A Year of Making Art, Day 224: Cataract Surgery A Success

November 29, 2007  Day 224

It's the day after surgery, and I am a happy woman!  The operation itself was quick and fairly painless.  A few hours later, I found that my distance vision was much improved in the eye that was operated on.  I was euphoric as I walked around the house without glasses and was able to watch a dvd that way, too.

My enthusiasm waned this morning when I tried to use the computer and make a drawing.  It is obvious that I will need new glasses for these two things.  In the meantime, I wore my old glasses and kept my right eye closed.  My left eye will be operated on in six days, and at least then they will both work together.  Right now I am neither here nor there.

I wonder what it will be like to paint?  Sometimes I stand back and sometimes I work up close.  I guess in time it will all be worked out, even if I end up with a pair of progressive glasses.

Here's the drawing I made this morning, which I can't really evaluate accurately since I did it with one eye:

   Drawing #229  12" x 9"

As for the color blue, my opthalmologist was right:  it does look different after surgery.  Through my left eye, which still has the cataract, dark blue looks dusty and grayish while lighter blues look greenish.  I only realize this now that I can see them clearly through the right eye.  I guess the changes happened so gradually over the past few years that I was unaware of it at the time.

Will the removal of the cataracts change my painting?  I don't think so, since it is the combination of colors, tones, values, etc., that are important, not any single particular shade.  I'll know more as time passes, since it takes a while for the vision to improve after surgery.  The effects will be clearer after both eyes are done.

I am typing this without glasses, but it is somewhat blurry.  The further back I sit, the clearer it gets.  This is possibly way more detail than any of you wanted to know about cataract surgery!

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting in order to give me time to get ahead.)