Pre-Cataracts

So I went to the eye doctor last week for a checkup, mainly because my glasses prescription seemed to be getting out of date, and I wondered if that was causing some of the headaches I’ve been having for the last while. And at first, it was good news. My distance vision had actually improved: my glasses are too strong for what I need right now.

“Awesome.” I said.

“Not necessarily,” the eye doctor said, and he checked on a few more things.

Yup. Apparently one of the symptoms of cataracts is that your eyesight improves. I have pre-cataracts, which basically mean that my eyes are developing cataracts (clouding in the lens) in both eyes. It typically doesn’t happen until people are 50 or 60, but I guess my eyes just really like a challenge.

The good news is that it’s a simple, common operation that’s typically effective. The bad news is someone will have to take a scalpel to my eyeballs, and I’m going to have to watch them do it. Oh, and there’s a chance it won’t work and I’ll go blind. That too. Though that’s a rare outlier, and there’s always the risk of catastrophic failure with whatever you do, right? On the other hand, it sounds like while they’re doing the surgery, they’ll be able to fix my vision to give me 20/20 vision again, most likely. It’s a process that isn’t covered by health insurance . . . unless you need to have cataract surgery. So there’s some silver lining in there too.

This isn’t something I have to get done anytime soon. It could be a year, could be ten, could be more. But it still was a bummer of a thing to hear to start my day with, and as I’ve been walking around since, I can’t help being much more conscious of my eyes and the important role they play in my life.

Funny how that works.

In the meantime, I’ve ordered some new glasses online. They should be here in a couple of weeks. The process was really simple and so much cheaper than getting them at the eye doctor’s. Once I’ve got them, I’ll have to write a post if all goes well.

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