As it is with many people who go through
the challenges of vision loss, I belong to a support group whose members encounter similar challenges.
While I have my own informal support group of family and friends, there are
additional benefits of membership in a more formal setting. For starters there
is the bond of sharing with other people who have a personal knowledge and experience of what it
is like to not be able to see well or perhaps not at all. This is a special bond.
However, a formal support group offers more
than this and that is the sharing of information about eye conditions and
research in the quickly developing field of optic research. If you are
fortunate, your group might invite a guest speaker with more specific knowledge
of this than the lay members of the group are likely to have. This past week
our group was fortunate to once again have one of our local optometrists, Dr.
Marc Kallal, as our guest speaker. Marc
brought with him the benefit of his educational training as an optometrist and
of course what more he has learned as he has practiced his profession at the
Eye Care Clinic. Last year at this time Marc spoke to us about Macular Degeneration.
This year he spoke to us about cataracts.
Cataracts, he told us, are much like
wrinkles in that they are fairly inevitable and usually appear as part of the
aging process. This doesn’t mean that we will all need cataract surgery.
Cataracts can be located in different parts of the eye and can be more or less
pronounced in different people. In severe cases or when the cataract has
ripened, vision may become very blurred and cloudy. This is when cataract
surgery is recommended. Because of our greying generation there is usually a
waiting time for this. (N.B. Because Marc was addressing a more mature group,
he touched only briefly on congenital cataracts.)
Marc explained the rapid advances of
cataract surgery over the past few decades. While in the past, surgery usually
meant a hospital stay of around a week, nowadays, the patient is in and out in
24 hours with a follow-up the following day. The drops which are prescribed during
the next month are anti-inflammatory and antibiotic and to assist in healing.
New glasses aren’t prescribed until the healing is complete. Complications with
cataract surgery are rare.
I think that one of the more important
things to remember is that cataracts can develop concurrently with other eye
conditions. Having macular degeneration or glaucoma or any other eye condition does
not preclude the possibility of developing cataracts. It is for this reason
that annual check-ups with the optometrist are recommended. Marc also reminded
us of other ways that we can continue to take care of our eyes. Good nutrition
is helpful for every part of our physical health and that includes vision
health. Smoking and the ultra violet rays of the sun are harmful.
It was good to have these reminders and I
was especially grateful to Marc for volunteering his time to share his expertise
with us. There are two pictures with this post. The first shows Marc holding a model
of the eye as he explained the function of the parts. The second is similar but
with several of the audience in the foreground of the picture.
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| Marc with model of an eye |
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| Marc with audience |
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