We do a bit of Research into handicapped travel issues and provide some solutions. Mobility, Hearing, Sight, Mental issues included. so far our episodes have included some information on Ataxia, Cerebral Palsy, Deafness, Dancing Sickness, Gulf War Syndrome, Long Covid and Wheelchairs. We are both Disability Advocates and realize there are too many diseases and conditions to cover and try to discuss the most common problems disabled people face and spread some awareness of disabled issues non-disabled people are unaware of.
CORRECTION On a Previous episode I described how to enter our End Of Season contest. Step 1 click on the support our show link. Step 1 we require a one time payment (This has changed during our season) of $3. Step 3 (get you back to a one time payment) click on the $3 Subscription button. The following business day cancel the subscription (if you do it same day your bank may start thinking FRAUD. Step 4 Your done. Thanks for entering and "may the odds be forever in your favor",
Headlights at night start to flare. Reading in dim light gets weirdly exhausting. A low-grade headache follows you around and you assume it’s time for new glasses, until an eye doctor says two words that change the vibe: small cataract. That’s where we’re at, and we use this conversation to get educated in public, because cataracts are so common that almost every family runs into them sooner or later.
We break down cataracts in plain English: what “clouding of the natural lens” looks like in real life, the symptoms people actually notice (glare, blurry vision, dim-light trouble), and why aging and genetics come up so often in cataract diagnosis. We also talk through the eye-care landscape, including the difference between an optometrist visit for prescriptions and an ophthalmologist visit when surgery enters the picture. If you’ve been searching cataract symptoms, cataract surgery, or how cataracts affect daily life, you’ll hear the parts that usually get skipped in a rushed appointment.
We also widen the lens to disability and accessibility. Not all vision loss ends with one procedure, and conditions like macular degeneration or glaucoma can mean ongoing treatment and long-term low vision adaptation. We touch on assistive technology and accessibility tools, including the promise of smart glasses and the practical reality of designing spaces and communication that work for people whose vision is changing.
If this sparked a question or brought back a personal story, we want to hear it. Subscribe, share this with someone who keeps putting off an eye exam, and leave us a review so more listeners find the show.
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to our podcast, When Life Gives You Lovements. I'm Kevin.
Kevin
And I'm Palmi. We consider ourselves disability advocates and intend to highlight some disability issues and things we find interesting that we frequently encounter when we're out and about. Also, some history on disability that we find interesting. This year we're going to include more of the interviews of the people that the disability affects. We hope you enjoy it.
day in rooms not built for me. The sidewalk flows at a different speed. Feels like I'm watching my own movie through a hazy sunlit filter. All the little signs are invisible lines that only make sense in my own time. There's a quiet strength in adaptation, a soft hum of my own creation. Yeah, soft hum of my own creation.
Welcome back to our podcast. When life is relevant, in today's episode, we're gonna be talking about cataracts. Which I think affects every family. It's people age within the family. Yes, it's pretty common. I don't know if it's comical white or not, but and guess what?
went to see the eye doctor just recently, and I was told I have a cataract of my left right eye. Um I didn't notice my eyes have been getting uh I've been having a little bit of headaches. I thought just I need a change of glasses. Um, but Dr. Allison said that I have a small one. Um he's not concerned about it at this time, but he thinks within the next couple of years, um, I definitely would will need to uh have a cataract surgery. So we thought this would be a perfect time to get a little bit of uh education for ourselves on it, right?
unknown
Right.
Kevin
So that's what we're doing. We're talking about cataracts today.
palmi
Now I do have one question. Okay.
Kevin
Or you yeah, he said it had to be bigger than what it was. Um he said it's based on well, I think we here we see in here where it says um how it starts affecting your eyes a little bit worse.
palmi
But um it clouds you like the only treatment option is surgery, is that correct? Yes, that's what he told me.
Kevin
And what he told me, I I was very uh interested in hearing this from him. He said um once they do the cataract surgery, actually, I have what is it where your eye is a different shape.
Yeah, I have astigmatism, and I've never been able I've always wanted to have LASIK. And LASIK you can't have LASIK and correct astigmatism. So uh he said that the cataract surgery would actually be able to correct my astigmatism on my eye.
palmi
Um that the things they do because we're talking about ophthalmologists, you know. Usually we deal with uh we struggle people deal with optometrists, the guys that asked to create the eye chart, yeah uh come up with the prescription in which is better B or B. Right. Uh the optimologist is a little bit more involved in your sugar. I think he actually comes up with the prescription for the ones that you replaced in your eye.
Kevin
Oh, really?
unknown
I think.
Kevin
Yeah. So, anyways, he told me I he I would actually have uh be not have to wear glasses after the contract, uh after I had the surgery.
palmi
I don't know about that.
Kevin
Well, if that's what the doctor told me, possibly I wouldn't have to have surgery. I mean, I wouldn't have to have uh glass wear glasses after it. He said it could correct the astigmatism. Typically, what I'm thinking is He said typically it brings your bet eyes back to 2020.
palmi
Yeah. I the key word there is eyes. If you're getting cataract surgery on one eye, you should have great vision at that eye. Oh, yeah, maybe the other eye used to look at me.
Kevin
Well, by that time, maybe I have cataracts in both eyes. I don't know.
