Some of us are, inevitably, getting older. Stuff goes bad. Like an old amp. You can re-cap an amp. You can't re-route a pinched nerve, and sewing rotator-cuffs is if-y. But you CAN put in a new eye-lens.
Another guy and I were yacking. He has a cataract just starting. I shared my tale, he said it was "helpful", I figured others here may be in a similar position.
The lens in your eye can go cloudy. "Cataract". A severe cataract can be seen by others, but well before that you will be seeing badly. My vision has been going down for a few years. Eyeglasses-doc said I was not legal to drive even with best-correction glasses. (I also was not reading on the PC well, and that strain gave me a severe back/leg hurt.)
AFAIK, everybody loves when a ripe cataract is replaced. Only sad tale was a guy who didn't do his eye-drops and got infected.
The process is tedious. Eye-drops 4X daily for 5 weeks. Starts before the exam, because they need to see through the cloudy lens to figure what plastic to replace you with. There's also corneal curve and ultrasound measurements to cross-check the through-lens guesstimate. And they look for every other possible problem too. Dilation involved so you should have a driver.
(Warning: spoiler!) The actual surgery is trivial, although they prepare you like you might turn blue and flat-line. Wide-awake or with a Quaalude-like pill, but lots of numb-drop (lots of drops overall). Finally they roll you to the surgeon who does something at the edge of your eye. He pokes a while, there is a buzz to remove the old lens, something comes in, they take you out. Typically no stitches, the incision is that small. You get apple juice, they call your ride.
I could see better right away. Overhead lights, the wall-clock in the checkout room. Far from perfect, it has to heal, but the haze was gone and the focus was better.
Eye-patch that first day and at night for a week. They tell you to rest all day, and don't lift anything heavy for a week, eyedrops for a month. An exam to be sure no-problem, then a later exam for possible Rx lenses.
The basic lens is fix-focus. What little
accommodation you may still have (probably 1.5d age 50-60) is gone- you can't focus closer with eye muscles. Typical goal is toward infinity. Like an Instamatic, this covers to maybe 4 feet. If ALL your life is closer, you can ask for that, but prolly not wise. There are "progressives" with near/far areas but cost more and sound annoying. A new flex technology hooks your focus-muscle and gets some accommodation back but is not generally available. I took the base option.
My bionic-eye vision is just fantastic! Better than I have been in years (I waited too long).
For PC and reading I use $3 readers. (Far better than the $200 specs I used to need to drive.) I *may* get custom readers for some residual blur, but I don't have to.
I hope you are on a good medical plan. The list-price for both eyes was over $6K! My ex-state-worker insurance paid ~half that, which the staff said was "very good". Out-of-pocket $30 for co-pays and maybe as much for Rx drops, $17 for five assorted readers. The cataract doctor staff seemed well-equipped to work with you to afford it.
Topic: Cataract surgery (Read 9190 times)