My wife resisted for years - painfully and clumsily - having her hips replaced because she hated having doctors ‘practice medicine’ on her. A colleague of mine who treats herself with herbs and crystals had her hips replaced last year and told my surprised wife “that’s not medicine, it’s mechanics” - and my wife signed up immediately… Seems to me that cataract surgery is more like sculpture than anything else.
Something I have been noticing only when I am indoors is that it appears someone has been smoking in the room, just a feint look of smoke. I am 75 and have not been diagnosed with cataracts but I suspect this might be early stages.
Thanks. She did say it was outpatient, but that i would need a ride home.
My cheapo distance glasses (with correction set for close) are in a similar price range. They don’t seem to be as common with the big box/retail stores, but if you want to order on line it’s not a big deal.
As of 5 years ago, that was still the treatment. Not fun, because I hate eye drops and they put this thing on your eye, and there’s some goop involved, but it was over in 5 minutes.
Re the old thread from 2012: when I was first diagnosed, I was told that the guidelines were that your vision could not be corrected to 20:20 with glasses, or your eyes were more than 2 diopers apart.
I don’t know if either of those applied to the person who started that thread; in my case they got the eye to 20:20 with glasses, but it worsened - and it was already > 2 diopters worse. So from a vision standpoint, there was zero reason to delay.
From a medical standpoint, by the time the doctor gave up (given how much worse the eye got in 3-4 months), I’d developed increase eye pressure, and she wanted to get that down. I waited 3 months on one set of eye drops, zero change, 4 weeks on another eye drop, problem fixed, then she found OTHER reasons to put me off. I called her former partner and got things done.
I had been worried they would not do the other eye, which was not nearly as bad - insurance might not have paid. And I’d been told it was best to get them both done close together, to help with the brain adjusting. Luckily (?) the new doc said there was enough going on with the good eye that they could make a case to do both.
There have been a number of threads about this.
I too started wearing glasses when I was young. Then contacts, then Lasik, then reading glasses.
I had the cataract surgery. It is surgery, but was not a difficult one. I opted for the best new lenses. The ones where I have both far and close vision. No more reading glasses. No contacts, no nuthin.
After a life of always needing some sort of sight… appliance, this was truly a life changer. I see great.
My brother stayed with us last month and was having issues seeing things. Duh. He had cataracts. He was so bad he’d have to hold things up to his face and squint around to see or read. We read him the riot act, and as soon as he got back to Costa Rica he saw his doctor who immediately scheduled his surgeries. His wife said “He was driving me over the mountain with those eyes?!?”
His second surgery was about a week ago, and he’s amazed at how well he can see. Everything is so clear and bright! Again, duh.
After my surgeries and with my vastly improved night sight I was a little alarmed I’d been driving after dark like that.
Although it was slow speed over roads I knew well.
When earlier that year I’d gone on a camping trip with friends I’d flat out told them I was NOT going to be driving after dark in unfamilar territory, whether on the freeway or on much slower local roads.
I didn’t feel like my vision was impaired, until fairly late in the process. Even then it was okay during the daytime, but at night, I wasn’t comfortable driving.
I had to go to Vermont (a 10 hour drive) and spent the night at a hotel en route each way to avoid driving after dark. Plus an extra night in a hotel mid-week, as I had to take my daughter to an appointment an hour or so away from her town. I told her up front: bring overnight stuff, I’m not driving back after the appointment. So it meant I paid for 2 rooms for the same night (one in her town, one near the appointment), but nobody died.
After mine the sun was so bright I could hardly stand it. My glasses darken in the sun, but the new ones didn’t while I was driving. It turns out the trigger to make them darken gets blocked by car windows, so they don’t work inside of cars. I keep one of the sunglasses I got from the doctor which fits over my glasses in the car now.
One of the things I love about having my eyes done is that I can now wear regular sunglasses from the drugstore. Before, I had to get clip-ons for over my regular glasses (or, if I could find them, the kind that look like sunglasses but fit over regular ones).
And somewhere along the line, the only kind of clip-ons you could get were the ones that have prongs on all 4 corners. i.e. impossible to put on or take off without using both hands.
If you’re driving, and come across a tunnel or sudden rainstorm, this becomes problematic.
I was able to find the flip-up sort (can be put on/taken off one-handed - and you can flip 'em up out of the way in a split second) on Amazon.
Before cataract surgery my glasses were so thick I couldn’t use clip-on sunglasses - my lenses were so thick I could never find clip-ons that could fit them.
Early next month I go for a new set of prescription glasses. Looking forward to getting a really fine tuned correction even if right now I’m doing OK with OTC glasses.
There are commercial sunglasses that are made to fit over glasses, they are called fit-over sunglasses. You can find them in many of the larger pharmacy chains, or online. They usually also shade the sides as well as the front of your vision, which I find really helpful for driving. Some of them also have tilt-up fronts, which is handy for going through tunnels, or other changeable light circumstances.
These are not your fashionable beach shades, but they are practical and effective.
Yeah, but these were free. They do just fine, and are fairly powerful. I prefer my normal glasses that tint because that is one less thing to carry around. I don’t have to find a place for sunglasses when I go indoors. It costs a bit more, but is well worth it.