Forgot to say that the surgery should take about 15 minutes.
Thanks for your responses and concerns.
A little more update. I THOUGHT I saw an opthamologist (an MD) yesterday, as I had made an appointment at an opthamology clinic and told the scheduler that I had had drastic vision loss in the last 3 months. But they had me see an optometriat anyway. So I might have lost some time- as now I need a “pre-surgical evaluation” before they schedule the surgery. I found thet the surgery is usually 4-6 weeks after that, which means I’m still maybe 2 months from surgery. I am concerned about how much worse my vision will get in the meantime.
So yes. a standard optometrist should be able to detect a cataract. In fact, he had some uncertainty about whether there might be other problems besides the cataracts. Not only do they block my view looking out, they obscure HIS view looking in at the retina and optic nerve.
I had no idea donated natural eyes were an option, but as the guy told me they could put in any power lens they want, I assume artificial.
I have a type of cataract called “subcapsular”, which is the rarest form, and can indeed appear within a few months. There is no single definitive causative factor, and there’s nothing in my or my family history to suggest this might happen. No chronic overexposure to UV light, or chemical or physical injury, or diabetes. Well, there is a family history of diabetes, but I don’t have it and those that do gon’t have vision problems related to it.
And I’ve had to start pulling some alarm bells at work. I talked to a nurse in employee health about some changes at my desk to keep me functioning. I’m looking at bus routes, van pools, etc for travelling to work, as I have to face it that it’s just too gangerous for me to drive.
Are you saying that the cataract formed in both eyes at the same time?
That would be unusual - I was quite blind in one eye but could still drive and see for work with the other eye.
Apparently not all that unusual, as this Mayo clinic article says that they tend to be symmetrical in both eyes.
But you’re basically right, in that my visual loss isn’t the same in both eyes. But they didn’t start out the same either. The right eye was significantly more myopic and astigmatic(sp?) than the left, but the left has lost more. So now my good eye has got worse than the bad one ever was.
That’s interesting and bad luck. At least I had some in between time (about 5 months).
Know what you mean though - I refer to my ‘eye formally known as good’, which is now the bad eye.
I am sooooooooo glad that I’m not the only one… 
All I hear about “donated eyes” is the corneas… I don’t think any other parts of the eye can get used. There was a bit on TV recently about organ donation, the reporter asked whether they still need corneas what with artificial lenses and whatnot and the interviewee said yes.
IANAD or an optometrist etc etc.
Good luck, Boyo Jim. Here’s hoping for successful and eyesight better than ever. You need to be able to enjoy that furniture and those paintings we talked about before. 
Best wishes,
SA
I got cataracts in both eyes about the age of 43. It came on pretty quickly, and I thought I was just getting near sighted. I had dioptics of -6 and -8, so I was nearly blind before anyhow. The surgery is a little disturbing. They keep you awake and put a clamp on your eyeball and give you a local anesthetic. This is all mildly disconcerting. When I got mine done, the technology to put in a flexible lens to allow near/far vision wa not really available. They usually shoot for giving you close to 20/20 vision, but with my bad initial vision, I ended up with about a -2 dioptic in both eyes with some significant astigmatism of about -3 in both eyes.
I’ve got some odd artifact of “starring” when looking at pinpoints of light right at the edge of my pupil. My right eye still has some residual cloudiness which is pretty annoying, but it’s not uncommon. Despite all the bizarre artifact, I can see much better without glasses and can actually wander around the house and do stuff without glasses.
I’m currently planning on getting PRK surgery to dial out the astigmatism, but am not real sure about the monovision thing. I think my right eye vision is somewhat compromised, and my opthamalogist suggested just going with 20/20 correction (or at least as close as possible) and just wear reading glasses. I’ll probably try monovision wearing contacts and see if I like it.
In any case, cataract surgery is amongst the most common surgery performed in the US. My vision ain’t perfect, but the surgery is pretty friggen’ miraculous. I’d been shit out of luck 60 years ago. I suspect that I might have gotten cataracts from not wearing sunglasses enough over the years. I’ve got dark irises and bright sun doesn’t bother me all that much, plus I do a little bit of sailing and kayaking so I’m on the water a lot.