{"id":23663,"date":"2016-01-07T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T08:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=23663"},"modified":"2016-01-07T00:01:37","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T08:01:37","slug":"the-cataract-chronicles-im-not-lovin-my-new-iol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/the-cataract-chronicles-im-not-lovin-my-new-iol\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cataract Chronicles — I’m Not Lovin’ My New IOL"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Author<\/a>
After cataract surgery — a brand-new\u00a0IOL in the right eye . . . Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Note: Husband Jon thinks I get a little cranky and whiny in this post. If so, my apologies. My experience with writing personal essays has taught me that it’s wise to wait until a life\u00a0challenge gets resolved before writing about it. That way you stand a better chance of avoiding\u00a0bathos and self-pity. But these are The Cataract Chronicles, after all. My first surgery was three months ago. It’s time for an update, and today’s news is — I’m feeling cranky and whiny.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to love it,\u201d everybody was telling me as my first cataract surgery approached.<\/p>\n

They were wrong.\u00a0I don\u2019t love it.<\/p>\n

Friend after friend told me how, wow, when the doctor took the bandage off the day after surgery, they could see better than they had in decades.<\/p>\n

Colors blazed. Lights dazzled. Smudges and specks showed up around door knobs and kitchen sinks.<\/p>\n

But not for me.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Blur and a Halo<\/h5>\n

Three months after my first cataract surgery, things are still a blur in that right eye \u2013 though not nearly as big a blur as they were sans glasses before surgery. And at night there\u2019s still a distracting mini-halo around the lights of oncoming cars, despite a successful, post-cataract-surgery laser treatment for something known as “secondary cataract.”<\/a><\/p>\n

With my brand new lens \u2013 it\u2019s called an intraocular lens, IOL for short \u2013 I\u2019ll still need to wear glasses to drive, to see across the room and to read. And those glaring headlights might be coming at me for many nights\u00a0to come.<\/p>\n

So, no, I can\u2019t say that I love the outcome of my first cataract surgery.<\/p>\n

And, to be honest, I\u2019m kinda worried about how the surgery on the second eye is going to go.<\/p>\n

I hear you. You\u2019re muttering, \u201cHey, get a second opinion before you entrust your other eye to that surgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IOL Looks Good<\/h5>\n

I did that. And the news was \u2013 everything looks good. The IOL\u00a0is in place, no problem.<\/p>\n

Yes, there\u2019s still some astigmatism. And yes, my nearsightedness was not corrected from a hefty -6 way down to the\u00a0hoped for -0 or -.5. It\u2019s now at -1.25 or so \u2013 just right for perfect vision at things four feet away.\u00a0Which is not helpful for driving, reading or focusing on a computer monitor, but it is perfect for viewing the wrinkles\u00a0on the faces of my 70-something friends.\u00a0(I\u2019m writing this post with the font size set at 20, just so you know.)<\/p>\n

\"Author<\/a>
. . . and before surgery. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which brings me to my biggest complaint about my new eye: it can\u2019t tolerate the glare of a computer display. If I spend much more time writing this post or hunting around in my photo files for a nice illustration, my eye is going to blink and scratch and ache.<\/p>\n

So, in the interests of getting off the computer asap, I\u2019ll cut to the chase and to the moral of this story: life is not perfect. I never promised you a rose garden and all that.<\/p>\n

Terrific After-Cataract Eyes<\/h5>\n

Some people get to have terrific new eyes after cataract surgery, but some of us will be putting up with less than wonderful outcomes — correctable with glasses, but disappointing nonetheless.<\/p>\n

And some of us will get truly awful results. Now that I\u2019ve had the surgery, I\u2019m hearing the horror stories. Two people report that their IOLs broke free and fell into the vitreous cavity, requiring harrowing follow-up surgery. One woman lost the vision in both eyes.<\/p>\n

Disasters occur. Less than perfect outcomes come with the territory. Life \u2013 and my vision \u2013 is not perfect.<\/p>\n

I was hoping that my new IOL\u00a0would let me throw away the glasses that have obscured my face\u00a0since fifth grade. I was hoping to reveal to the world my authentic, brown-eyed self.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not going to happen.<\/p>\n

Which is just as well. My face in the mirror is something I can see pretty well these days, and I\u2019ve been taking some good long looks at it. It turns out that \u2013 given the bags and circles I\u2019m seeing for the very first time \u2013 I\u2019m going to look better in glasses. Way better.<\/p>\n

Read the — optimistic — first installment of the Cataract Chronicles at “The Cataract Chronicles — I’ll Be Seeing Me.”<\/a>\u00a0 You might also enjoy “My Upper Lip and Other Sorrows.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Feeling blue because you didn’t get a copy of my book as a holiday gift? No problem. It’s still available at WrestlingWithGodBook.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Author<\/a><\/p>\n

Three months after my first cataract surgery, things are still\u00a0fuzzy in my right\u00a0eye. Unlike most veterans of cataract surgery, I’m not loving my new IOL. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,43,1612,1595,34,566,1597,1613,1614,82,1615,1616],"class_list":["post-23663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-aging","tag-beauty","tag-cataract-surgery","tag-cataracts","tag-dont-miss","tag-fashion","tag-glasses","tag-iol","tag-medical","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-seventy-something","tag-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}