Pamela Metcalf

Lens Replacement Surgery

Pamela Metcalf’s vision correction changed her life and allowed her to say goodbye to glasses. It was only when she approached 40 that her eyesight began to deteriorate. As someone who’d never had to bother with glasses or contact lenses in her life, she found it particularly annoying.

“I had to get varifocal spectacles, which I wore at home, and contact lenses for when I went out,” says Pamela, who lives in Patrington and bakes for the village butcher. “It wasn’t just for reading, I needed them for distance too.”

When Pamela’s parents had cataract operations performed by Milind Pande of the Vision Surgery & Research Centre, her mother brought Pamela a leaflet which was to change her life.

“It said that if you wore varifocal glasses there was a procedure which could help you, by replacing your natural failing lenses with artificial lenses which would give you good vision for both distance and reading,” explains Pamela.“I didn’t like wearing glasses and when I wore my lenses, I would rush to take them out the minute I got home.”

Pamela was first assessed at Mr Pande’s clinic to see whether she was suitable for the procedure. When it was established that it was, she had a second appointment, which checked and measured her eyes in detail. A few weeks later she had the Lens Replacement Surgery done on her first eye, under a local anaesthetic. “Mr Pande offered me the choice of local or general and although I was apprehensive about the procedure, I opted for local anaesthetic and it was fine,” she says. “I went into the hospital at lunchtime and I was out by tea time. My husband collected me and when I got home I removed the eye patch. My pupil was very dilated for a couple of days but my eyesight was much better straight away.

“It was a bit strange having one good eye because you feel rather lop-sided, but I had the second eye done a few weeks later and now I have two good eyes. Everything is clear and sharp now, whereas before I was used to everything being blurred. I’m still not used to not having to reach for my glasses when I want to read something. Now I can read everything without glasses from the telephone directory to the back of a shampoo bottle. I certainly couldn’t have done that before.”