Eye of the Beholder: Seeing the Vivid Color Pallet During Cataract Surgery

“Calm yourself,” are the words I hear from my inner voice. “Yes,” I answer back, “but tell me, how do I do that when shortly a man will approach me and stick a needle into my eye!”

I am being prepared for cataract surgery, an operation performed hundreds of times by my ophthalmologist. He is competent and has explained the operation to me. And I am highly motivated because I have not only the aging variety of a scratchy lens, but an additional cataract that obscures my line of vision.

I have been “prepared,” hospital style for the surgery — left eye identified by me and marked by the nurse, intravenous line situated and started and a promise that soon I will receive something to soothe and calm me. Yet that frightened interior voice still nags at me - “Can I get up and leave now?

I am caught up in hospital procedure and find myself gliding along on my rolling gurney and entering the operating room. It is not a “theater” but rather a room with shelves and lights that will be positioned over my head and eyes.

“Keep your head still,” says the doctor in an professorial tone. And I obey.

It must be the calming potion that has taken the fight, and some of the fright, out of me. Somehow my eye has been numbed and I feel nothing but I hear all of the conversation swirling around. It is not about eye surgery but about trips and travel and celebrations of the approaching holiday. All is so normal, so routine ... so disconnected from the activity going on in my eye.

Just as related by my friends who have had cataract surgery, I see the vivid color pallet of the spectrum as it is broken up by the surgical procedures. I can tell when my eye is flushed out by the change in the colorful water pool that fills my vision. But I can’t tell when the miracle occurs and the old lens is broken up and removed and the new one is gently inserted, coached to unroll, and then centered and adjusted to the proper position.

And then it is over! I hear a silk tape being removed from my forehead. It wasn’t only obedience that kept me still as I had help in the form of gentle taping. I am rolled back into the recovery area and am offered the first coffee of the day. And then I notice: the obstruction in my vision is gone. I can see clearly! (Does that sound like a song?) A short while later I emerge from the hospital and, as a special treat, nature has brought light snow and I have to put on sun glasses in mid-winter.

My eye is a little blurry and aches but I can already detect a change in the perception of my "new" eye. It is a bit disconcerting at first but the colors adjust themselves as the day progresses. And there is a depth of field I perceive when I look at objects. The highlights seem sharper and the shadows are deeper. I play a game in which I cover, first one eye and then the other, to see the difference in the view. I know there will be more changes, more adjustments, and more delights as I discover my new 20/20 distance vision and savor the clarity permitted by my new lens.

For the moment, I am happy with the world I behold.

Editor's Note: Sources for questions about cataracts:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/conditions/cataracts_faq.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002957.htm

http://www.gulfcoasteyecare.com/cataract-surgery/overview-tampa-fl/

Note: See Jane See and the dedicated website, www.seejanesee.org will offer free information and downloadable tip sheets created specifically for women on a variety of issues across the age spectrum such as Dry Eye, Cosmetics Safety, Pregnancy, Vision and Nutritional Supplements, and age-related eye disease. Information will also include symptoms, causes and treatment options for a variety of conditions.

Health, Fitness and Style, Health and Science, Senior Women Web, Adrienne Cannon, Authors, What's New

Eye of the Beholder: Seeing the Vivid Color Pallet During Cataract Surgery

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