November 16, 2021 Message to the Membership
Posted on November 16, 2021 in Message to the Membership
I feel a little silly making this Message to the Membership a personal health report, but given the overwhelming response I had to my last message, I do feel compelled to provide a bit of an update.
For those who missed last week’s message, I reported upon a relatively freak health incident, (the hemorrhaging of a blood vessel in my left eye) which temporarily blinded my eye, and of the excellent care I received from both my optometrist, Dr. Lukenchuk, and the eye surgeon at City Hospital’s Eye Care Centre, Dr. Masri, as well as their wonderful support staff.
Those who did read the message likely recall how the response by the business community was immediate, despite it not being very well circulated. Already by the time of last week’s message there had been dozens of people who had reached out. Well, with the passage of time, (along with the power of social media through posts on both LinkedIn and Facebook), that number swelled into the hundreds of people who reached out to me.
Again, that just goes to show you the type of people that the business community is made of. These are salt of the earth type of people who really do care about their fellow man. (Is that term even usable anymore? I hope so… I just did. As always, no offense intended.)
But friends, acquaintances and even the odd stranger (well, they’re likely not odd themselves, but you know what I mean) reached out to offer me well wishes. Between the phone calls, text messages, emails and then social media, it was almost a full-time job for me to keep up while I ‘rested and recovered’.
Therefore, given the mass interest in the state of my health, I thought it might be best to update you all via this week’s message. So, back to the state of my recovery… I’m more than pleased to report that my vision has improved considerably since my second surgery just barely a week ago.
Whereas I first described my condition as like having a thick layer of Vaseline on my eye, that obscuring film (or whatever it is) is now much smaller, and more see-through, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like a really big, honkin’ floater that will move in and out of my field of vision.
When it’s directly in my line of sight, which is becoming less frequent, I would say my vision is about 50-60%. And on the occasions when it is not, my vision is almost back to normal, upwards of 90%. Under normal circumstances I would have said that this latter scenario doesn’t happen often enough. But given that I was first told that it could be three months before my vision would return to normal, I’ll take this in a heartbeat.
In spite of what I just told you, it’s actually hard to tell how the improvement is coming along because I think there’s also a factor of me getting used to this new reality. For instance, the headache that I had pretty much nonstop for the first week is now gone. I’m not sure whether the headache was the result of the surgery, or just from my brain working so hard from the strain on my good eye, and the squinting of my bad eye. I now no longer squint, and my headache is gone. Whatever the reasons are, I don’t really care. I’m just glad that I’m not popping Advil like popcorn anymore and I’m looking at the world around me through both eyes.
So, if you were among the hundreds who reached out to me, thank you. Your thoughtfulness and consideration is really, truly appreciated. You’re good people to have as friends (even you odd ones).
Before signing off, I also want to comment on the COVID situation in the province. Regular readers will likely recall a message I wrote recently describing how I felt safe at SaskTel Centre while attending the basically sold-out Eric Church concert. This was due to the actions of those around me and the screening of the event to allow only double-vaccinated patrons into the venue.
This was in direct contradiction to several media reports and their legions of hair-on-fire followers who said that the concert would result in catastrophic spikes in COVID cases in the province. Well, here we are, three-plus weeks later and, uh, uhm, what was that you were saying?
As the COVID numbers decline considerably of late, their silence on the follow-up to the concert is deafening. Indeed they’ve already moved onto the next catastrophe in the wings. Just give it a rest already.
Until next time, be safe, be smart, be considerate, be well but most of all, be kind.
Keith Moen,
Executive Director