tried to send you a PM but it didn't appear to take. While reading your response to chubbyrat's inquiry re Macular Degeneration, I noted that you have to have the curvature in your eyes monitored. We have just been to heck and back with my husband with this. He can't wear contacts any more due to the extreme curvature of his left eye. This is the eye that had to undergo the Vitrectomy in Sept. of 2008 and then cataract removal in Sept. 2009. He does have severe astigmatism and very thin retinas which prevented the surgeon from doing anything else to help improve his sight. BUT, what I wanted to caution you about, should you have greater curvature in only one of your eyes - and if you have a VERY strong prescription - my husband does - removal of the cataract on one eye might well result in too great of a distortion when you have new glasses made. My husband has his main ophthamologist who referred him to a surgical ophthamologist who removed the first cataract. Back them to main ophth who wrote him a new prescription for the left eye, leaving the very strong right eye prescription as it was. My very excellent optometrist did worry that the distortion would be too great. Well she was right - a nightmare. So back to surgeon who when looking at glasses realized my husband had a major problem. The right cataract was also growing but not at nearly the rate that the left had (due to Vitrectomy) - so she squeezed him in in early Jan. and he had the right cataract removed. Two weeks later back to his regular opthamologsit who was amazed and thrilled at the improvement in his vision (uncorrected though). But of course with the new lense inserted in the right eye, he couldn't see out of the now way too strong prescription in his "new" in October glasses - and only about 50% out of the left eye lense. He still works. So last Tues. he got a new prescription and we went back to my optometrist who tested his eyes herself and was very pleased - and thank heavens he does not need prisms etc. The surgeon did put different strength lenses in his left/right eyes during cataract surgery and he is getting as usual progressives - frames being small to accommodate the thin lenses so as to avoid the Coke bottle look. He is also getting a pair of special "readers" to use when working at the computer. They should be ready on Thurs. and then he will immediately have his new prescription lenses put into the glasses he bought in October - at least the frames will be saved - as a backup is 100% required should he lose/break his glasses. Apparently after all is said and done, he will have better vision that he has had in his life - corrected of course - and with a strong prescription. By the end of this he will not have driven for 6 months - not about to take that risk - I can see - and have excellent night vision and am almost creamed every time I take the car out. Our optometrist said that he must have been having some seriously bad headaches etc. since the Jan. 6 cataract surgery and seeing out of only one eye. So if you have different curvatures all of this info might be of use to you - if not, then it won't. But if it can help anyone about to go through this, then I hope it does. I can tell you it hasn't been so easy on me either! He is a bad back seat driver - particularly with the shadows he has been seing that don't exist, almost causing me to have an accident - actually the other day I told him to get out of the car! He misses being able to wear contacts - hasn't been able to do so for a few years now - the left one had to be made so thick it kept falling out. But thanks to wearing contacts for serveral years he is a master at putting in the drops - and he has had to use several and still must apply pressure drops to his left eye - maybe forever. I wear sunglasses all of the time when out - I hate how they block my peripheral vision. Best of luck. I realize this should have gone in Health, but since original post was on Kitchen Table, I wasn't certain if you checked out Health.