You mean, other people have stereo vision??!! (My Experience of Cataracts)

Member Name: HonestBob

Product:	My Experience of Cataracts
Date:	09/12/08 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: This may encourage new mums to get their baby's eyes thoroughly checked early on.

Disadvantages: I'm never going to be world female boxing champion.

Most peope with elderly relatives are familiar with cataracts, either because a grandparent has developed them as part of the ageing process or because they have heard older relatives talk of neighbours or friends with this eye condition.

I, however, was born with my cataract. I have a congenital cataract in my right eye.

Cataracts are cloudy lenses which produce a blurred or hazy visual image, in elderly people this gets progressive worse and harder to see through, but for most people with congenital (birth) cataracts the visual image remains constant. It can continue to develop and worsen after birth, but this is fairly rare.

I do not know what caused my cataract. One optician believed he saw a triangular shaped 'gap' in my eye where too few blood vessels had developed (he also claimed there were too many in my left eye). Another claimed I must have experienced forceps trauma to the eye during birth. Whatever the cause, my cataract is now inoperable.

Why inoperable?

Because it was not diagnosed until I was 13. Until then my right eye had been labelled as 'lazy' and my Mum was told I would have to live with it. I actually felt guilty for having a 'lazy' eye!

At 13, after a sensible optician actually referred me to an ophthalmic hospital, I was told it was too late to improve my 6/60 right eye vision (I can only read the top letter on the chart if I try very, very hard) because visual pathways develop by the age of 7. After 7 the brain 'shuts off' the picture from the damaged eye. This is very true. I do have a visual field in my right eye. I can see shapes and colours. I can see heads, but I cannot see the facial features on them. If I cover my left eye and force myself to concentrate on the picture received through my right eye, within 3 or 4 seconds my brain switches to the black image entering my left eye and I have to blink several times to get the right sided, all be it blurred, picture back.

My cataract is actually tiny, but as it is located in the centre of my lens it blocks out the important stuff in any visual picture, hence I see heads, but not the features within them, a little like having polo vision, I see the rim but not the centre.

As for living with it. Well, until I was 13 I didn't really realise that vision could be any different. I have depth perception so am legal to drive (but I can't catch a ball!). I have been told to avoid contact sports in case my good left eye gets damaged (I'm not built to box!) and I wear sunglasses from Spring onwards as I suffer quite a lot with glare from pavements (snow causes similar problems). Driving at night can be uncomfortable due to haloing around street lights and the headlamps of oncoming vehicles, but I am used to this, having known no different, and know to look ahead rather than at the other side of the road (makes sense to me anyway!). I notified the DVLA of my sight condition before I passed my test and my insurance company know too, so this probably increases my premiums. It certainly increases my life insurance (which also pays out for blindness. I assume I'm at 50% more risk of total blindness than the average Joe as I am already registerable blind in one eye). I will never be able to drive a bus or get a HGV licence. Thankfully neither driving restriction upsets me greatly. I doubt I would have been admitted to the armed forces, police force or fire brigade, but once again, this has not been part of my life plan so I'm unaffected by the closing of these doors.

As a result of having a cataract myself, I have always been particularly pushy when paediatricians have checked the newborn HonestBobs. I have insisted they be woken up and have their eyes fully checked over. It is possible that congenital cataracts may have a genetic cause, therefore I'm keen to get them thoroughly checked over early. I also take us all along to the opticians annually and have given up smoking since reading this may be a cause of cataracts in later life. Clearly having an inoperable cataract already, I don't want to increase my risk of getting age-related cataracts any more than is already likely.

Summary: A cataract can be for life, not just for old age.