Cataract surgery prompting a week away from the office

By Lethbridge Herald on February 25, 2023.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

After months of enduring, and worrying about, my diminishing vision I’m going for cataract surgery Monday morning.

When I first heard last spring I had cataracts growing, I never thought much of it. I felt it wouldn’t be a problem but within months, my vision in both eyes had worsened and I learned I have fast-growing versions of cataracts.

But Monday I get relief from one and because of surgery I will be out of the office next week.

Filling in for me will be veteran reporter Delon Shurtz, who for many years handled city editor duties when people in my position were away.

Delon is experienced and has a good nose for news and I know he’ll do a stellar job of helming the ship while I’m off. He’ll also be handling his own duties as well, and as a person who knows about multi-tasking, I know it’s not an easy task wearing multiple hats at the same time.

But with experience comes time-management skills and speed and Delon will do well.

I’ve already got some stories lined up for staff to cover including the opening of Ag-Expo which we will be thoroughly reporting on starting Monday.

I’ve also got someone tentatively tapped to do a budget preview phoner on Tuesday morning and another reporter scheduled to attend City Hall, also on Tuesday to hear details about how homeowners can apply for the Clean Energy Improvement Program.

There are always stories – big and small – to cover and as usual, I know our newsroom will give you the thorough coverage you expect and deserve.

Because of the surgery, I’ll be extremely limited in what I can do for the next week. So many things are off-limits including bending over, lifting anything of substantial weight, even washing my hair so I had that trimmed again. And driving is definitely an activity I won’t be doing with only one eye available for a few days as the other one heals.

Poor Ben dog won’t be getting his usual morning walks at the park because of my vision impairment but he’ll have to make do somehow. This may well be harder on him than it is on me, whose streak of more than 265 days of walking at least 10,000 steps ends on Sunday. Even in this bitter cold, I’ve managed to keep the streak alive but to be honest a few years ago I would have been disappointed when I was averaging over 17,000 a day which I just don’t have the time or energy for anymore.

The relief I will feel Monday after the surgery is over I just can’t imagine. Normal activities such as reading captions on television or reading signs in grocery stores have become difficult and with one eye worsening faster than the other, my fears have been growing constantly. When I struggled to read the leaderboard of the Daytona 500 on Sunday – while watching on the biggest TV in the house – I clearly saw, so to speak, that this surgery can’t wait any longer.

But now relief is imminent – at least for one eye. The second will still have to be dealt with in coming weeks. I’m appreciative of the understanding I have here from both management and staff as I take this time off for a personal matter. With my transitioning into a new role underway, the timing is lousy but this is a necessary matter that needs to be addressed.

I’m confident the great team we have at the Herald will do a stellar job as they do every day.

I’ll still try to do my daily Twitter updates from the comfort of the living room if all goes well.

Take care and see you in two weeks.