Caving to Cataract Surgery – OMG, Color!

April 12, 2024 Claire Sachs

Cataracts grow about as quickly as sand moves, or so my ophthalmologist says. So, for 31 years, I’ve had a glacially slow cloud moving over the middle of my lenses. So, the first thought I had after surfacing from my first dose of anesthesia in decades, was OMG, color! I hadn’t realized how much the world had dulled as I kicked the surgery can further and further down the road.

So, that’s a plus.

The surgery itself was a fairly anti-climactic event. For each, between the prep, the surgery and the recovery, it was only about an hour. The surgery itself was only about 10 minutes. The anesthesia knocked me out for the rest of each day, and the sudden difference in my vision took a few days to get used to, but overall, that part of the experience was seamless.

Another plus.

The two weeks between the surgeries was weird, walking around with one eye that was clearer with no autofocus (called accommodation), and one that was still cloudy with accommodation. And a distance contact lens, which made the two eyes as far from each other field-of-vision-wise as it is possible to go. It got a little better every day, but they never really reconciled.

I assumed that was more because of the remaining cataract than a range of vision problem and, after the second surgery, I realized that I was right. It should be easier now that the second eye has been corrected. I won’t even need glasses or contacts for day driving. Since I have had glasses since 4th grade, that’s something I’ve never considered.

A third plus.

But I am still nervous about voluntarily giving up my accommodation. For most people, it happens naturally and gradually. You age, your lenses lose their elasticity, and your accommodation goes with it. Up until yesterday, I still had mine. Many people opt for multifocal replacement lenses, but because I have another eye condition, I didn’t qualify for them. My best option will be progressive lenses. I know more people who have had issues with them than not. If I end up one of those people, I could end up with both readers and distance glasses, plus equivalent contact lenses and sunglasses. Sounds like a hassle to me.

Definitely not a plus.

Or, at least comparatively a hassle. Don’t tell anyone, but I had fallen into the habit of just leaving my contacts in. For, like, six months at a time. It was like I had normal eyes – a medical condition I didn’t have to pay a ton of attention to. When was the last time any of our conditions fell into that category? (This is not something I would recommend. You risk lesions on your eyes, and a host of other issues.)

I think everybody expects me to be immediately satisfied and excited with the changes, but I won’t really know how I feel about it until I understand how much energy it will add to that I expend to look after all the other conditions.

There’s no going back. Well, there is – if I don’t like the fields of vision I chose, they can go in and try again, but I have a feeling my insurance company’s response would be a polite version of an all-four-letter-word conversation. Plus, the whole having to have eye surgery again thing. I won’t be doing that.

The best I can offer right now is resignation that whatever will be, will be, (there’s a song!) and I will have to do what it takes, hassle or not, to function within the life I want. But until everything is settled and I know what I am going to have to do, the jury is still out on whether this is something I can get excited about.

(It was a good decision. Leaving things as they were would have eventually resulted in blindness, which I believe qualifies as a bigger hassle than having to switch out corrective lenses all the time.)

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