses and contacts are just a pain. Most of the time, gardening involves working up a sweat and when you are sweaty, your glasses slip and the stinging sweat gets in your eyes and lingers longer because it gets under your contacts and it takes longer to wash out. With glasses, you have to stop every so often to clean off the grim and dust from the dirt. With contacts, there is no greater minor agony than getting a small speck of dirt stuck in the contact.

I finally bit the bullet three months ago, after years of self debate and resistance. It was my eyes after all. I think of all my senses, the sense of sight is the one that I fear losing most. And, I won’t lie, it is not a cheap procedure. I wasn’t sure it would be worth it and there always seemed to be better things to spend that kind of money on.

But my husband insisted and kept insisting for years till I finally had it done a few months ago. And an hour after the procedure was done, I could read the license plates of the cars in the parking without my glasses. After 23 years of wearing glasses, that was something I never thought I would ever be able to do.

Now that my garden is waking up, I am even more excited. I will be gardening this year with new eyes and without minor annoyances that took away from my enjoyment. Being able to wake up and see the flowers of my garden out my window makes waking up in the morning a pleasure.

Today, I will go to bed weary and exhausted, but it will be an exhaustion won without once having to push my glasses up my nose so that I can see. For me, that was worth the money.