Good luck with the cataract surgery. You will love it! Magic vision restoration.

I have severe astigmatism in right eye - so much that if both eyes were like it, I'd be legally blind. With the new(ish) toric lenses, they might be able to give me close to 20/20 vision in that eye.

My cataracts are not very bad - just bad enough that Medicare will pay for the cataract surgery. I have to pay for the fancy new lenses, but it will be cheaper than buying new glasses for that eye as it is now for the rest of my life. They will do both eyes. the left is just a bit far sighted, which has gotten worse with age, so the toric lens will improve the vision in that eye back to the 20/20 I used to have with it.

I've worn glasses since I was five years old. It would be nice to only have to wear them for very detailed needlework in the future!

Left arm was sore for a couple days, all better now. I’m going to Japan next week and wanted them all at least two weeks before being in airports and airplanes.

But not as bad as when I got the first Covid shot. I am feeling various aches and pains - maybe psychosomatic or that we got up extra early to do stuff today so I'm tired. We also had to go in to get routine lab tests for our upcoming six month check up with our doctor. That's why I figured, why no get the shots all the same day and get them over with.

Sometimes the doctor's office has vaccinations, sometimes not, so going to Walgreens seemed reasonable. Never again - we had appointments at 2:00 and 2:20, didn't get our shots until after 3:00. Totally ridiculous. One lady walked out. Another man was waiting on his prescriptions which had been promised at 1PM - he hadn't gotten them by the time we left.

Next year I'll try a different place for my vaccinations.

I was totally fine, just one sore arm but not really bad at all but my husband was feeling really tired and funky for a day then just a sore arm. All in all it was pretty easy.

I'm a side sleeper and that's the side I sleep on!

to meet my new granddaughter (I had to throw that in) so I am late to ask, are you OK?

Right arm is sore still, but that's pretty normal for some vaccinations for me. I did have weird dreams last night - the strangest since I had Covid a while back.

We are all up to date on our shots except the latest Moderna Covid shot which will be available in our county next week. And being the dumbasses that we are we’ll be the first two in line.

On the Walgreens site. I'm not sure which we got - haven't checked the paperwork.

ETA - Just checked - it was Comirnaty 12+ made by Pfizer.

I still need to get the most recent booster. My guess is that you'll either have a reaction to a specific vaccination, or you won't.

Me, I have had zero reactions to any of the Covid shots I've gotten so far. And I seriously doubt that means I'm not reacting enough to get an immune response. I happen to be by far the healthiest person I know at my age (75) and even recently had a minor broken arm (compression fracture of the right ulna) that I completely recovered from in three weeks.

I think what this whole Covid thing is showing, that not enough people are paying attention to, is that people all have vastly different immune systems. For lots of different reasons: genetics, what we were exposed to early on, what kinds of vaccines or medications we go, genetics.

I put down genetics twice because I think that's the hidden true reason for all this variability in getting or not getting Covid (or flu or a cold) and that variability in response to the vaccines.

Oh, and I want to make encouraging noises about your cataract surgery. I often tell people that cataracts were the best thing that ever happened to my eyes. In first grade I could not see the blackboard, despite sitting in the front row. Got glasses the next summer. New glasses every year, eventually got contact lenses, and I'll spare you the rest of the boring saga. Twelve years ago, at age 63, my eye doctor said, "Poindexter, it's time for cataract surgery." So I got it. O!M!F!G! My current vision is fabulous, even though I still need reading glasses. I don't care. My distance vision is phenomenal. I feel like I can read small signs on distant hills. Everything is crystal clear (although close up is a sort of crystal clear blurry) that I never ever experienced with glasses or contacts. What I like best is that I wake up in the morning, look across the room, and can read the clock. It still feels special.

Mine was a piece of cake, and I LOVE my flawless vision! The only bothersome bit was the month of eyedropper afterward.

I have no problem with eye drops - other than that my schedule is really irregular.

until you mentioned them.

I've got a pretty good immune system, but we both came down with Covid for the first time a little over a month. It was a little coughing, nasal congestion, and just feeling a little crappy for both of us. That delayed us getting our vaxs for a few weeks.

I've been looking forward to the cataract surgery for over twenty years. I was referred for LASIX but was told that my right eye is too bad for LASIX to help - basically I'm legally blind in that eye. The LASIX consultant told me when I got cataract surgery they could replace my lens and I would have much better vision.

