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Cataract surgery today

By Howard B. Owens

Longtime readers may remember I didn't work for a day or two in the summer of 2009 because of cataract surgery.

That was for the right eye.

That worked out pretty well because it made my right eye -- my camera shooting eye -- a perfect 20/20.

Now it's time for the left eye.

I go into UMMC this morning to have Dr. Li from University Eye replace my left lens with an implant that will bring to an end the foggy, triple vision of that eye.

Today, I'll be pretty much out of commission. Tomorrow, I'll take it easy. I expect to be shooting Notre Dame's basketball game in Buffalo on Saturday.

We have some coverage lined up for today -- including a couple of stories I actually wrote last night that will self-publish later this morning.

Billie will be around, of course, listening to the scanner (not that we have totally locked in the county's new system yet).

Lisa Ace will be holding down the fort in the office today, handling any site sponsor needs.

BTW: I've got to tell you what I think is a pretty amazing story, a modern miracle, from my visit to University Eye a few weeks ago. All summer and winter, my vision had been declining, even in my right eye. It turns out, the lens was fogged over. Dr. Li used a laser for less than 60 seconds, just a few zaps, to clear the cloudiness away. Within an hour of leaving the office, I was back to 20/20 again. The sudden change in vision felt quite literately like scales falling away from my eyes. Modern technology can just be so amazing some times.

I'm looking forward to being 20/20 in both eyes for the first time since I was about 14.

Beth Kinsley

Good luck Howard. You can thank our local Bausch & Lomb for a lot of the innovation in this field. They have always been a leader in eye care, but especially in intraocular lenses and the surgical equipment used to remove the old lens and put in a nice new artificial one. They probably invented the laser that the doctor used last week. I have seen cataract surgery performed dozens of times in videos and, while I cringed the first few times, I was eventually fascinated by it. The incisions are so tiny now the healing time is minimal.

Mar 6, 2014, 2:33pm Permalink
Mardell Lamb

Yes, good luck Howard! We know you're in good hands. I had laser surgery for pre-glaucoma a few years ago. Dr. Paulus burned holes in my retinas to relieve the pressure behind my eyes. Painless procedure and it IS truly amazing what they can do now days.

Two years ago, my 7 yr. old son had to go under the knife in both of his eyes. Stitches in his eyeballs & everything. Now THAT was NOT so painless! Took a long time to recover from that.

Mar 6, 2014, 10:36am Permalink

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