An open letter to my eye doctors:

Dear Dr. O’Connor, and the entire wonderful staff at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, and Dr. Ruby and his amazing staff at ACK Eye:

Thank you.

The view in Koh Samet Thailand, thanks to my eye doctors, (and my iPhone).

Your care has made this trip, and all future trips, possible because, simply put, I can see. Before my cataract and astigmatism correction surgery, just working at the computer was a frustrating, headache-inducing chore. And enjoying the outdoors or driving at night was difficult as well. But now I see better than I have since I was ten years old.

Seriously, this is a miracle of modern medicine.

The Lady Buddha in Da Nang Vietnam is 220 feet tall and I did not need glasses to take in the spectacle.

I think about this every day on this trip. When I go to the beach, I am able to see boats on the horizon. When I ride on the back of a Grab scooter, I can look at the city unfolding around me. When I pack, I don’t have to worry about hundreds of disposable contact lenses and backup pairs of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. And when I sit down to write something like this (without squinting), I am aided only by a pair of cheap +1.50 reading glasses that I can buy at any drugstore.

On this trip, I have lost one pair of readers somewhere in a random guesthouse, and I have squashed another pair while climbing into a tent on the beach, and I just laughed. If those had been my old prescription glasses, I would not have been laughing. I would be panicking.

I had the cheapest seat I could get for the Lucha Libre match in Mexico City, but it didn’t matter because I could see it quite clearly, even if my iPhone struggled to pick up detail in the low light.

How does one get a new pair of prescription glasses in Sri Lanka? I’m glad I don’t have to solve that problem.

Dr. Ruby and staff, I have been seeing you as my eyes changed over the years for longer than I can remember, and your guidance through this process has been very helpful and comforting. Any time I had a question or concern, you made every effort. Post surgery, you made sure I was ready to go out into the world without fear.

Dr. O’ Connor and team. like most people, I was concerned and nervous about the surgery, but I didn’t need to be. It went very smoothly; the doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists at OCB made me very comfortable, and they took amazing care of me. It was essentially painless, with only minor discomfort that lasted a matter of hours after the procedures.

I had to shave a month and a half off the budget for this trip to pay for the special (elective) lens inserts that also corrected my astigmatism (insurance paid for the cataract removal), but in all honesty, it was worth it. To be able to function as a traveler and a creator while only relying on reading glasses occasionally is such an amazing gift.

Japan is a visually stunning place to visit. I’m glad I got to experience that.

To everyone: The amount of enjoyment I am getting from this adventure would be far less without your skills and care. You are the best.