The Blogfather

My cataract operation

Ten minutes to change your eyesight for the better
Some patients even throw out their glasses after surgery

By Walter Brooks

The video is a dramatization of what actually happens.

I have been taking eye-drops for a decade or longer to impede the development of glaucoma in both my eyes.

When I recently visited Dr. Paul Ciaccio in Orleans for a new prescription for my glasses, Paul looked at the medication I was using, and instead of giving me an eyesight exam, suggested I might be a candidate for cataract surgery which often has the added benefit of lessening the pressure which causes Glaucoma while replacing a damaged cataract with a Silicon lens.

When I moved to Cape Cod 45 years ago, the level of all professionals here was like that of any other bucolic backwater, marginal at best. So it is quite amazing what a couple hundred thousand extra residents has done for medicine here. Until recently, I would not have dreamed of opting for a local surgeon.

What a difference a couple hundred thousand extra residents makes

But Paul Ciaccio recommended that I see Dr. Bradford Shingleton who Paul said was a leader in cataract, glaucoma and laser surgery. In fact Dr. Shingleton does more cataract and glaucoma surgery than any other ophthalmologist in New England and has performed over 40,000 cataract, glaucoma and laser operations. He treats a worldwide clientele at his practice at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston. In addition, he has a highly respected international reputation as a lecturer and clinical researcher in the field of ophthalmology. Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston has a surgical facility in Sandwich as well as offices in Yarmouth just off Exit 7.

Shingleton is an Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and a Clinical Instructor at Tufts University School of Medicine and has been President of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

The results after operation #1

I had my right eye operated on two weeks ago today. It is routine in these operations, which have become commonplace, to choose a lens to replace your own which will either give you near perfect distance vision, or near perfect near vision.

I decided it was best to choose distance (for driving and seeing the saw-toothed tiger in time to protect the family) and after the operation use glasses for reading.

A week after my surgery I discovered that I could easily read without any glasses and still had excellent distance vision.

I eagerly look forward to my next operation for my left eye in two weeks. You can view a facsimile of my operation above, and you can even video your own at Bradford Shingleton's Sandwich surgery where he performed 32 of these operations two weeks ago when I had mine.