Cataract surgery opens up world

I had cataract surgery not long ago on both my eyes. It really woke me up to the beautiful world I had not seen for such a long time.

In fact, I think my husband thought I was in my second childhood, because I was telling him, “I can see trees, I can see their leaves, I can read street signs, I can read billboards, etc.”

I had known about the problem for years. When my children began to get ready for school, it had fallen upon me to take them for eye exams.

While there, I agreed to get my eyes checked. The kids came through great. Then the doctor looked at me and said, “We have a problem.”

He told me I had a problem with my eyes and a small cataract that would need to be taken care of in later years. I got new glasses, and everything looked great for a while.

My vision changed so slowly I didn’t realize when my vision began to go bad again.

The years passed, and I kept going to the eye doctors, who all agreed that I had a cataract and eventually would have to take care of it.

I figured if they weren’t worried, I wouldn’t be. After all, everyone knows eyes get worse as people get older, and that’s what my eyes seem to be doing.Then my husband and my children began to notice that whenever I was around, all the lights were turned on, and I couldn’t see to read. It was like I was in a dusty dusk, all day long.

I couldn’t see to put things down. They might get where they should be, or they might end on the floor. I finally decided I needed to go to a specialist.

After checking my eyes, the specialist told me, “You need surgery. Your eyes are covered with masses of cataracts. Why have you waited so long?”

I had a rush come over me.

“Masses of cataracts all over my eyes.” How did this happen?

I did everything I was supposed to, Why me? I didn’t want to have cataract surgery.

I remembered my dad’s painful cataract surgery and didn’t want to go through that myself. My grandmother had cataracts from diabetes, and she did go blind.

I didn’t want to be blind, so I decided to grab myself by the back of the neck, and told my husband, let’s go find out what my eyes can become. That was my first step in seeing the world as it was truly meant to be.

I had my surgery on each eye, seven weeks apart. As soon as I had the first surgery, within a few minutes of waking up, I wondered when the pain would start.

The staff asked me if I were uncomfortable. I checked all over my eyes, from the inside out, looking first one way and then the other.

I began seeing a completely new world. By the first evening, I was watching TV.

I could read the crawlers along the bottom of the news, something I had not been able to do for years.

Every day, my eyes were seeing new things. I began sewing, something I had given up. Not that I couldn’t thread a needle, I couldn’t find the needle to thread.

I started to read again, with very little light. My eyes were seeing things my head had no memory of seeing: shapes and colors, depth, etc.

Why did I wait so long to have something done? I missed out on a lot.

I now look at a tree and see individual leaves from the inside the car. I can even see ants (though I don’t have to like them).

The best part is I can look into my kids’ and grandkids’ eyes and see the twinkles I had missed for so long.

I would really like to let everyone know that if you are having problems seeing, have your eyes checked by a doctor who knows what to look for and don’t be afraid. Medicare covers part of the cost and helps with your first pair of glasses.

It is important, and you could end up seeing what I see.

You will always wonder why you waited so long to see the world with new eyes.