My journey to see.

[Raynine]

I had gone about fifteen years with the same eyeglass prescription. They kept telling me my natural lenses were clouded with cataracts. No one knows what the cause of cataracts is though I suspect it has something to do with sunlight and rays that change the chemical composition of the eye. It’s similar to what you see on the plastic covering on a car where the headlight is. It is easier to change the covering on the headlight than to try to clean the plastic. Cataract surgery is generally safe, but the possibility of a catastrophic result is not zero. The surgeon has to cut your eye to insert an artificial lens, and the body could react with dangerous inflammation. There is also the possibility of infection. They give you anti-inflammatory eye drops to fight that, and they work quite well.

My decision to get the surgery was not one I took lightly. I have amblyopia, which means one eye never developed normally. I have no central vision in my left eye because my brain shut it off during a crucial stage due to poor lens alignment that was not recognized. My brain solved the problem with sensory deprivation to prevent double vision. The issue was discovered too late, so the eye is used for peripheral vision only which is normal. People with amblyopia compensate for a lack of depth perception in different ways and they generally get along quite well.

But that bad eye missed the window of opportunity to ever be normal, so if the good eye is lost, then legal blindness is the result. I had to contend with this. At 77, it was getting hard to see at night when driving so I limited my driving. I also could not read road signs until I was very close to them even in daylight. The clouded lens distorts and scatters images on the retina and the brain is challenged to make sense of those images. It does not get better; it does not fix itself.

I got comfort from the fact that I knew many people who got the surgery with no issues. I also had confidence in the surgeon that was supplied to me. You know right away if an expert knows his craft and I was convinced this surgeon was the best. Fifteen hundred surgeries a year, the guy knows his business. 97-98 percent success rate is common so that weighed heavily on my decision to get the surgery.

I got the first eye, the good eye, done on September 30th. My vision went from 20-40 to 20-20 overnight. I followed all the instructions with eye drops to the letter and never had any pain. It was a spectacular experience with clear distance vision sans glasses. I need readers for close work but that is minor. The second eye was done On October 21st. Just the increased amount of light coming into both eyes is remarkable and colors are glorious.

I am glad I found the courage to do this and rejoice in my decision to trust experts at a time when so many “experts” are suspect.

 

[Lisa558]

I had gone about fifteen years with the same eyeglass prescription. They kept telling me my natural lenses were clouded with cataracts. No one knows what the cause of cataracts is though I suspect it has something to do with sunlight and rays that change the chemical composition of the eye. It’s similar to what you see on the plastic covering on a car where the headlight is. It is easier to change the covering on the headlight than to try to clean the plastic. Cataract surgery is generally safe, but the possibility of a catastrophic result is not zero. The surgeon has to cut your eye to insert an artificial lens, and the body could react with dangerous inflammation. There is also the possibility of infection. They give you anti-inflammatory eye drops to fight that, and they work quite well.

My decision to get the surgery was not one I took lightly. I have amblyopia, which means one eye never developed normally. I have no central vision in my left eye because my brain shut it off during a crucial stage due to poor lens alignment that was not recognized. My brain solved the problem with sensory deprivation to prevent double vision. The issue was discovered too late, so the eye is used for peripheral vision only which is normal. People with amblyopia compensate for a lack of depth perception in different ways and they generally get along quite well.

But that bad eye missed the window of opportunity to ever be normal, so if the good eye is lost, then legal blindness is the result. I had to contend with this. At 77, it was getting hard to see at night when driving so I limited my driving. I also could not read road signs until I was very close to them even in daylight. The clouded lens distorts and scatters images on the retina and the brain is challenged to make sense of those images. It does not get better; it does not fix itself.

I got comfort from the fact that I knew many people who got the surgery with no issues. I also had confidence in the surgeon that was supplied to me. You know right away if an expert knows his craft and I was convinced this surgeon was the best. Fifteen hundred surgeries a year, the guy knows his business. 97-98 percent success rate is common so that weighed heavily on my decision to get the surgery.

I got the first eye, the good eye, done on September 30th. My vision went from 20-40 to 20-20 overnight. I followed all the instructions with eye drops to the letter and never had any pain. It was a spectacular experience with clear distance vision sans glasses. I need readers for close work but that is minor. The second eye was done On October 21st. Just the increased amount of light coming into both eyes is remarkable and colors are glorious.

I am glad I found the courage to do this and rejoice in my decision to trust experts at a time when so many “experts” are suspect.

I am so glad to hear of your success. I have some abnormality with my eyes as well, and my retina tore during the procedure. This was not immediately known, but discovered a few days later as I was having symptoms. They lasered the tear and it has been fine.

As you say, even the most routine, low-risk procedures are not ZERO risk.