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Achievement unlocked: new varifocals. It's a holding action—better close-up correction for writing, but the cataracts are still there and require surgery—but I'm looking at my computer screen and it feels like tense muscles are unkinking already, so it was worth it.

@cstross I had cataract surgery about a year ago. For about three weeks it was amazing. The world was brighter, sunlight was whiter, and I needed glasses only for reading. Then the floaters came. Apparently, the changes in eye pressure caused by the surgery often cause stuff to get knocked loose. You get used to them after a while, but they are always maneuvering, usually right where you are trying to look.

@jredlund I've had floaters before (I've had microsurgery on the back of an eyeball for a bad detached retina).

FeralRobots

@cstross
Just curious about something: Do you remember getting wild light shows during & immediately after your reattachment surgery? With colors & patterns you hadn't ever previously seen as eye flashers?
I saw these cobalt-blue flashing lights in intricate patterns, almost a little like a throbbing cuttlefish. They persisted (with decreasign frequency) for around a day & a half after the surgery.
@jredlund

@FeralRobots @jredlund Yup: the flashers persisted for about a decade in my case! Weird comma-shaped persistent flashbulb white-outs that slowly orbited the centre of my field of vision before disappearing after a few seconds. (I still get them occasionally, 35 years later.)

@cstross
Mine was around 8 yrs ago & I still get a kind of flicker around the edge of my field of vision in the affected eye. Worse in some lighting. On the whole though I'm glad I still have sight in that eye, it was my "good" one!
@jredlund

@FeralRobots @cstross @jredlund

I had retina surgery about three weeks ago.

I see the bubble/fluid dividing line with my eyes closed. One one side it's violet, and the other it's bright green.

@Enema_Cowboy
That sounds kind of neat, if you don't mind my saying so, though I imagine it might also make one a little nuts after a while. I know that line made *me* nuts, but at least I could put on my eye patch to black it out.
@cstross @jredlund

@Enema_Cowboy
(Just to be clear: you have mentioned this to your surgeon, right? Re-detachment is a thing & if they catch it early they might be able to just tack it down with lasers instead of having to cut again.)
@cstross @jredlund

@FeralRobots @cstross @jredlund

I was warned that I would see stuff like this. I had Vitrectomy surgery and lasers (pew pew pew).

@FeralRobots @Enema_Cowboy @cstross Yes, I complained to the surgeon. The retinas are ok. She just said it was probably going to happen anyway, but the surgery hastened it. However, a lot of people I have talked to who had cataract surgery reported similar experiences.

@jredlund
yeh, surgery is major trauma & the eye is a sensitive organ. My surgeon warned me going into my retinal reattachment that I would most likley develop cataracts within a couple years, as a result of the surgery. Sure enough, pretty much right away.
@Enema_Cowboy @cstross

@FeralRobots @jredlund @cstross

Cataract surgery is a breeze compared to retina reattachment.