# Cataracts



## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

I know a few have had them and Kieth has just had a second one removed.
Before they are removed please tell me, when you looked up at the starts, were they double or treble.
My optician says I have the start of one, but the eye doctor says it´s not enough to be concerned about yet. 
I have noticed the stars are treble, one overlaping the other.
Street light also have a kind of Halo around them.


How long after the cataract was discovered was it ready for removal? :nerd:


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Too many variables to predict with any accuracy.

I had neither double or triple but the stars were VERY dim.

Both eyes were needing to be done urgently. They had only been picked up 4 months earlier.

Sorry that does not help you, but be guided and if you start to question the accuracy of your vision, stop driving if possible. They do not take long to do and I was back driving within 24 hours. The change was incredible. They did both, one month apart.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Penquin said:


> Too many variables to predict with any accuracy.
> 
> I had neither double or triple but the stars were VERY dim.
> 
> ...


No trouble with anything else Dave, just the stars and street lights so far.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes driving at night was getting difficult with headlights approaching. It was only when I went to a local ophthalmologist to get a new prescription for better glass's they said no point until both cataracts were done. They were both done within three weeks.
I was dreading anything poked into my eyes but after the opp I would 'almost' happily go through it again.


Ray.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Chris has had one done. He remembers glare from headlights but that is all. Colours must have been muted because he was always commenting, post op, that things were much brighter coloured than before.


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## KeithChesterfield (Mar 12, 2010)

Years ago when we were out in the desert in Egypt we could see millions and millions of Stars, and shooting stars, but in the UK the best we've seen recently have been a few very bright ones and with the local town environment everything up there seems blurred by pollution.

My optician has been monitoring my slowly developing cataracts over the last few years and last September suggested it might be better for me to try and have the operations on both eyes.

For a few years I'd been getting 'dazzled' by car headlights and driving at night was something I tried to avoid if possible.

And over the past year or so I had noticed that I couldn't read the type on our television ('Pointless' has a lot of it in the questions) as well as I had been able to and realised my eye sight was deteriorating.

I still seemed capable driving in the UK and abroad wearing glasses without any worries, reading a number plate at 20 metres wasn't a problem, but I knew this couldn't continue for much longer without surgery.

On my last year's annual visit to the Optician she wrote a letter to my GP about the slowly growing cataracts and he refereed me to the local Hospital.

I don't know what criteria they use to determine the starting point for a cataract operation but at our local Hospital it seemed that a letter of concern from an Optician and agreement by your GP starts the process.

After having the tests and photos at the Eye Centre I now find I have astigmatism of both eyes - they are shaped like 'rugby balls' and not the normal 'round' shape - and apparently need different lens to 'normal'.

Seeing colours has not altered after the operations, it wasn't as if a cloud had suddenly been lifted off my sight, and there have been no dramatic changes in brightness now compared to pre-operation.

I will need glasses and I have to wait some weeks before the Eye Centre say my eyes are as good as they'll get and I can have prescription glasses.

We are all different and local Hospitals will have different ways of doing things but in my recent experience I found it relatively stress free and certainly well worth contemplating when you consider that leaving the cataracts to develop will mean more years of poor sight and possibly blindness eventually.

I have written a synopsis of my experience of the 'build up' and operation and if anyone's interested I'll post it.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Thank you Keef :smile2:

When I need the op done it will be with the local clinic by the Augenärztin (lady eye doctor) that's who I saw and she says its nothing to be concerned about yet and to go back in a year for her to check again, which will be in September.
I will be going to the optician again in a couple of weeks, probably for prescription change.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Chris’s op was just a day procedure at a specialist clinic.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes Pat. I felt I could have driven home after but gave in and let my wife take the helm.
I did get what they call 'floaters' about a month after. Was told by the surgeon it was not worth operating to get rid of them and the brain will 'tune' them out. And it has. So apart from just needing glass's for reading and the phone, the old eyes are better than ever.


If only they could rectify my hearing as easily??


Ray.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Pardon?


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