I was pleased with how outpatient surgery turned out

Over time I started seeing the taillights of cars in front of me double. If I had covered my left eye I would only have been able to make out the license plate on the car in front of me at a maximum distance of about five meters. At about ten meters, I could only see the general shapes. When I looked using both eyes, my healthy eye helped compensate for the problems my other eye was having. I also noticed that my spatial vision wasn’t very good anymore. If a car was coming towards me, I had to turn my head to get an idea of how far away it was from me. And any light source would have a very big halo around it.

I got by like this for about a year and then I went back to my eye doctor. He sent me to a colleague of his to perform the surgery. This happened in 1994, when I was 51. I was asked whether I would prefer inpatient or outpatient surgery. I would have had to wait another three months to get an appointment at the hospital, but I didn't want to. I decided to have outpatient surgery.

The doctor who did the operation calmed me down and told me that I didn’t need to worry. I would be given a sedative and wouldn’t feel anything during surgery. But I did need to have someone drive me home afterwards. Before the operation, they showed me what the lens that was being implanted looked like.

I had surgery on my right eye, and after the operation I kept a plastic covering over the eye for about a week. At first I had to go to my doctor every other day for a check-up. I stayed home from work for four weeks after the operation.

After surgery, my perception of color was somewhat different for a while, especially blue colors. But that went away again. My vision is now perfectly normal.

When everything was over I thought to myself that I should have gone and had surgery much earlier. Then I wouldn’t have spent that one year with such poor vision.

I really like to make films in my free time. Before surgery, I only shot films using my left eye because I couldn’t really use my right eye. Since the operation I can film using my right eye again. It’s amazing. I can see everything clearly: it’s just perfect.