cataracts

[seeahill]

I have a question about cararacts

Because it is always best to get medical advice off the internet, especially from this group which, I'm guessing, contains a number of optometrists and ophthalmologists.

So I go to my optometrist who says I have mild cataracts. Do I have trouble reading? Does night driving bother me and do headlights look smeary? No. OK, but you have mild cataracts. You're healthy, you should get cataract surgery. They put in a new lens, you set for life. A lot of my patients wait until they can hardly see and their health is bad which means the docs won't do the surgery. You should do it now.

(Note: the optometrist gets no money out of this and is a friend of mine.)

He says, If you were my brother, I'd tell you to do it.

I say, I guess so. Go to the opthamolgist. He says, "can you drive at night." Yep. "Do headlights look smeary?" No. Can you read, work on your computer? Yep.

Well, look, he says, with the right prescription, I can get you to 20/20. You've got cataracts, yes, but they are very mild. Everybody over 60 has some cataracts. Personally, I'd put off surgery until the cataracts are affecting your life.

Which, of course, is what I decided to do.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Had cataract surgery?

[baffled]

.

[Turdacious]

I can't speak for when it's best to have the surgery done, but I can tell you this: it's covered by Medicare Part B-- so you're going to have to pay 20% of the cost whenever you have it done.

I'm going through this process right now with my mom (for cataract surgery). It's a mess-- her insurance rep is still trying to figure out the changes to Medicare Advantage for next year mean, and nobody wants to give her a clear number on what she'll have to pay.

[dead man walking]

seeahill, you of all people should know not to mess around with cataracts. it was a cataract that made you temporarily dead.

[judobrian]

.

I see what you did there. Tim might not, but I did.

[Sangoma]

Personally, I'd put off surgery until the cataracts are affecting your life.

Which, of course, is what I decided to do.

This.

[powerlifter54]

Had the surgery. Pretty simple. But not as easy as you would think, adjusting to multi focal point lenses takes adjustment.

In almost all cases put off surgery until you really need it.

[syaigh]

My mom denied for years that she needed it. Right before she had it she made a baby blanket for my nephew and The Binding didn't match the material at all. It was weird. And then after she had it she said that she noticed that colors that she thought that were thre same before were completely different and everything was more brilliant. So she wasn't seeing stuff blurry but she definitely saw a great decrease in color differentiation.

However she was farsighted her whole life and wore really thick glasses. And this was the first time in her whole life she hasn't had to wear glasses.