It’s been a long time since I’ve written a column, but life happened!

My sister died last year. I spent time with her before she passed away and then had to deal with her estate. My husband and I did some traveling during the fall. And last month, January, I had my eyes fixed.

Yes, I had cataract surgery. It makes me feel “old” to say I had cataract surgery. It used to be cataract surgery was for really old people. Fortunately some definitions of old have changed. And cataract surgery is not only for the old.

My husband had his cataract surgeries when he was 50. My ophthalmologist operated on a 38-year-old for cataracts. So it’s not necessarily age-related, but a lot of “older” people are having this surgery.

What about racquetball and cataract surgery? I’ll give you my personal experience

Cataract surgery is not like when people had to stay in bed for many days and be invalids. My husband had hard lens placed into his eyes and that process is also gone. In my opinion, cataract surgery has become a modern medical miracle.

The surgeon now replaces the lens with the cataract with a soft lens that is the prescription of the glasses that you no longer have to wear. I no longer wear glasses for long distance vision. I wear glasses for close up work, reading and using the computer.

And on the racquetball court I wear right-off-the-shelf, store-bought rec specs.

I couldn’t play for three weeks. Now I thought that was almost forever. However I now realize it really was a very short time.

I didn’t even try to play racquetball until I had the doctor’s permission because one of the instructions is no running or jumping. Well, racquetball certainly involves both.

My first time on the court after the doctor okayed my return I played horribly! That was not surprising. My eyes needed to adjust to no longer being affected by the cataract and to having two new lenses providing sight.

The second week I played better. I could see the ball, something I had not done very well before the surgery.

I’m easing in gradually. Eventually I hope to play four or fives time a week. Just I used to play, only better, with the cataracts gone and the new lenses.