EYELID SURGERY DESCRIPTION AND A COUPLE GRAPHIC PHOTOS

 SPOTTED ANOTHER SNAPPING TURTLE A COUPLE DAYS AGO AND THIS ONE WAS RIGHT IN OUR PARK NEAR THE POND

So first let me get you caught up on my minor eyelid surgery late Tuesday afternoon.  Warning: The following paragraph along with two photos might be a little too graphic for some.  My appointment was at 4 o'clock and I was asked to be there at 3:30, so I was at the Anjema Eye Institute in Chatham Ontario at 3:15.  There were about 25 people in the very large and open-spaced waiting room.  Folks were continuously coming and going.  I was wishing I had remembered to bring my Kindle reader as 3:30 came and went, as did 4 p.m.  My name wasn't called until 4:40 at which time I was led to one of a number of eye examination rooms.  Questions were asked by a staff member and entered into a computer.  It wasn't long before Doctor Anjema came in and I liked this guy right off the bat.  Very personable as he initiated an 'arm bump'. (my first ever)  A connection was established immediately when he said how much he loved Bayfield and has a house there.  When he said he was born in Sebringville and went to school in Mitchell Ontario, I said I'm from Tavistock Ontario and from there we were just a couple small-town guys from neighboring areas.  He checked my right eye and explained why my lower eyelashes were turned inward and touching my eyeball.  He explained the procedure to fix it and said he we do it right away.  With that, he was off to the next patient and I was led back to the waiting room for a temperature check in preparation for the surgery.  Ten minutes later my name was called again and I was led into another room with maybe half a dozen 'dentist' like chairs.  I was placed on one of them and fully reclined with a pillow behind my head.  I was assured no chain saws, hammers, or chisels would be used:))  Ten minutes later Dr. Anjema entered the room and placed himself on my right side opposite my head.  I couldn't see him as he asked me to open my eye wide and look straight ahead and back.  The assistant had told me there would be a little stinging as the doctor, using a needle, would inject some 'freezing' under my right eye.  I saw the needle coming down and felt three or four little pinprick stings and that was it.  Doctor Anjema was then off to his next patient and I lay there for maybe 10 minutes while the freezing took hold and an assistant iodined the area and added some numbing cream around my eye.  I heard a door open and close and Dr. Anjema was again by my side.  I was instructed to keep my eye open as he began the procedure.  I couldn't feel any pain of course but I had a close-up and slightly blurry view of what was going on between my eyeball and the ceiling.  Although I couldn't see the doctor clearly I think he might have had a pair of heavy-duty magnifying glasses on.  I did see a few of the instruments coming in that he used.  I recognized the scissors.  The cut was made and the assistant on my left side began blotting the blood up with swabs. This was quite visible, especially with my left eye open as well and some readers might be reassured to know the blood was red and not green like some may think with me reading all these UFO/Alien books.  I could hear the slight crunching sound of cutting as facial muscles under the eye were severed.  I blurrily saw another instrument used and not long after that, I could smell something burning which I figured was cauterizing. (burn the skin or flesh of (a wound) with a heated instrument or caustic substance, typically to stop bleeding or prevent the wound from becoming infected.) The next step was to stitch the cut closed and I watched with interest as he put the stitches in.  Although blurry as if I was underwater I could see a small tweezers, the polymer stitching fiber, and his hand moving in and out as the stitches were sewn in.  The whole procedure starting with the initial cut to the closing of the stitches maybe took 10 to 15 minutes with the stitching being the longest part.  And during the procedure, I noticed from the corner of my right eye someone standing in the background to the right of the Doctor.  Maybe a student.  Also, Doctor Anjema asked me twice how I was doing during the procedure and just before stitching me up, I heard him utter the word 'perfect'.  That was most reassuring.  Minutes later with the opening and closing of a door, he was gone and seconds later I was sitting upright in the chair.  A few instructions from the assistant and I was on my feet and out the door with a cold pack in my hand and no patch over my eye.  I could see perfectly fine.  The time was 5:40 p.m. and the time elapsed from entering the building to exiting the building was two hours and twenty-five minutes.  First stop was Burger King just up the road for a Whopper and small fries before heading north back to Bayfield.  For the first time in months, I was aware that I no longer felt like I had something irritating in my eye.  The eyelashes which had turned inwards and were rubbing on my eyeball were now back in their proper place on the outside of my lower eyelid.  What a great feeling that was.  I was home shortly before 8 just as the freezing began to come out.  My eyelid was sore but I wouldn't really say painful.  Took a couple Tylenol and that was about it.  Slept well and woke up free of soreness, pain, or discomfort.  Hooray I thought, I can finally read with both eyes again.

