BIONIC EYES REVIEWED 

Thirty months ago a cataract had developed in my right eye. Vision had progressively deteriorated. My opthamologist had been examining the eye about every four months for a few years. This time he said "Now." After further tests I checked in to St. Mary's Hospital in nearby New Westminster. On my birthday two years ago, I reported in my column "BIONIC SIGHT - FOR YOU", about the procedure and the eye operation in detail. About a year later, my left eye received the same treatment. This is a 30 (right eye) and 18-month (left eye) follow-up report on the after-effects.

My vision is better than perfect. The right eye maintains a reading of 20-18, while the left is still improving. Was 20-20 at last examination. I need no glasses for normal daily life. To read very small print, I wear those eye-glasses that work like simple magnifying glass, sold in drug and department store for $15 to $20.

Perhaps even more dramatic than the greatly improved vision is that I am thinking differently. First, I renewed my helicopter and aircraft pilot's licenses. This was the first "restriction" to go. My driver's license no longer obliges me to wear glasses. My wife, whom I married with poor eyes, looks even more beautiful. Do you know that there is mortar between bricks and that there are veins on tree leaves? Only those who wear thick glasses will know what I am talking about.

Since age 12 I wore glasses. How different would my life had been had this surgical procedure been available then and had I had better eyes all my life. No one will ever know. My thoughts are tempered by the fact that I probably would have been assigned to a fighter squadron during World War II, instead of getting sent to coastal command and living much longer.

Today, this eye operation is but one of the options available to some people with defective vision ... especially as our population continues to live longer and more active lives. For me, the move was the best medical one ever. The only glasses I sit on these days are my sunglasses.

Opthamologists and others tell me the biggest resistance to such an operation is fear. Fear that someone is too old to tolerate the operation, fear that it won't work, fear that "something will go wrong." But if your eye-doctor says it's an option for you, consider it. The quality of life is enhanced. To me, it's one of the most dramatic surgical procedures ever developed. I rate it higher than heart surgery, lung or liver transplants or some of the other "extraordinary" surgical procedures currently available. Because most people with poor eyesight (those numbers have to increase dramatically as populations everywhere age) usually have little else wrong with them physically. The poor vision restricts everything else, and is psychologically debilitating. The operation itself, as I initially reported, is less bothersome than getting teeth cleaned at the dentist. Poor eyesight restricts reading and even watching television. This isolates you from reality, and constricts physical movements and interaction with others. It definitely is not nice.

For surgically-implanted "bionic" lenses, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. I say "Go for it".

* * *

< previous | chapter index | next >
back to Main Chapter Listing
back to Home Page