Dingo, On the cataract thing, a cataract was a contributing factor in my loss of vision in one eye. It seem that over time, cataracts harden the lense of the eyeball. I waited too long for my surgery and paid the price. Cataract removal is accomplished by ultrasonically breaking up the cataract and removing the small pieces. The lense is supported by little tiny "hairs" around the perimeter that attach to the iris. When the cataract hardens up (like mine did) they resist breaking up. The end result for me was the cataract lense broke loose from the "hairs" and fell down inside my eyeball. The eye is a very complicated thing, and as a result, the opthomoligists (sp?) specialize in the various areas of the eye often with little cross-over. When the lense fell into my eye, the Dr. was suddenly "out of his league" and had no choice but to close me up. Had I been at an eye speciality hospital, instead of a private facility, an appropriate specialist could have been brought in immediately and maybe saved my vision.
My recommendation; Get the surgery done asap, and do so in a facility that has the various sub-specialities available in the event something goes awry. Being blind in one eye sucks as one loses depth perception (a surprisingly useful quality). The only thing worse would be going completely blind.
Wishing you good fortune. Another thing...you should be given a choice of close up natural focus, or distant focus. With either choice, correction for the other will be required. I chose distance focus for my remaining eye, but given another opportunity, I'd go for the close up option. We (I) spend much more time dealing with close up stuff, necessitating constant on-off of glasses (VERY annoying). When correcting for distance, the glasses stay on most of the time (like driving, sitting at an accordion concert, etc). There is a third option, at least here in the US, which is a "constant focus" (my name) lense which is more like a human lense and works both close up and distant. The problem is the insert costs in the neighborhood of $2500 - $3000 each, just for the lense, plus installation. My health coverage wouldn't cover the "constant focus" version. In retrospect, I should have made up the difference and gone with the CF version. Ah, the benefits of experience.
Respecting the going blind part, at least one would have more time to practice!
Press on,
Waldo