What is Cataract Surgery Actually Like?

What to Expect, Step by Step

Roz Warren, Writing Coach
5 min readAug 23, 2019

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Photo by Amanda Dalbjörn on Unsplash

If you’re my age, you might be looking at cataract surgery in the near future. Rather, you might be trying to look at it — everything is so blurry these days that, really, you can’t see a damn thing.

Having a cataract removed is quick and easy. And your doc can even insert a lens during the procedure to improve your vision!

So naturally, when I developed cataracts, I rushed to schedule surgery.

Uh… no. I put it off as long as I could. First, I couldn’t see well enough to drive at night. Soon I couldn’t drive during the day either. I had to switch to large print books. And forget about reading a menu.

But when friends began to hum the “Mr. Magoo” theme song as they watched me squint and stumble through my day, I knew I had no choice; I scheduled surgery to remove the cataract in my right eye. (You have to do them one at a time.)

So what’s cataract surgery actually like?

First, I had to pass a routine physical, and an EKG. Then, after a pre-op visit with my ophthalmologist where my eye was examined and measured, surgery was scheduled at a nearby outpatient clinic.

Cataract surgery means learning whether there’s anyone you can count on to devote 24 hours…

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Roz Warren, Writing Coach

Writing Coach and Editor Roz Warren (roSwarren@gmail.com) will help you improve and publish your work.