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A Visit to the Optometrist
23 March 2023
We managed to escape our post briefly yesterday for a visit with our optometrist, who we haven't seen during the pandemic. He's one of those people you try to think up questions to ask because the answers are so illuminating.
Eyewear. Three generations of vision aids. Most recent in the foreground.
He gave us a clean bill of health. Our eyes have the physical condition of someone 10 years younger, he said. And our acuity is that of a teenager.
We were particularly curious about how accurately we are seeing color.
If anything, he answered, we tend to see blues less saturated than they are. But our whites are still white. No cataracts to speak of.
We asked if cataracts are inevitable.
'There are three things people notice after cataract surgery.'
Yes, he said. But it's good policy to delay cataract surgery, which has a success ratio in the high 90th percentile (including, he pointed out, forays into the third world on air transports to treat 300 patients at a time in makeshift surgeries).
So why delay?
Because the technology is still developing. Every five years, he said, there's a significant improvement in your lens options.
The multifocal length replacement lenses of today are, in his opinion (he whispered), not quite what they should be. But in five years they just might be.
We mentioned Joyce had watched Whoopie Goldberg on the View marveling about the lens replacement surgery she had just had on one eye. Her doctor showed her a white card with the untreated eye which looked a little tan, she said. Then she showed it to her with the treated eye. It was bone white.
Yes, he said, there are three things people notice after cataract surgery.
First is that white is white again, although the brain does a good job of reading white where cataracts tell it yellow. But the difference after cataract surgery can be disorienting. In fact, he added, they are making replacement lenses with a yellow tint so people are not shocked by the difference.
Second, wrinkles. The ones on your own face.
And third is how much dust there is in the house.
White is still white for us but we'll go with the smooth skin and clean house illusions as long as we can still see color accurately.