Hackneyville residents Gerald and Martha Martin have been through many things together during their 51 years of marriage. Now they can add to those life experiences the frustration over cataracts, and the surgery that cleared their vision. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye. Aging can sometimes cause the normally transparent lens to become opaque, leading to impaired vision. Gerald and Martha each suffered from cataracts in both eyes. Martha had also struggled with a weak eye since birth, which left her with very limited vision on the left side.

THE EXPRIENCE
The Martins have been patients of Mark Tucker, M.D., board-certified ophthalmologist, since the early 1990s for their annual eye exams and prescription updates. When the time came to address their blurred vision and cataracts, they trusted him with their surgeries as well. Cataract surgery is performed as an outpatient procedure under local anesthesia. It normally doesn’t require an overnight stay in the hospital or being “put to sleep” under general anesthesia.

Gerald and Martha each had the lens corrected in one eye at a time. Gerald had his procedures in February and March 2009 and Martha had them in March and April 2010. “If we’d known that the surgery would be that easy and pain free, we wouldn’t have dreaded it at all,” Gerald says. “It really was one of the easiest medical things we’ve experienced— nothing like the stories you hear from years ago when you couldn’t bend over for weeks without pain or throbbing.”

Dr. Tucker used a special Toric lens in the procedure on Martha’s weak left eye. “After the procedure on my left eye, I could see things for the first time that I’d never seen in my whole life,” Martha says. “It was truly a blessing.”

RECOVERING QUICKLY
Gerald and Martha left the hospital after each lens correction with a large eye patch and instructions to take it easy for the rest of the day. They visited Dr. Tucker’s office the next morning and he checked the eye, making sure that everything was healing properly. Then it was back to their regular routine. “It was amazing how quickly it healed and how immediate the difference in our vision was,” Martha says. “Colors were immediately bright and vivid again.” Two weeks later, they had a second checkup, followed by a final checkup four weeks after each procedure.

“Dr. Tucker is great, and the experience at Russell Medical Center couldn’t have been any better,” say the Martins. They’re busy enjoying their retirement, their three children, five grandkids and great-grandchild. “Life is good,” they say.