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My New Eyelids
North Miami Beach, FL May 31, 2002
A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome
MY NEW EYELIDS
Well, actually they are "reduced" eyelids. Specifically, they are
the bags on those eyelids that have been slimmed down. Now, I didn't do it
for cosmetic reasons as some of my friends have automatically assumed. I
thought I had a look of "gravitas" that was quite impressive - but those
bags sagged so much that I missed out on a lot.
I am needle phobic. All of my doctors and nurses know this and
are careful to continue to give me pain and anguish as they approach with
those thick, long and vicious looking instruments that induce squeamish
terror. "It will only be a little pinch" they say - but I know differently.
My dread is only slightly reduced - just about as much as the eyelids in the
case at hand.
I have complained that I cannot see despite glasses with three
lines across them in an effort to have tri-focals solve my problem. They
work to a degree but the facility of seeing easily - as in the example of
most children and adults up to the age of 40 - was missing in me. My vision
was near-sightedness before puberty. I needed glasses to see distant
things. I knew because other kids could see the movie marques from blocks
away and I could not. My trips to New York City, specifically to S. Laufer
at 88 Rivington Street, for glasses are another story.
My eyesight was responsible for me, a Sea Scout and Boy Scout, an
earned "Life" badge owner, to be rejected by the Navy. The army was quite
happy to let me enlist - serial number 1080174 - and I've told the story how
a clerk forgetting to get me GI glasses probably saved my life.
The ophthalmology test for eyelids was an eye-opener. I could not
see most the upper lights that were flashed. The consensus of this eye
doctor and the surgeon was unanimous. I needed to have some muscle, tissue
and fat removed from those occluding bags.
I no longer have big bags on my lids to match the ones under my
eyes and Carol assures me that I am now bright eyed but I know my tail is
drooping. Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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