When was your last eye exam?  It’s always important to have your eyes checked especially as we age.

“Your eye doctor can detect early signs of serious health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and risk of stroke, based on the appearance of delicate blood vessels and other structures within the eye” according to All About Vision.

Here’s a little story about my Mom!

My Mom was born with a condition in her right eye called Amblyopia, or lazy eye.

During her childhood, she wore a patch over the left eye to make the right eye work harder. Being amblyopic she had a difficult time with depth perception and used to bump into things and fall down a lot.

Here’s a helpful video on Amblyopia and how it’s developed in childhood.

Mom’s left eye always had pretty good vision, but her right one never did.

As time went on, both eyes progressively got worse. She had a hard time leaving the house or driving due to blurry vision. Even though she wore contacts and glasses, it was quite a nuisance.

During a visit to the eye doctor, Mom discovered that she had cataracts and needed surgery. 

What’s a Cataract?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, “a cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye or of its surrounding transparent membrane that obstructs the passage of light”. 

Usually the surgery takes about 10 minutes to perform, and it’s done while the patient is awake, which terrified Mom!  

Before she committed to the surgery, she spoke to my cousin who assured her that the surgery was no big deal and told her she should do it. Then, one of her friends had the surgery with amazing results.

Mom scheduled another eye appointment and the doctor approved her for cataract surgery on her left eye.

Before the surgery, the doctor put numbing drops in her eyes so she wouldn’t feel anything.

Since she was freaked out about being awake, they gave her a sedative drip which helped calm her down. The surgery only took a few minutes and she felt NOTHING.

Within hours following the surgery, she said she could see things clearly like never before.

She has 20/20 vision in her left eye now, it WAS 20/40 before the cataract surgery. She’s now able to drive at night! 

After Surgery Eye Drops!

For a couple of weeks following surgery, lots of drops are required so the eye doesn’t dry out. 

She had to wait a month before they could do the right eye. It’s common to wait a month until the other eye is fully healed.

Mom had been told that her right eye had 20/150 vision. 20/100 on the new eye charts is considered legally blind, so she was worse!

Legally blind? It’s no wonder she never wanted to drive or go anywhere.

The doctor wanted to do cataract surgery on her right eye, but wasn’t sure he could do much for her due to her Amplyopia. He wanted to try anyway to see if he could help her.

She had such faith in the doctor that she decided to go for it, to see if there was any improvement.

She had the surgery and within 24 hours, she called me on the phone and said “OMG, I can see clearly out of my right eye too”.

The surgery corrected her eye from 20/150 to 20/40 vision, AND it only took a couple of minutes!

She tossed the contacts and distance glasses, but still needs her readers if the writing is tiny, otherwise she can read without the glasses.

Both eye surgeries were a success!  Good News!

If you’ve had Cataract Surgery, please leave a comment!

TOPIC: See Clearly Again After Cataract Surgery!

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