by Barbara Fisher

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

A few months ago I noticed that my vision as starting to get worse almost daily. Since I have Multiple Sclerosis, and lupus, I know that these diseases can sometime affect the vision. I went to my local eye doctor who told me he was going to keep a close eye on me . . .(great play on words . . ."eye on me") and that he would see me in a few months.

I was blind once from the MS and did not like the idea of waiting at all. I decided to go to an eye specialist in another town. This new doctor got me in right away, did a four hour exam. Before I left his office he had me scheduled for surgery on both eyes, two different days.

He told me he was going to use ultra sound and break up the cataracts on my lens and then suck them out, lens and all. After that he cut a little slot on the top of my eye, and inserted a new lens that was the strength of my contacts. Right!

One of my biggest fears was the idea of going to sleep or rather getting the medication that would make me sleepy. I was told that they can not put you to sleep entirely as your eyeball would roll making the surgery impossible. But I did not like even the idea of a little medicine. Finally after much discussion the surgeon agreed to try my first eye without anything to "take the edge off!" I was nervous, but happy that I could stay wide awake.

The surgery was totally painless. I was scared when they put oxygen on me, and it was a little strange when they put a plastic cover over my face. But the doctor talked to me some during the procedure. It only took about twelve minutes. Afterwords for a few days my eye say strange lights flashing and such as it got used to seeing light again that the cataracts had prevented. In about three days, my sight was wonderful.

A week later I repeated the surgery on the second eye. Again everything was great. I am totally satisfied with my vision now and encourage anyone who is having trouble with their vision to keep looking until you find a doctor who can help you.

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