 KELLY TOOK THIS PHOTO WITH HER SMARTPHONE

WELL, I WARNED YA DIDN'T I....BUT NOTICE HOW MY LOWER EYELASHES ARE NOW WHERE THEY SHOULD BE AND NOT TURNED INWARDS ON MY EYEBALL

A smattering of rain in the night led to a sunny morning with very warm temperatures.  With a prescription for TobraDex ointment in hand, Pheebs and I headed for the Pharmacy at  Goderich's Walmart.  The Solo gas bar was our first stop, with a McDonalds coffee next, followed by a swing down around the harbor before heading to Walmart where I picked up my prescription.  It was nearly 10:30 and the day was heating up fast.  Maxed out the Jeep's A/C and before we got home it was snowing.....inside the Jeep.  Had to turn the heater on to stay warm:))

 TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT THIS SHIP? BOAT? BARGE? OR WHATEVER IT IS

 A CLOSER LOOK

 DEFINITELY SOMETHING ODD THERE

 'A-HA' IT'S TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.....THE PATHFINDER BARGE AND TUGBOAT DOROTHY ANN ARE UNITED AND WORK TOGETHER AS ONE

 STOPPING FOR A CHAT ON THE NEW BOARDWALK THIS MORNING

I THINK THIS LITTLE FELLA IS AT THE BEACH WITH HIS MOM

 THE NORTH AND SOUTH SECTIONS OF THE NEW BOARD WALK ARE NOW JOINED HERE AS ONE

 LAKE HURON WATERS WERE AS SMOOTH AS GLASS

 THIS CONVERTIBLE REMINDED ME OF MY 3 CONVERTIBLES OVER THE YEARS.....A 1956 AUSTIN HEALY, A 1959 TRIUMPH TR3 AND A 1964 MGB 

 HATS OFF TO THE TOWN OF GODERICH FOR SETTING ASIDE A LARGE PARKING AREA FOR RV'S  DOWN IN THE HARBOR AREA ONLY A SHORT WALK TO THE BEACH AND LAKE

 SAW THIS CROW IN THE RV PARKING AREA AND THINKING IT IN DISTRESS I SLOWLY APPROACHED TO OFFER A FEW WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT BUT WITH AN ODD HOP AND A BIG SQUAWK IT WAS AIRBORNE FLYING HIGH UP INTO THE SKY 

 IT KIND OF DID THE WATUSI BEFORE IT GOT OFF THE GROUND

The day turned out hot and humid so I stayed inside in the coolness of our house.  With our A/C going full tilt and my fans on high blowing right on me, it wasn't long before I had to put on my winter coat to keep warm.  But that was okay because it only took 30 seconds standing on our sun-drenched front deck to heat me right up again:))

WINTER WHEAT IS NOW BEING CUT

If you look at that first photo of my eye procedure you will notice how shiny my skin appears and this is precisely the reason I can't tolerate humidity.  That sheen on my skin is a natural oil my skin exudes and when I perspire that sweat mixed with humidity causes a paste to form on my skin giving me the feeling of stickiness.  And it is this stickiness I find so uncomfortable especially under my neck and in the crux of my arms when bent.  I'm sure there are other people who experience this, but I have never met one.

 NOT THE BIGGEST SNAPPER I'VE SEEN BUT IT'S GETTING THERE

 ONE DOES NOT WANT TO GET ONES FINGERS OR TOES ANYWHERE NEAR THESE JAWS OR ONE COULD LOSE THEM

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Definitions....

ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS: The only creatures you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

GOSSIP: A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.

HANDKERCHIEF: Cold Storage.

INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN: Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a time.

TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES: Something other people have. You have character lines.

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Fun fact: Australia's biggest export is boomerangs.  It's also their biggest import.

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