My Cataract Surgery Experience

I thought I’d share with all of you my experience with this because there’s a good chance many of you may need to have this surgery in the future.  Supposedly one of every ten surgeries performed in the USA daily is cataract surgery, so it’s common and routine.

However, this is still scary when you think of the prospect of a doctor cutting on your eyeball.  And of course there are a ton of disclaimers, as with anything.  They have to tell you everything that can go wrong because you have to agree to the surgery beforehand.

 There were charts like this in the doctor's office

 

So cataract surgery is what’s been going on with me during the month of July this year.  I scheduled most of my posts ahead because I didn’t know when I’d be able to get on the computer after the surgery.  They did the first eye on the eleventh and the second on the eighteenth.  Needless to say, the second eye wasn’t as traumatic as the first one.  But it was two totally different experiences.  I don’t know what the reason for that was – a different eye with a different lens implant, a different surgical team, or what?  I had the same doctor for both surgeries.

Both times I was in the operating room for about thirty minutes while they used ultra sound waves to remove the cataracts so they could implant the new lens.  They like to do the dominating eye first because supposedly one can get used to everything quicker and easier.  I’m still not used to it, but that’s another story.  I know it’ll take time, just like getting used to my trifocal glasses I had to get two and a half years ago.  Those glasses took me about two months to get used to.  Luckily I didn’t break my neck on the stairs in the process.

I decided on monovision after I got over the shock of how weird it sounded to make one eye far distance and the other near distance.  Some co-workers and one of my sisters said they loved theirs.  I felt more comfortable with the idea after talking to them.  So my far distance eye was first in the operating room.

After changing into a hospital gown, having an IV put in my arm for the sedative and being dowsed about six times in the eye with a numbing and dilating eye drop I was ready.  I had already been there two hours at this point.

 I received a nice tote bag advertising the place

 

I’m not sure what they hold your eye open with, but it felt like sticky tape to me.  They drape your whole upper body in a lightweight cloth and tell you to relax while they tie you down to a tiny stainless steel table.  They even strap your head in and tell you not to move, BUT they said I can shut the other eye, or blink, etc.  Naturally, I was stiff as a board and couldn’t relax at all.  I was afraid I’d move even blinking my other eye so I waited until I had to blink after it was burning and watering.  The only thing I could see was through a small hole that exposes the eye to be operated on.  But soon they shine a bright light in your eye and tell you to pick out a dot to focus on and stare at it the whole time.  Well there were three dots and they looked like marshmallows to me.

I stared at those as they moved all around and turned color after color as they morphed into different shapes and sizes.  It was like a psychedelic light show with all the colors of the rainbow and then more.  The only thing I remember beyond that was the blood pressure cuff going on and off as it squeezed my arm about every five minutes.  I made add that you are sedated but not unconscious so they can talk to you if they need to.

They helped me to sit up and transfer to my other bed as soon as the surgery was over.  I was a bit woozy and everything was blurry.  Then they wheeled my bed down the hallway and into recovery.  The doctor came in and said all went well and things would still be blurry when I went to my follow up appointment the next day.

I couldn’t eat all day except for the clear liquid diet you have to follow when you go in for a colonoscopy.  It was 7 PM once we left the surgical center, so hubby stopped at Subway on the way home and we got sandwiches to go.  I stayed in the car because I couldn’t see anything anyway.

 This is the awful patch, hard plastic, not comfortable and way too big

 

I had to sleep on three pillows for the first three nights and wear that awful patch, so I got little sleep.  It kept coming off so I’d have to get up in the night to tape it back on.  When I got up the next morning my eye was very blurry, but I did notice how white the walls were and the sinks in the bathroom too.  Everything was so blinding bright that I actually wore sunglasses in the house for the first two days.  My eye gradually cleared and was doing pretty well when it was time to go in for eye number two.

Preparing the patch

The second eye was my near vision lens and it was a very different experience.  First of all, the pre-op nurse was a different gal.  “Linda” from Tennessee did much better with starting my IV.  She didn’t even a leave a bruise.  I still had a nasty looking bruise on my right hand from the first surgery and the other pre-op nurse “Terri,” who was to be my doctor’s assistant in the surgery this time.

 These are my deluxe sunglasses

 

I still had to lie there watching TV with sunglasses on while my eyes got numbed and dilated but “Linda” only gave me about three doses of the drops.  I didn’t think that was enough so I asked for more in pre-op and again in the surgery.

I was finally taken back there where they hooked me up to a heart monitor, like before, and put the blood pressure cuff on, etc.  They taped my eye open again, but this time I felt like it wanted to close all during the procedure.  I don’t think the nurse got the apparatus on exactly right, or perhaps tight enough.  The doctor kept telling me to look up, look down, look toward him, etc.  The vision I was seeing this time had little color and was more like cracked eggshells or a shattered mirror or sheet of glass with lots of tiny irregular cracks running everywhere.  The background color was pale with an occasional burst of brighter color.

After surgery this eye was blurry too but wasn’t as bad as the first time because I had the good eye that was clear.  The next day it was still blurry and it still is almost two weeks later.  It’s not changing as fast as the first eye.  But I have noticed that the paper is clearer over the last couple of days and the far-sighted eye seems to be blurry when looking close up.  Both eyes previously have been trying to do the same thing – see close up and also far away and it makes them both seem blurry at times.  I’m hoping this means my brain is adjusting itself to the new situation.

 The patch taped on for the night.  Be careful here unless you want to wax your eyebrows.

 

I go back on August 10^th and he’ll tell me if I need glasses then.  I hope not because they are a huge pain in the butt.  They’re always dirty and having dry eye doesn’t help the situation of trying to keep my glasses clean.

All my eye drops

On top of all this, there are three eye drops to use daily in both eyes for a different number of days each, so I have a schedule with lots of boxes to check off so I can keep it all straight.  Having eye surgery isn’t a piece of cake, but I figure I can do anything for a month.  Sorry for the long post, but now you know what happens for cataract surgery.  More updates later.