What is your experience with cataract surgery?

Had my left eye done almost three years ago. Super results. Still wear glasses, no big deal but went from 20/200 visual acuity to about 20/30. Almost normal. Very happy.

I will have the right eye done in a few weeks. Still expect to wear glasses as I do have astigmatism also. But glasses are part of my normal look anyway.

I am having cataract surgery in July. I have several friends who have had the surgery and they are very pleased with the results. My ophthalmologist told me i won't likely need prescription glasses after my surgery but will likely need reading glasses for the fine print (which i'm fine with).

I'm 61

In modern cataract surgery, you will not be asleep during the surgery. You will be given some drugs to make you feel more OK with them operating on your eye but you will be awake. They will put drops in your eye to numb your eye. In the surgery, they remove the lens and replace it with an artificial lens. The choice of that lens will probably allow you to be more independent of glasses than you have been in years. I have worked with 100's of people after cataract surgery. Most are very happy with the results. Here are the general categories of those who were not:

1. Those who had another eye pathology so the cataract surgery did not completely fix their eyes.

2. Those who had a multifocal implant and had glare or halos because of it.

3. People who had been nearsighted before and were now able to see distance clearly but not at near.

It was very easy for when I got mine. You go in to the hospital fasting, they sedate you and when you wake up, one of your eyes is fixed. Next week, the other one. I had worn glasses since I was 18 months old, and now I only needed reading glasses.

My dad had cataract surgery in the early 1970s and he didn't get a lens implant, so he had to wear very thick glasses, or contacts. Also, he had to lie on his back for a week after each surgery, and was told not to [among other things] shave for a month afterward. It's a whole different experience nowadays!

In the mid 1980s I knew a woman in a nursing home who was blind due to cataracts. She had dementia and could not remember instructions she was given, so she had to be fed. One day they fixed one of her eyes with a lens implant. She was back the same day, was able to feed herself, and didn't even seem to notice the change. After my dad's experience, I was impressed.