So, like the good, responsible and conscientious mother I am, I carry myself off to the eye doc, the mammogram clinic, dentist, and others on a regular basis to screen for issues, keep my vision sharp (especially the eyes in the BACK of my head, installed in the delivery room with my first child...), etc. I want to set a good example for preventative care for my girls.
Last year, the eye doc informed me that I have cataracts. Yes, at age 46 the lenses of my eyes were beginning to cloud over. This explained the very early signs of, dare I admit, poor vision at night, and a somewhat frustrating lack of sharp focus with very expensive and carefully crafted eyeglass lenses. He did not make a whole lot of it, indicating that the cataracts need not be addressed until the following year, and that this is something that is seen in people who have had nearsightedness from a young age, progressing to a somewhat extreme prescription. My eyes are -7.00 to -8.00 or so. Many people have worse vision than that but for me, this prescription means without vision correction I cannot really function in the world. I can't recognize faces, read anything that is not about 5" from my face, see where I'm walking, etc. Everything is blurred and muddled together, like looking through a screen of Vaseline.
He went on to say that since my eyes have been struggling to focus for most of my life, people like me tend to get cataracts and other signs of aging eyes earlier than others, and my situation is not rare. He said everything else looked good and to return in a year, though I did need new glasses, since my prescription had changed slightly and I would benefit from trifocals. I found some trendy frames, which these days consist of LARGE heavy BLACK plastic frames that are everywhere, the nerdy, geeky style being so hip. I am certain that in the future anyone will be able to identify this decade by these nerdy styles - everyone wears them, from youngsters to grandmothers. I got "progressive" lenses so you can't see the lines between each section of the lens.
(Aside: I recall back in the mid 1990s I found some frames that were ridiculously SMALL and oval, and I just adored them. They had a Ben Franklin type appeal to me in shape, though they were green plastic. I got quite a few odd looks, and it took a while to get used to them since the area I looked through was relatively small -willing to sacrifice peripheral vision for fashion, I am - Next thing you know, small frames were all the rage, and that carried through to about 5 years ago.)
Well, I returned today, a year later, and he said it was about time to remove these pesky cataracts, which is exciting to me because that means replacing the lens, and they put in an artificial lens that corrects your vision, so you don't need glasses after surgery, other than reading glasses. This notion is almost impossible to imagine. Unless I sleep in contact lenses when I awaken every morning I am blind as can be, and sometimes I tease myself with the horror of some sort of middle of the night emergency that will require me rushing from the house without glasses, and being completely dependent upon others to lead me around until replacements could be made. Waking up, taking a shower, swimming, water sports, etc. without needing glasses is a miraculous notion, especially since in the recent past my eyes have been too dry to tolerate contacts.
The doctor then got serious, which is not his usual manner, and he said that I have some issues that make cataract surgery a much higher risk. There is something going on with my retina on the left, and I have bilateral calcifications and other bumps in the road of the macula. The right eye macula looks okay but the left was thinned and had irregular areas, and apparently I am at risk of a detached retina. Neato!
He instructed me to avoid any activity that might cause a bump to the head (!), and if I get into a car accident he wanted me to come see him promptly to be evaluated. In general, I tend to avoid striking my head, but he ran through a list of activities that I ought to skip, including roller coaster rides, ziplining, bungee jumping, hang gliding, contact sports, etc. With the exception of bungee jumping and hang gliding, and maybe contact sports, this will put a damper on my preferred activities! No more roller coaster rides? DEW WHUT?
As for surgery, there are some very real risks of loss of vision from cataract surgery that are not present for most people who get cataract surgery, like the elderly. He said I need to weigh the risks versus the benefits, and make a decision that way, and if I decide to have cataract surgery I would need to sign a consent, indicating I understood the risks. Yikes, doc, this sounds serious. He said I may prefer to simply not drive at night and go on like I have been. He also said I may be compelled to proceed so I would not need glasses anymore, and take the risk of something bad happening to my vision, which "might happen anyway." *Sigh*
Ok, I need to think on these things a bit. All of the sudden I went from a simple nearsighted woman to someone on the brink of blindness? Huh? When did this happen? I am somewhat inclined to put off any cataract surgery at this point, and I will probably seek a second opinion. Once, that is, my wildly dilated pupils no longer make me look like those kids in Children of the Corn.
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