Seniors

Possibly because I was relatively young, only 63.

I'd been nearsighted my entire life. In first grade I could not see the blackboard. Got glasses, and every year thereafter got new glasses.

When I was 17 I got contact lenses. OMG! What an improvement. These were hard lenses, about a decade before soft ones existed. The amazing thing was that I COULD SEE!!! I could look out of the side of my eye, and see. Unlike with glasses, where my vision was restricted.

The down side of hard contacts was that they needed to be taken out, and my eyes needed to rest. When I was a ticket agent at National Airport in Washington DC, and often worked turn around, meaning I worked closing and got off at 10pm or even later, depending on if the flights were late, and had to be at work the next morning at 6am, it was a bit rough. Eventually soft lenses made that better.

Around the time I was 50 my eye doctor told me I was beginning to have cataracts. Darn. But they didn't do much for over a decade. Then, at one yearly check-up, he said it's time to have cataract surgery. I'd had various changes in my vision in the recent months, but didn't realize they were cataract related. A quick Google search cleared that up.

I had one eye done, then two weeks later the second eye. Honestly, I could have had them done three days apart, as about 24 hours after the first surgery I could see out of that eye with perfect clarity.

I opted for lenses that would give me good distance vision, as I was used to using reading glasses by then. It feels as if I can read small signs on distant hills, which isn't exactly true, but you get the idea.

I've been known to say that cataracts are the best things that ever happened to my eyes. Certainly cataract surgery improved my vision enormously.

I know that different people have different responses to the surgery. I know mine was incredibly good and fast. I sincerely wish you good luck with everything.