'Cataract glasses'

Consider the days before small-incision no-suture cataract extraction was common. The times before a nice simple, stable refraction could be obtained in a post-cataract operation eye a few weeks after surgery. Those were the days of lenticular lenses and high astigmatism when the surgeon, airily, would tell the patient, 'See your optician in a few weeks. A new pair of spectacles and all will be fine.' Did the surgeon believe this? Not on your life: it was genetically imprinted on him by previous generations of surgeons that aphakic spectacle correction is a thankless task, and he wanted shot of the patient at the stage of their endless gratitude for the operation itself.