I have one eye. It had a cataract. A fast growing one that left me near totally blind in three years. One Dr refused to touch it because it was my o ly eye and pretty damaged from previous conditions/treatment. I accepted blindness. The next appt was with the senior specialist -my usual MD who'd been hookede the previous couple yearly visits. He heard my resignation, flipped his calendar open and offered me a table the next week. The operation was a stellar success. It's been 13 years and my eye is still doing fantastic.

There are specialists out there who know their stuff and do it. My guy is one of those but there are MANY out there. Seek a second (or third) opinion. You will be blind if the cataract stays. You COULD be blind after the surgery but you could also be seeing, for a while longer. Only you can decide if the risk is bearable.

It's better to have a cataract removed before it gets too mature. Removing a huge mature cataract is much much harder than removing a moderate cataract and puts you at risk of complications during and after surgery.

It's scary to have it removed from your good seeing eye. But please remember that the vast majority of routine cataract surgery goes very well.

You could consider having cataract surgery on your worse seeing eye first so you can go through the process and see what it's like with low stress. The purpose of that surgery would be to make the back of your poor seeing eye easier to examine and to get you mentally prepared for surgery in the good seeing eye.

Source: am ophthalmologist and have removed cataracts from patients with only 1 good seeing eye.

I have. My cataract was so thick that it was effecting the vision that I did have. Once it was removed I could see a TON better. However, I now have to use two different sets of glasses, one for reading and another for using the computer. Apparently this is common.

I've had a cataract removed and it didn't go well as the anesthesia affected my optic nerve, however I didn't care much since at that point my optic nerve was already so damaged by glaucoma that I had almost no useful vision left.

Cataracts do not cause damage to the eye, so you should let it stay for as long as possible since the surgery is not risk-free and you only have one good eye. The only real danger is if the cataract is masking another problem, because it's an opacity that makes your retina harder to see with an ophthalmoscope. If that's the case then ask your doctor to perform an optical coherence tomography on your eye as those can see better through opacities.

I had a vitrectomy surgery that left me with a cataract months following the surgery. Mine was still in the early stages but I had it removed.

The blindness in my right eye from my detached retina was already in an advanced state of blindness that could not be reversed and I was hoping that the cataract removal would help my vision just a little bit. It’s been a couple months since my surgery and while I see a little bit more light and slightly better clarity from a foot or two , My vision up close is gone. And from what I’ve been told, cannot be corrected with glasses. I relied on my close-up vision pretty heavily and it’s been pretty demoralizing that I’ve been left with zero clarity in addition to my left eye with a detached retina.

The surgery itself lasted about 30 minutes and was mostly pain-free, But there was slight discomfort at times, but nothing terribly uncomfortable.

Not trying to scare you from having it since your situation is obviously from a cited point of view, and mine was unique to me considering i’m coming from the point of view from an advanced state of a retinal disease. Just thought I’d share my experience.

Yes the cataract in your blind eye does need to be removed. If left alone it will get thicker and cause damage to the eye before breaking apart and causing even more damage, which can lead to infection that can easily spread to both eyes and may result in having to have one or both eyes removed.
Modern cataract surgery isn’t a big deal and if they do it on your blind eye first you’ll know what to expect for the other one. I’ve had cataract surgery on both eyes, once in the 90s where they still took a scalpel to your eye, and again about six months ago, where they just kind of laser it out and you’re awake but very drugged up for it. Coolest light show I’ve ever seen. :D

I developed a cataract in my right eye when I was about 30 years old. I had my left eye removed when I was 17.

My cataract developed quickly and worsened over the course of a year to the point where I had lost nearly all of my vision, so I was kind of down to "remove it even though there's a high chance of complications" or "be totally blind anyway."

My cataract surgery was done by an incredibly skilled surgeon under general anesthesia, so he could be extra careful and make sure that my vision was protected as much as possible (I also have pretty severe nystagmus). I'm told it was complicated and took about 45 minutes all in all, but the surgery went well.

I had no major complications - a couple of minor ones that required 2 follow-up laser procedures, but all in all, it was about the best outcome we could have hoped for. My IOL actually helped my visual acuity a little bit, so the end result was that, for a while, I had vision that was a little better than my pre-cataract vision.

I never had vision in my left eye. I was born with cataracts and had them both removed at about 2 months old. When I was 12 they removed my left eye and I now have a prosthetic.

My boss just got a cataract removed last week. He had some issues with vision at first but he has said the past few days it's gotten a lot better. His wife also had cataract surgery on both eyes a couple years back and she can see very well.

I personally haven't nor don't have cataracts. I am blind in my left eye with a heavily reduced visual field in my right. However, I am incredible lucky and priviledged to have 20/25 (with correction) in the remaining visual field that I do have left.
While I cannot directly answer your question with firsthand experience or knowledge, I would like to say that I'm here to support you. (Feel free to DM here if you ever want to talk!) But with your currently remaining vision, I would like to think that dealing with it before it becomes a critical issue would be more ideal than dealing with it when you *have* to. You might be afraid and I understand that, but if your doctor is suggesting that you will have to deal with it eventually. Then it might not be a bad idea to get it taken care of while you are with a doctorhave a very good relationship with your curr that you really like and have a good relationship with. Hopefuly that doctor would be to give you a referral to a trusted eye surgeon or specialist.

In the end, the decision will always be your and I'l support you.