I could not see the blackboard in first grade, wore glasses then contact lenses ever since. By the early 90's I knew I was beginning to grow cataracts, and two years ago they'd progressed to the point of needing surgery.
The eyes were done two weeks apart, which is fairly standard, but I could have had the second one done two days later. Within 24 hours both times I was seeing very well, and for the next year my vision simply got better. Yes, I need to wear reading glasses, but my distance vision is just astonishing. This week I'm in Portland, visiting my son who lives there, and in roaming around the city sightseeing with him, at two different locations I was watching the planes land at the airport, miles away. Two years ago I would not have seen the planes at all.
No pain at all, and I don't recall the first surgery at all, recall bits and pieces of the second. Yes, you will need to have someone drive you to and from, and they will not even do the surgery if your driver isn't there. Depending on exactly how quickly your eyes recover, you'll be driving in a day or two.
At 63, I was invariably the youngest person in the room at every appointment connected to the cataract surgery, by a minimum of ten years, and often by twenty. I think far too many people postpone the surgery because it was much more complex and with a more doubtful outcome a decade or more ago.
I'll repeat: Cataracts were the best thing that ever happened to my eyes.
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