My Dad had cataract surgery at the age of 87 and Mom never got it by the time she passed at 97 so I was worried that I'd have to wait that long. I'm 71 so I was excited when the optometrist said I could probably get it now.

Well in the last twenty years, they have developed these fancy new toric lenses for people with severe astigmatism that can give "extended range vision" that corrects astigmatism! For the first time in my life, I will have close to normal vision! They are expensive (about $200 per eye) and Medicare doesn't cover them, but it's worth it to me. There is a chance I will only need over the counter glasses, and possibly those for detailed work!

My major worry about this surgery is that I won't be able to read or do my hobbies for a few weeks while my brain adjusts to my new vision. I can live with that but it will be frustrating.

First off, believe me, it will not take weeks for your brain to adjust. There is no brain adjustment involved. You will get out of the surgery able to read and do everything you normally do within 48 hours. Maybe sooner. Trust me on this. And PM me if you want to discuss at greater length.

Oh, and paying a bit extra for better lenses is more than worth it.

Back in the day, not only was the recovery difficult -- at least a week absolutely flat on your back -- but most of the time the cataracts were not fully removed and could grow back. Plus, back in the day there were no lenses implanted, and so the person who'd had cataract surgery now had to wear glasses with REALLY THICK LENSES. Even with those drawbacks, it was better than the alternative of no cataract surgery at all.

Some twelve years ago, when I was setting up for my surgery, two things stood out. One was that I was the youngest person, by about a decade or more, of those in the office setting up for surgery. Essentially, they were all old enough to remember when their own parents were getting the surgery, knew about the drawbacks back then, didn't really understand how much things had changed, and were hesitant to get the surgery. They didn't fully understand how much it's changed a lot in recent decades.

The other thing was that every time I saw someone else who either looked at my eyes or at my paperwork and would say "Wow!" I finally asked someone, how bad were my eyes? I was told that there were four types of cataracts, and I had three of them, and that cataracts were graded from 1 (barely there) to 4 (essentially blind). I was a 3 in one eye, and a three plus in the other. It's amazing I wasn't walking into walls.

And again, to reassure you, I could see properly out of each eye within 24 hours of the surgery. Immediately after surgery my vision was much better, just a bit of blurriness. In 12 to 24 hours your vision will be absolutely normal and you'll have the correction your implanted lenses give you. Mine recovered faster than is typical, but that's just me. It does not take very long.

Here's another thing. At the time before my cataract surgery, the deterioration of my vision was such that it was easy to accept. I clearly understood that in another time I'd readily accept going blind as a normal part of aging. I am so glad I haven't had to go blind as a normal part of aging. I can see. I can read books. I can drive. I can be on this computer.

As a child I understood that I was fortunate to live in a time where I could get glasses to correct my poor vision, unlike a century or more before. I continue to marvel at the benefits of technology.

While the vision was nicely corrected, my brain had been somewhat suppressing the off kilter images from the bad eye. It took me at least two weeks to adjust to being able to see almost evenly with both eyes. Aside from the brain problem, I was not used to seeing binocularly - I had to adjust to having three dimensional vision.

Unfortunately, due to allergies, and the dirt, dust and pollen I worked around, I couldn't use the contacts regularly enough to keep them and had to give them up.

But that is the adjustment I'm talking about. I'm sure I will heal from the operation quickly and am looking forward to the vastly improved vision.

While I was able to adjust well to contacts, I know that many others cannot.

Some years back I tried the thing that has one contact correcting for distance vision, the other for close vision. There's a name for it that I can't recall right now. For me, it was a disaster. Distance vision was wonderful, close was equally good, but the middle distance? The social distance? I could not see anything. I went to the library and I had to get so close to the books to read them that my nose was up against the books. Farther away where the print was in focus was too far to actually read. So I went back to my normal contacts and stayed with reading glasses.

I also had the problem of one eye being twice as bad as the other. I forget the exact numbers, but I'm going to say something like 20/400 in the right eye, 20/800 in the left. The disparity between the two mattered. But more to the point, in my case contact lenses worked very well, and cataract surgery has made my life wonderful. I am pretty sure it will be the same for you.

You never know until afterward

Zero problems.

Peace and strength to you.