Go for it, gnu.

I'm going through the process of cataract surgery now.

Within recent years my vision has degenerated slowly. I started seeing halos around lights some years ago, along with double vision (main image, but accompanied by a sort of "shadow image"). Someone once described having cataracts as "like looking at the world through a dirty window on a foggy day." Yeah, that comes close. That, along with reading relatively fine print becoming impossible.

My optometrist diagnosed cataracts a couple of years ago and suggested that I have the procedure done. He said it's a simple enough procedure. And several people who had it done assured me that it's duck soup and that I'll be amazed at how my vision will be improved. So recently, I decided to go ahead.

They generally do one eye at a time, let that settle in, then do the other.

About three weeks ago I had my right eye done. The doctor gave me a tranquilizer (having someone whittle on your eyes can be a bit unsettling), then a local anesthetic numbing the right eye and surrounding area. It was a bit uncomfortable, but nowhere near what I could call painful. The procedure took about half an hour.

The ophthalmologist fitted me with an eye guard (similar to an eye-patch—"Aaargh! Where's my parrot!?"—but made of metal mesh and attached with surgical tape) to wear the first day, then at night for a week, so that I didn't inadvertently rub my eye in my sleep. Various eye drops three times a day, which my wife administers.

My vision was a bit blurry—from the eye drops—for the first day or two. But now, if not fuzzy from taking the eye drops recently, I'm kind of amazed at how crisp and clear things look through that eye. And colors are a lot more vivid.   And if I squint my left eye, I can read some pretty small print.

I'm going to have the left eye done in a couple of weeks. Then I'll need new glasses, but no longer trifocals!

Somebody washed the windows and the weather is getting a lot clearer!

Do it! Highly recommended!

Don Firth (clear-eyed and firm jawed)