Are You Married To Your Glasses?

Are You Married To Your Glasses?
Cataract surgery can be a life-changing experience. One of the first things you can notice is how vibrant colors are. You hadn’t realized how dull things had become because cataracts grow so slowly. Your world is clearer and no longer fuzzy.

Plus, if you are unable to see distance clearly, you can have vision-improvement lenses implanted during the surgery. You can go from being ‘legally blind,’ that is, not being able to walk down the street without glasses or contact lenses, to practically having x-ray vision.

Well, OK. Not quite x-ray vision.

But if you do choose the vision-improvement lenses, there are a few important symptoms you need to know. And depending on how severe your vision was before the surgery is how extreme these symptoms will manifest.

I had this surgery in 2005 and I was definitely legally blind. The possibility of seeing distance clearly was a godsend to me and I chose it eagerly. But I didn’t know what symptoms awaited me after these implants.

Here are some of the symptoms you might have:

• Too much information is entering your visual field than you are used to. Your brain has compensated all those years for your poor vision. Now it needs to write a new program and this takes time.

• You may feel hyper or irritable for no reason and that’s a clue that you need to shut your eyes or even lie down for a while with your eyes covered.

• You can suffer from information overload and your entire body feels it.

• Because of this overload, your temper may be short.

• Eating out can be difficult, as too many people, too many tables, too much noise, can wreak havoc with your nerves. Again, too much info.

• Driving on freeways can be frightening, as everything seems way too close, especially those huge semi trucks.

• You may need to rely on friends to drive you until your brain has written its new program.

So if you choose to improve your vision during cataract surgery, be kind to yourself and your overworked brain. It remembers your old distorted lenses and is working as hard as it can to reprogram what it is seeing. Your patience with this process will result in an easier transition.

I am ete
ally grateful for this technology that enables me to see the way I did as a child. And for what it’s worth, I can now clearly see that occasional spider on the ceiling!