My Cataract Experience

Two years ago, on the day before I had surgery for retinal detachment, my doctor informed me that I would develop a cataract in my left eye due to one of the procedures of the surgery which was the  vitrectomy (the removal of the vitreous from the eye). Cataracts form quicker when the vitreous is removed from the eye, this is because oxygen reaches the lens faster.

I admit I wasn't clear on exactly what a cataract was. For years not only did I think a cataract was a growth over the eye but I also thought it was something that only happened to people over the age of 60 years old. I later learned that a cataract is not a growth but clouding n the lens of the eye that can happen to anyone, at any age for a number of reasons.
I did hope that I wouldn't develop a cataract because I didn't want to deal with another vision issue but of course within in nine months after the surgery it did happen just as the doctor had said.

The Experience

I started to notice that the vision in my left eye was becoming slightly foggy. It was as if I was looking through dirty eyeglasses. At the early stage I thought that my glasses were smudged so I would constantly wipe them off in frustration but then I realized what was happening. 

He did explain that once the cataract started to interfere with my vision, if I chose to have surgery, that the clouded lens would be surgically removed and replaced with an artificial lens (intraocular lens implant or IOL). He said the surgery would take place in an operating room and that it would only be 10 to 15 minutes long if there were no complications. He also told me that the new lens would give me better vision and that he would try to get the left eye close to the vision in my right eye because of the 8 diopter difference between the two (if that makes sense). 

I asked the doctor how fast do cataracts progress and he said it's according to the situation. I read about cataract progression and found that for age related cataracts it usually takes a number of years for vision to become completely impaired but for me the cataract seemed to progress rapidly over a number of months.

As the cataract progressed my vision became more blurry though most of my vision came from my right eye. I explained in an earlier blog that since the vision in my left eye was distorted that most of my vision comes from my right eye due to my brain ignoring the distortion. For a while the same was true with the cataract until my eye became so foggy that I could no longer ignore it. 

Things like reading became difficult as I tried my best not to strain my eyes through the haze. There was a lot of burning, itching and tears as well. By the end of the year (November 2018) my retinal ophthalmologist suggested that I go back to the cornea specialist because the cataract was really seemed to be affecting my vision.

I saw the cornea specialist again and he agreed that my vision was getting worse. He said that he would schedule my surgery when I was ready. The idea of another surgery worried me because I feared re-detachment which I read could happen during cataract surgery and even though I knew I would eventually have to have surgery I just wasn't ready.

In about a month after seeing the cornea specialist the vision in my left eye went from blurry to white. I could barely see anything even when using both eyes so I called the clinic and scheduled my appointment for the surgery and prayed that everything would go well.
 

I did my usual research of what I would experience during the surgery and felt a little better about it because it didn't seem too bad, but it was still surgery. I even watched a cataract surgery video on YouTube and saw that the surgery didn't look as scary as other eye surgeries.

After Surgery Update

In April of 2019 I had cataract surgery. Everything went very well and my vision is actually much clearer than it was before, though I have the distortion due to the scar on my retina from detachment two years ago.