I've had glasses since about second grade.

I mean, there's not a school picture since that age that I haven't had those glasses. Different styles through the years, one that just scream the 60's & 70's. Generic looking ones. Black frames, wire frames, rectangular lens, square lens, round lens. One's I look back at and think "Yeah, those right there, they looked cool". And then one's I look back at and think "OK, I suppose we've all made a mistake or two".

Contact lens? No, not for me, thank you very much. I'll wear my glasses. They work just fine.

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So I was anticipating just another eye doctor visit this spring. Do the usual eye tests, find out that maybe I needed just a little stronger prescription. I mentioned there was a little fuzz, a little halo kind of thing around street lights and other lights. Not a problem, I said, just kind of annoying. My eye doctor said it looked like I might have some some cataracts. She set up an appointment for me at Ophthalmology Ltd. to have those folks make a determination.

Now to be honest, I've never been much of a "doctor" guy. Oh, it's nothing against doctor's, I've had lots of doc's as friend through the years and they're great people. I'm talking about "official" type visits. In other words, I suppose I don't see medical people as often as I should. I put off appointments with doctors, dentists and the like. I need to change that, I know.

So anyway, off I go to Ophthalmology Ltd. and through the process of a couple visits, I'm in a room with Dr. In't Veld, the doctor who will be doing my cataract surgeries. Now, I've never had a surgery. I mean, I've never had a surgery of any kind. It's not because of my spectacular lifestyle. It's probably been just plain old dumb luck. So I'm a little, ah, tense.

As Dr. In't Veld and I are talking, it takes about five minutes and...

...I'm all in for the surgeries. She explained the procedure to me in what I call common-words, words an old farm boy like me could understand. I asked a lot of questions and she took the time to answer each of them fully, what would happen, what I could expect. And so it was set, my left eye first and 8 days later the right.

I'm not going to get into all the details. I will say the actual surgery itself took, oh, maybe twenty minutes. Not long at all. And almost immediately I discovered something:

The world was a lot brighter, a lot lighter than I realized. Oh, I'm not saying I was blind, but I guess I was...shaded. The blues are bluer, the greens are greened and the reds? Well, they pop a bit now.

I've still got a bit of road to go in this cataract surgery road. There are some new things to get used to, adjustments to be made, eye drops that need to be, well...dropped. But all-in-all, all is well.

And yes, if someone asks me about potential cataract surgery, I'd tell them about my positive experience with Ophthalmology Ltd. in general, and specifically I would recommend the doctor I had, Dr. Elise In't Veld.

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