I wrote after my first cataract surgery about that experience. Later in June, I had the second cataract removed. I still haven’t had my eyes refracted so I can order new glasses, and I expected my distance vision to be poor at this stage. What I didn’t expect was how much my view of the world would change—at least temporarily.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I got my first glasses when I was eight and a half years old. Until then, I hadn’t realized my eyesight was poor. I knew I couldn’t read the blackboard from my desk in fourth grade. Early that school year, my classmates laughed at me when I couldn’t see the big E during a school vision screening. Until that moment, I hadn’t known my view of the world was unusual.
When the school notified my mother of my test results, she promptly took me to an ophthalmologist, and I got my first pair of glasses. That’s when I realized what I’d been missing—the teacher’s handwriting on the blackboard, the grain in the wood paneling across the room, individual leaves on distant trees. My world expanded.
This stage after cataract surgery has been just the opposite. My world has contracted.
Ironically, my close vision is now much better than it has been in decades. I can comfortably read, write, work on the computer, and do most household chores without glasses. These tasks require good vision at about arm’s length where the paper, pen, computer screen, and other tools are used, and my eyes at that distance work as well as they did with glasses before the surgery.
Then I look up, and the world dissolves into a blur. I reach instinctively for the glasses on top of my head, where I used to stash them when I took them off for a minute. They aren’t there, because they would do me no good if I put them on. The world would still be blurry.
Around our apartment, that means I can’t read the clock across the room or make out the television clearly. And I can no longer help my husband find his wallet, phone, or hearing aids—a task that for some reason occupies several minutes of almost every day.
Worse, when I look into the distance, my double vision shows me two of everything. I’m not driving at this point, but when I’m a passenger I see two oncoming vehicles for every one there really is. I see four traffic lights when there are two.
I know this is only a temporary stage. Soon I’ll have my new glasses, and the world will come back into focus. Perhaps, though, I’ll appreciate the clarity more because of this brief time of blurriness. Just as I did when I was eight and a half years old, I’ll admire the world’s beauty and complexity more for having been without it.
When has your view of the world changed—literally or figuratively?
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I’ve always been nearsighted and finally got glasses in junior high. What a difference to see the blackboard clearly, but I got teased for being “four eyes”. Not fun when you’re sitting in your science teacher father’s lab class. Now I have to wear reading glasses for close tasks and look over them to see at a distance. The hazy traffic sign pics were my distorted view before I had my surgery. I can’t imagine seeing double as well. But I like your perspective. One doesn’t realize and value what they’ve missed until they see through a clear lens.