So let's get started. So seeing clearly is the name of our uh podcast this week. Uh understanding cataracts and disability. Um imagine look waking up and the world looks foggy, like someone smeared jelly across your vision. Now that's not how I see that's not what I'm seeing right now, so it's not bad, but that's probably why he's putting it off. But um what are cataracts? The simple definition of a cataract is the clouding, make the of clouding of the eyes natural lens. The typical cause is aging, genetics, injury, and pediatric um cataracts. In my case, he said it was aging. Uh brief, how are cataracts different from other low vision loss conditions of macular degeneration or retinal diseases? We'll just we'll discuss that further in the discussion.
palmi
Why does the other visual impairments like a macular degeneration? A lot of it depends on genetics, and the treatment is always a lot different.
Kevin
Yeah.
palmi
That runs in my family too, so it sounds like a cataract surge get surgery, recover from surgery, and boom, you're done.
unknown
Right.
Kevin
So it's basically a patching routine.
palmi
So I think that uh once you have surgery, you're gonna be categoric-free for the range of your life.
Kevin
Well, I don't think that's so. I think you have to you have to sometimes you have to go back.
palmi
Well, actually, I think uh I read some about that. Yeah when they talk about the different types of surgeries. Yeah, that's when you have chronic low vision. You have to keep going back. But uh, if it's just getting to you in old age, I'm sure that condition doesn't apply. Okay, breaking down the condition.
Cataracts are actually a protein breakdown and clouding of the eyes, natural crystalline lens, common symptoms or border vision, feed declares, lettering headlights at night.
Kevin
And troubles trouble seeing and dimming light. See that those are those are the things I'm having issues with. But you didn't you they you just had an eye exam, but they didn't say you had con um cataracts. But that might just be aging.
palmi
That just might be the uh fraudophobia that goes wrong with my ataxia.
Kevin
Yeah, but I do have trouble at with headlights at night, and I have trouble seeing in the in dim light. Um it's con uh it's genetics congenital and and age-related. Um difference between the age-related um cataracts is the most age-related cataracts is the most common form, and if it was uh congenital, um, it would be present at at birth, which is profoundly shapes a childhood's development and uh and a disability narrative. But I don't have that, I have age-related. Um the surgery conditioned, um the medical surgery, medical miracle of surgery, discuss the modern, and it's a how do you say that? Photo immersivation and intro lens IOL replacement, a quick outpatient procedure that restores sight for millions. That's the procedure that I would get. Um, but there is a pro if you do have the chronic low vision, which Kevin was talking about, that's where you go back in and have multiple surgeries to correct the condition. Um,
and then glaucoma and macular degeneration means the vision loss persists, and um the transitions into uh utilizing low vision rehead rehabilitation and adaptive um strategies. Now my Uncle Bill has that, and he is actually almost blind because of it, uh, along with my Aunt Margie. He's one's has the wet and one has the dry. And I'm my Aunt Margie gets the shots in the eyes. That's gonna be awful. Uh navigating daily life, how individuals with significant vision impairment manage work, reading, and mobility. And that has a lot to do with the stuff we talked about the other day about the um smart classes. They use adaptive um materials to be able to help them with um daily life, magnetic tools and bridging the difference um in their abilities.
palmi
I'm sure I'm sure.
unknown
Okay.
palmi
Um think if we really uh either find somebody who owns smart glasses or find a pair of like uh Kmart Blue Light special.
So the in conclusion, um we have to uh empathize in in action action. So I don't think any of this will have to do with me, but um we uh recognize that vision loss is an honest spectrum, and fostering the inclusion uh environment requires patience. Uh universal design and accessible accessible communications. So remind uh we want to remind our listeners to consult a make sure you get your eyes checked, um, and make sure that this does not sneak up on you. Um, I think you're recommended to get your eyes checked uh once a year as you get older. Um I just didn't realize it, but I had gone two years. That's probably why I was getting my headaches. I had to adjust my glasses for uh two years. And the optrician, or what is what is the eye doctor called?
palmi
Ophthalmologist.
Kevin
Ophthalmologist reminded me, yeah, he reminded me that I should have gotten my uh eyes checked a year ago, and they probably would have caught it soon. And I wouldn't have been having so many headaches due to that. So all right, well, this is the end of this one.
Kayleck me mentioned that there was only one video on YouTube about Ketarat. It was called Sam Betts Takes on College and Blind. Oh, Blind Hockey.
Kevin
So Sam Betts, B-E-T-T-S, takes on college and blind hockey on YouTube.
palmi
So if you want to watch that, it says this video operates a first-hand perspective on growing up with considerable cataracts in nav game sports, college life and facial disability. And that's kind of falling in the category of what we already talked about, the AI algum medical sport classes or the apps on your smartphone.
Kevin
Yeah.
palmi
Um, I don't think it will be anything that we haven't talked about before. But I want to make sure that there happens to be an ophthalmologist listening. Uh let's know how we can explain this particularly when it comes to these advanced medical words that we can't produce.
Kevin
We get a D, huh? Maybe an F.
palmi
I'd be happy to hear the T. The words stumble out of our mouths are actually understandable. Okay.
Kevin
So keeping him talking is part of what we're trying to do here.
palmi
It's okay if I screw up words, but I don't have an excuse.
Kevin
I'm just doing it for the fun of it.
palmi
You can see it's so like my. Hey, there you go.
Kevin
Now we're being now we be we're being uh disrespectful.
palmi
Yeah, we are.
Kevin
All right. All right, talk to you next year.
palmi
Hey, remember when life gives you love, it's what do you do?
day in rooms not built for me. The sidewalk flows at a different speed. Feels like I'm watching my own movie through a hazy sunlit filter. All the little signs are invisible lines that only make sense in my own time. There's a quiet strength in adaptation, a soft hum of my own creation. Yeah, a soft hum of my own creation.
