Eyesight is one of the most precious gifts we possess. There is also a lot of variation from person to person and a variety of maladies that affect our vision as we travel life's path. Some of these maladies are mostly age related and as we get longer in the tooth so to speak, our vision changes and seldom is it for the better.
I have been blessed with good eyesight for the most part but being an old fart, I have also experienced degradation in my vision over time. In my mid 40s, my arms got too short and I had to have help to read the fine print. Reading glasses remedied that but were a pain to keep up with so I transitioned to bifocals full time. Having a thorough eye exam every year was important to keep up with changes that occur naturally and the prescription changes kept me seeing things pretty clearly. But as age marched on, I also began to notice that it was more difficult to see in low light conditions which my eye doctor explained was due to cataracts.
What are cataracts you ask? They are not an extra growth on your eye. Simply put, a cataract is the clouding up of the clear lens in our eye. This is usually a gradual process that occurs as we age and it affects the amount of light that gets through the lens and can make the image we see appear to be blurry. Some folks never get bad enough to be an issue but others cloud to the point that they can be legally blind.
Fortunately, cataracts are not something that we just have to deal with. We can not prevent them but they can be treated.
My eye doctor started noticing the clouding of my lenses in my mid 60s, probably around 10 years ago. The change was gradual, most noticeable in low light conditions. But it did progress to the point that my distance vision was blurred and not correctable by a prescription change.
It was time to get the cataracts taken care of. My regular eye doctor is not a surgeon so he referred me to a surgeon who specializes in cataract surgery. Went in for the consultation and set up a date to get the first eye done. The actual procedure consists of a small incision in the eye (I call it getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick), inserting a tool that looks much like a dental pick and breaking up the cloudy lens into small pieces that are then sucked out with a tiny vacuum tube. A clear plastic lens is inserted where the cloudy one was removed. This new lens can also be matched to your glasses prescription to correct some vision deficiencies. And depending on your deficiencies, there may be several options for those lenses. In my case, I called my regular eye doctor to sort out the options. I went with the lens to correct my distance vision based on his input. If I need help with up close after the surgery, I am already used to glasses for that anyway.
The day came to be poked in the eye with a sharp stick! They numb my eye with drops and gave me some juice via IV to make me relax. The procedure takes about 15 minutes and then I get my instructions on how to care for the eye and what not to do for a few days and I was on the way home with my daughter as my chauffeur. I see the surgeon the next day and all is well. A week later, I see my regular eye doctor and all is well and vision in that eye if definitely better.
I got home and called the surgeons office and get on the schedule to have the other eye done the following week.
I could see a big difference after the 1st eye but the 2nd eye, the difference was huge. Within 48 hours after surgery, I was able to use the computer and even read the screen on my phone without glasses. The improvement was much better than I expected and I am looking forward to the one week follow up in a couple of days.
Cataract surgery falls into the category of minor or routine and that is easy to say when referring to other folks but now that I have been through it, I can even agree with that description.
Getting poked in both eyes with a sharp stick has worked out great for me!
