Cataracts? I’m only 43!
So, nine years after my Lasik, I noticed my vision getting blurry in my right eye. Thinking I just needed a Lasik touch-up, I saw my ophthalmologist today. Yikes! I have a cataract!
Where did I get that? No eye trauma, no diabetes, nothing I can think of that may have caused it. So, I’m faced with a contact lens or a multi-focal lens implant.
Does it mean I’m old? Does it mean I’m sick? Does it have to do with those dang fluorescent lights on night-shift? Is it because I’ve seen so many disturbing things tattooed or pierced? Is it from seeing frightening people with their gowns turned around backwards? Or is it from breathing too much alcohol, exhaled by drunks saying, ‘doc, alls I had was thhhhh…twoo beeeerzz.’ Does exhaled alcohol cause cataracts? Do lies cause eye damage when ones face is bombarded with them day and night? ‘See my back doctor is on a secret mission in Pakistan and won’t be back for five years. His office made me an appointment for then, but I need some Lortab.’
Is it fatigue? Trying to sleep in the day for all those years? Is it caffeine? Have I caffeinated my way to bad vision? Or was it Cheetohs? For the sake of all that’s good, not my Cheetohs! Or maybe it was some toxic combination of Hershey’s Chocolate and onion rings. What a world!!!!
Or maybe it’s just life. Sickness and weirdness happens to all of us. As I always say, it’s never good when your doctor says ‘this is really interesting!’ I have to accept that I’m neither old, nor sick, nor stricken.
I just have a stinkin’ cataract. Thank God there are ways to fix it!
Maybe, with a lens implant, I can see into people’s souls. Or have laser vision like Cyclops from X-men! That would be cool.
Or, I’ll just be able to see better. That will be cool too.
Edwin
A verse for today: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)
I think cataracts are a sign of wisdom. By the time you reach a certain age, you can see the truth without needing to actually see it.
You’ve just reached wisdom at a younger age.
Cataracts mean that the normally clear lens within the eye has become cloudy. Having a cataract does not automatically mean that you need surgery to remove the natural lens and replace it with an artificial lens.
Cataracts can start forming much earlier that most people may realize. Some of the more common causes that you did not mention are heredity and exposure to the sun without 100% UVA and UVB blocking sunglasses.
When it does (eventually) come time to seriously consider cataract surgery, you may want to read our article about Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE), which is the same thing as cataract surgery but to reduce the need for glasses or contacts.
Glenn Hagele
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
http://www.USAEyes.org
Don’t listen to LasikExpert. He is a paid LASIK industry hitman, fake patient advocate, cyberbully with nothing more than a high school diploma who runs a LASIK marketing scam out of his living room in Sacramento. He patrols the internet recruiting patients for surgeons who pay him a fee while threatening, harassing and trying to intimidate patients who have a bad outcome. Apparently he can’t get a real job. You can read about him and his attacks on patients at http://www.usaeyes.us
LasikExpert won’t tell you that LASIK may be responsible for your early cataracts. Read this:
http://www.lasikcomplications.com/inducedcataract.htm
Furthermore, you may now face an unpredictable outcome if you undergo cataract surgery, thanks to LASIK.
http://www.lasik-flap.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=99
Proceed with caution. I wish you the best of luck.
LASIK Patient
I’m 43 also, and it was recently found that I am developing cataracts too. I also have no risk factors or apparent causes. It is quite disconcerting, I must say.
There are a small percentage of people that do develop a certain kind of cataract, posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC), in their forties.
PSC developed in your forties is generally an inherited trait. It can also come after prolonged corticosteroid therapy.
But I think in your case, it’s most likely the people with their gowns reversed. Instead of burning terrible images on your retina, your lens, thankfully, took the brunt of the attack.
There is no such thing as ‘quality assurance’ in refractive surgery, and patients should be very wary of anyone who claims that this is possible. Certain types of damage to the eye are universal to the LASIK procedure and are permanent; such as loss of biomechanical strength of the cornea, corneal nerve damage, and induced corneal distortions.
For more information visit:
http://www.lasikdisaster.com
Nah, not the Cheetos!
im only 15 and have recently been diagnosed with cataracts. apparently iv had it all my life but i never got told about it until now that my eyesight is getting really bad. I wear glasses as it is too.
Im scared
Samantha,
I’m not an ophthalmologist, I’m only an emergency medicine doctor. But I do know that there are lots of new technologies coming out for dealing with cataracts. In fact, in a few years you and I may be able to get artificial lenses in our eyes that are as good as the originals we were born with!
So, while it’s frustrating (especially at 15) I think the future looks good. I hope you can let go of the fear you feel. I’ll say a prayer that you can.
Sincerely,
Edwin