Last week whilst driving home from the parental unit, I thought my sunglasses needed cleaning. I kept trying to clean them until I made the discovery that it was my left eye that was slightly blurred, not the glasses. Not having ever scratched the lens before, I thought that this is what it was. However, a week later, there was no change so I thought I’d better get the GP to look at it. She couldn’t see anything but said to be safe, go to the Accident and emergency eye clinic, so I did. Three and a half hours of waiting, then I get to see the specialist. She puts so many things in my eyes and looks at them with lights etc etc. Then after an hour tells me she thinks that I have cataracts but goes to get another specialist to consult. He says, yes you have them in both eyes but one is worse than the other - very unusual in someone your age. Then they consult one more specialist asking what tests to do etc, she tells them, thems the breaks and to come back when they are bad enough to need surgery!
Not to mention that we have been trying to get pregnant for two years, my left knee is crapping out and I need a tooth filling replaced. I’m feeling very old right now - I’m imagining that when I go back to the cataract clinic I will reduce the mean age by decades.
Odd, my wife was at the eye specialist yestarday and she too was told she had the beginnings of a cataract. Would it make you feel better to know that she’s 35?
That was around the age when mine were discovered, too. But the doc said I may have had them all my life and never known it.
Buck up, though. Laser surgery seems to be quick, painless, and safe.
I know of babies born with them.
I was in my 40s’ when mine were diagnosed, too. I’m more bummed about the glaucoma, though. Yep, it’s a bummer.
Thanks Lieu - yes it does make me feel better - not such a freak of nature.
What a coincidence!
Thanks everyone else too.
Apparently we all get cataracts, it just depends at what age you get them, most in old age.
Noone else in the family has them or has had them.
I have been making light of it with the class today - if I forget something or say the wrong word, I blame the cataracts (kept class amused for a couple of minutes at least). We also had a confession from a class member who said he was 45 when he first got them.
Still, does make you feel old all of a sudden.
hugs to MelCthefirst You’re never old! 
Mom had them at the early age of 16. 49 years ago they did not have the advancements that they have now and Mom wasn’t operated on until she was in her mid-twenties. Dad tells that she was not able to distinguish which were her kids in the yard.
Today it is an out-patient surgery, with a high rate of success. I am glad too, because with Mom having them, Dad having them (late in his life) Grandma on both sides and now my sister, it seems likely that I will get them too.
Luck!
After having done some reading in the weekend, apparently you can help to stave off cataracts by taking vitamin A and E and selenium supplements. One website was also talking about a spinach extract which may improve the vision with a cataract.
In young people its development is associated with smoking, diabetes, extended exposure to ultra-violet lights and extended steroid use. (I’m not any of these), but there is also a hereditary influence ie genetic weakness - sounds like your family?
I developed one in my right eye at 29.
Nothing more to say, really.
I reiterate that ultra-violet light can cause cataracts. I know an employee that made silk screens with ultraviolet lights in a sign shop. He had cataracts on both eyes in his 20’s. So if you like/d to to look at op art posters with UV lighting, be warned.
[required Monty Python Reference]
“I’m thirty-seven! I’m not OLD!”
[/required Monty Python Reference]
Here’s a roundabout story: I got a speeding ticket in the Florida Keys, and to fend off points, I needed to take a defensive driving course. I thought I could take the one offered by my employer, and found out that not only would that course NOT satisfy the Florida courts, but that I HAD to take it anyway, to make Rutgers University (my employer) happy. So I take it and promptly fail the eye exam. I go to an opthamologist for what I thought would be a prescription for glasses, and he tells me I have cataracts. Both eyes.
Well, shit, I’m only 48 (not the spring chicken you are, Mel 
). But my reaction was much the same as yours.
The left eye was bad enough for an IOL implant, which I had done in September. It was done as an outpatient procedure, and after looking like —> :eek: for fifteen minutes, I had a shiny new lens in place. Apart from the freaky experience of having to watch your old lens go away and a weird shimmy the first day or so as the new lens attaches itself, it was really a piece of cake. I’m looking forward to having the right eye done next year. All hail viscoelastic IOLs!
I did feel like a kid at the clinic that day, being a good 20 to 30 years younger than everyone else. And we all had our left eye done.
just got back from the eye doctor myself. he says ‘anytime I’m ready’ for the surgery, he’ll do it.
So Wring and Brachy, how bad is bad enough to need surgery. My GP told me, if she refers me now, they woul d think she was joking - but it is damned annoying already!
The opthamologists didn’t really give me good information for what to do until then, is it worth getting glasses?
well, I ‘didn’t do well’ on the test. They had me look at basic eye chart while having a bright light glare into my eyes, and I had difficulty (even w/glasses on) reading any of the letters.
IRL what that means is that driving at night, I have difficulty reading traffic signs (can’t read street signs at all, even if I’m right on 'em, other signs, I recognize the shape and know “oh, that’s a stop sign” so that isn’t a problem, but if I have to read what’s on it, not so good). difficulty discerning the shading difference between a curb and a street. street, side of street. that sort of thing. white lines on the side (constant) help.
Night driving for me = Only places I’ve been to lots (like to and from work) OR have some one else in the car w/me helping me see where the street is to turn.
yea, maybe surgery is a good idea.
Never had this test but as I’m 61 and my night vision is going South, would this be the correct test to check how far Soth it has gone?
I’d get w/your eye doctor, tell them your symptoms including that you’re finding it problematical. I think they only gave me the test 'cause I complained that I was having difficulties. BUt yes, I suspect that’s the one they’d give you.
My cataracts were discovered in both eyes at the ripe old age of three.
I had the left one removed and a prosthetic lens implanted when I was 14, and the other one when I was 16.
I WIN!! 
Yeah, yeah, OKAY you win…but we’re all in a very small minority - less than 2% of people with cataracts are below 40.