THE ALMOST SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN

One of my favorite television shows as a kid was the Six Million Dollar Man. I loved everything Steve Austin. I had the Six Million Dollar Man action figure, Oscar Goldman, Bigfoot, Mask-a-tron, the rocket ship, the Bionic Mission Vehicle, the astronaut suit, hell, I even wore a leisure suit just like OSI's most top-secret agent.

Well apparently I am on my way to becoming a bionic man myself, just the $35,000 (or there abouts) man. You see, I have a titanium rod in my left leg (Steve Austin had 2 bionic legs which allowed him to run up to 60mph, mine allows me to hop a short distance), Kirschner wire repairing my recently broken elbow (Steve Austin: right bionic arm allowing him to lift heavy objects such as a car engine, I can twist the lid off of most jars) and now my latest and third repair to my right eye (Stevo had a bionic left eye allowing him to see the tiniest speck at great distances, I am just happy to be able to see).

Just this past Thursday I went in for cataract surgery. That's right, cataract surgery, a procedure typically reserved for those almost twice my age. You see, I have been near sighted since I was in grade school, then when riding out to a club race in high school someone in a car thought it would be a good idea to throw a beer bottle at my buddy and me. It broke over my face at my right eye which required 20 stitches to my face at the time and retinal surgery a year and a half later. Then in 2003, my retina detached again requiring another surgery. So...I immediately became that much more prone to get an ailment that everyone at one time or another will succumb to, just most in their more twilight years.

I have to say that I wish I had this surgery ages ago. The procedure took all of 10 minutes. It was like an assembly line in there. I was able to ride my bike the next day and my vision is already better with no corrective lenses post surgery than what it was with a contact in pre-surgery. Apparently it will keep improving over the next 3 weeks to such a point that I will probably only need a corrective lense in the right eye for reading. Needless to say, I am psyched!