ACT Blog

Sight to Behold By: Joe Ball, Publisher

I looked like I had a raccoon face recently.

My eyes were surrounded by large blotches of swollen tissue and in a vibrant red.

I was the recipient of surgery to lift my eyelids.

They had dropped as part of the aging process.

I thought I was losing some peripheral vision, and watching TV, I was manually lifting my left eyebrow to see better.

Off to an ophthalmologist/plastic surgeon I went.

Dr. Jacqueline Carrasco took one look. She confirmed a droopy eyes.

She told me it was a medical health situation. The good news: I would be covered by Medicare.

I also was aware I had bags under my eyes. Again, a sign of aging.

So, I asked Dr. Carrasco if they could be removed at the same time.

Her answer was yes. But “that is cosmetic, and not health-related,” she said. “That’s not covered by Medicare.”

“Well, how much?” I asked, out of curiosity. I really wasn’t serious about doing it.

“It’s $2,500.”, she answered.

“Forget it” I said.

I’m not that vain. And I’ve seen pictures of Bruce Jenner, the Kardashians stepfather. (No further comment. I don’t want to be sued.)

I did ask frivolously, “Can you do the other eye?”

“We have to. It’s the same muscle,” she said.

So, several weeks later I was in an operating room at Lankenau Hospital. It’s on Lancaster Ave., a bit West of City Ave. (About three minutes from the Clothier Room where the Philadelphia Advertising & Business Show will be held May 21, 2013.)

Prior to the procedure I was interviewed by a variety of personnel, and asked to sign consent agreements. Four or five different ones for different reasons.

An anesthesiologist was one of them. The anesthesiologist introduced himself. He had an Indian name. I have a staffer, Neethu Matthews, from India. I told him she was from Mombie.

“I’m also from Mombie,” he said, and added- -twice- -“I will take good care of you.”

He did.

During the procedure I was able to hear and speak, but felt nothing.

The procedure was about an hour.

The recovery room (juice and crackers) was almost an hour.

Home care instructions were provided.

Then home.

They included icing the swollen area around the eyes. For 10 minutes hourly, for three to four days.

The hospital gave me “gelatin”-type “glasses” to be dunked in icy water, and then placed over my nose to bring extreme cold to the affected area.

I tried it.

The “glasses” kept falling off.

My wife, and super home attendant, then used gauze, also soaked in water. My body heat warmed up the fabric so quickly, it, too, didn’t work.

One of the hospital nurses, earlier on had suggested using frozen supermarket vegetable packs.

I did so. My selection from our freezer was a pack of kernel corn.

(I always liked kernels of corn.)

Perfect.

I folded the pack in half, put it across my nose, an excellent fit, for it covered the eyes plus above and below.

And, wow! It was cold.

My sight, by this time was clear. The post-surgical treatment ointment applied to the eyes had dissipated.

I could watch television.

For two mornings at home I watched Maury Povitch, and Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos and a variety of TV judges.

Also, commercial after commercial from personal injury lawyers, and trade schools.

As a long-time advertising agency owner, who has helped market clients from those categories, I recognized the content and format.

Same basic content. Only the faces changed.

Later that day, my daughter, Nan, and her son, Ben, 9, my grandson, visited to check upon me.

He looked at me.

I could see shock enter his eyes. They opened wide. His face expressed surprise and apprehension. To a nine-year-old I had a fearsome look.  He backed up behind his mom.

A look – -for me- – to live with for several weeks.

A look to have strangers look at me, and look away.

But there’s good.

I took a few days off.

I was instructed not to exercise for awhile. I loved that.

And I have 20-20 vision, including a return of the sight hidden by drooping eyelids.

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