Cindy Melton can now see the scorecard without glasses.
It isn’t uncommon for people in their 40s to start wearing reading glasses, but when they became necessary for Cindy Melton, she got worried.
“We have a family history of going blind from glaucoma,” she explained. “I worried this was the first step toward losing my sight.” In fact, her eyesight did go downhill. “Every time I went back for a checkup, I had to get a stronger prescription and that was scary.” Her sight was deteriorating so much she had to use special glasses for golf, because she couldn’t see the scorecard.
To make the problem worse, Melton had a cataract growing in one eye. She wasn’t a candidate for cataract removal yet – so she waited. She’s glad she did, because advanced technology means along with laser cataract removal, her glasses are now a thing of the past.
“Three hours after surgery, I was working a crossword puzzle without glasses,” Melton said. “I was amazed at how immediate the improvement was – and I didn’t have any pain with my surgery.”
The latest advancement involves the lenses ophthalmologists implant into the eye after removing the cataract. While special lenses have been available in the past, they haven’t been perfect. “Patients had to choose between seeing close or far,” explained Mercy ophthalmologist Dr. Shachar Tauber. “We also heard that it could be difficult to drive at night because patients would see a glare, or that computer screens were hard to see.”
Now, new multifocal lenses are giving patients a better option. “I can see anything I want to now,” Melton said. “Having good eyesight again is like being let out of a box.” While she’s relieved, there is one drawback. “I don’t have an excuse now for my bad golf game,” she laughed.
If your eye doctor says it’s time for you to have cataracts removed, you could be a candidate for these new lenses. Just call Mercy Eye Specialists at 417-820-9393 to set up an appointment. The doctors at Mercy Eye Specialists are the most experienced in the region at laser cataract removal, a bladeless surgery that provides unsurpassed accuracy with the highest safety margin available.