Josie's Story
(adult, bilateral cataracts)
Congenital Cataract runs in our family, my uncle had it,
(although neither mum nor her other brother did) and so did his
grandmother and all of her siblings. My great grandmother and
most of her siblings went blind from cataracts as the operation
wasn't available, but my uncle had the operation in his early
teens, when the procedure had only just started to be used on
children/teens. None of my three siblings have cataracts and so
it is possible that my cataracts was due to me being born two
months early and not being completely developed, but its more
likely to just be in my genes.
When I was young, my eyes weren't a huge problem, I was
lucky to have small cataracts, and if it wasn't for the fact
that they were right in the middle of my eyes, they wouldn't
have had a noticeable effect on me.
It was noticeable that my eyes were less than perfect, as I
would walk into things and struggled a lot with glare and
bright lights (photophobia) but I could manage.
I started to notice things more when I was about 9 or 10
years old. I wouldn't be able to read small print or see things
in the distance and particularly, when things didn't have high
contrast. I remember starting to struggle with reading coloured
pen on the white boards that the teachers used in school, and
could only read dark colours. Something that has been a problem
for as long as I can remember is reading over-head projectors,
as they have very little contrast.
When I started high school was when things really started to
change, gradually at first and then more suddenly.
I was about 13 or 14 when things started getting worse, I
would notice little things, like not being about to read things
that I had never struggled with previously, or not being able
to see a clear vision when light was too bright, or not bright
enough.
My school were generally very helpful, my form tutor sent a
memo to all of my teachers asking that they all wrote in black
pen in my lessons, that I had a clear copy of sheets they may
use on over-head projectors and that I had a clear or often the
original copy of sheets they may have photo-copied as they
rarely came out clear, often with very little contrast, along
with a list of other things I may need help with.
But it was when we had supply teachers for lessons that I
struggled to get these. As teenagers, when you have a supply
teacher, the trouble makers of the class would try as hard as
possible to get out of doing the work or to pull pranks on the
supply teachers. People were always saying that they couldn't
do the work for one reason or another and because the supply
teachers didn't necessarily know about my needs it made it very
hard for me to explain. More often than not, supply teachers
would just think I was trying to get out of doing the work or
trying to cause trouble. I remember one time getting sent out
of the class room for causing trouble when I was trying to
explain to the teacher that I couldn't read the work she had
just written up on the board, as it was green on white, but I
had been ignored and sent out. Later, when I had been to see my
form tutor, who had explained to the supply teacher, I did get
an apology, but I found it hard to find the confidence to
explain to teachers in the future, and often just tried to cope
without.
When I was about 16, my eyes got suddenly worse, everything
looked washed out and faded, I couldn't see anything in the
distance, other than a mix of colours; I struggled with
reading, and needed big print. School work became very hard as
I was now well into my GCSEs, I would often need to get a
friend to write things out for me, bigger and clearer and a lot
of the time, had to go to see teachers before lessons to remind
them of what I could and couldn't see. My high school was a big
one, so teachers didn't always remember to provide me with what
I needed, as they had so many other students. I was lucky to go
to a high school which had a special unit for children with
disabilities, and although I didn't use this unit for my eyes,
there was always someone in each class who had an LSA with
them, who could also read things out to me if I needed.
My consultant noticed the dramatic change at my next
appointment at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton, and put me
on the waiting list to have my left eye operated on (my left
eye was slightly worse than my right, and they only wanted to
operate on one at a time due to starting college and A
levels).
In December 2007, just after my 17th birthday, I had my left
eye operated on, and had an artificial lens fitted (intraocular
lens).
Since the operation, I have noticed such a huge difference,
even though it's only in one eye. I now wear glasses as my
artificial lens obviously can't focus, and its left me very
long-sighted.
I can now see so much better in every situation and have
realised how bad my eyes were, as I have one ‘good’
and one ‘bad’ eye I can compare my old and new
vision.
Everyday I notice something else that I can now see, which
I never could before and everyday I am amazed.
I am having my right eye done on the 17th July and I am
really looking forward to having even better sight! Perhaps
even more exciting than that, is that I have just been told by
the DVLA that I can now, with my left eye being so much better,
see well enough to drive. College work has become a lot easier
as I don't have to worry about writing in black, or making sure
I have a clear copy of everything.
I am very grateful that I was able to have the operation,
especially when I realise that only a few generations ago, I
would have just gone blind, as my great-grandmother did.
I also realise how lucky I am that doctors were able to operate
on my eyes, with a great result.
Last updated: 24/06/08
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Childhood Cataract Network
