Cataract surgery (my experience)

As some of you may recall, I said I was about to have cataract surgery on my right eye. Well, that was yesterday.

Overall, things went very well. So today I am going to share some of my observations from yesterday, and also today.

How it happened

Yesterday, I arrived at the doctor's office. They immediately put two drops in my eye. One to numb the eyeball, and one to dilate the pupil. After this, I sat in a very cold waiting room for a bit. About 10 minutes I think. Luckily I was prepared with a fleece in hand because they warned me ahead of time that it would be cold.

Next, they walked me to the place where I was briefed on what would happen, and my vitals were measured. The nurse was a little surprised by my low heart rate and asked if I was a runner. (My heart rate was only about 48 beats per minute, which is normal when I'm relaxed.) Blood pressure was also spot on.

They measure all this because there is anesthesia involved, so they need to really know the patient to do this right.

After getting all my vitals they hooked up an IV, added a hair net (though I have a shaved head, so not sure why this was needed), and attached heart rate monitors to my wrists. Then I was instructed to lie down with my head in a "U" shaped holder. The IV was so the anesthesiologist could easily administer the "happy juice", which was done a few minutes later.

I fell asleep after a couple minutes of waiting and was awakened when they started wheeling me to the operating room, which wasn't long but felt like 20 minutes.

Once in the operating room they applied something over my face that was like flypaper and stuck to the right half of my face. It also stuck to my eyelids, forcing them to stay open.

(visions of the movie Clockwork Orange came to my mind, making me chuckle.)

Then they turned on a fairly bright light overhead to properly illuminate my eye to be operated on. My eyes are very light sensitive, so this was uncomfortable and caused them to lower the intensity a couple times until it was right.

The doctor was pretty amazing. She stayed in constant communication during the 10-minute surgery, informing me when I would feel pressure, and when something uncomfortable might happen. By doing this it enabled me to brace myself mentally, so I didn't move. She was brilliant.

Contrary to what I thought, they did not cut the front of my eye off to take out the old lens and add a new one. Instead, they just make a small incision point where they insert the needles and vacuum device to do all the work. By doing this it doesn't require sutures of the eye and heals on its own fairly quickly.

The aftermath

Once I returned home I felt some minor discomfort in my eye. It was mildly as if I had a hair in my eye, but not nearly as painful. I had 3 different types of drops to put in my eye 4 times per day, and the evening after the surgery I was instructed to do it at least 3 times although the day was mostly gone. These drops burned at the incision points on initial drop, but weren't too bad.

One other interesting bit is that my vision was MUCH clearer than it has been for a long time. And colors were much more brilliant. When I close my right eye the vision in my uncorrected left eye is very blurry and yellow, like a sepia lense was used. But my corrected right eye is bright and clear. WooHoo! I didn't realize how bad it truly was.

The next day

I had a follow-up appointment with the doctor, so she could ensure everything was still going well. So, upon waking I started preparing for that trip.

When I woke in the morning, I noticed my right field of vision had a noticeable dark line as if I were wearing glasses and the frame was visible in my peripheral vision. I feared the new lens had folded inside my eye and needed attention, which turned out to NOT be the case. (more on that later)

I noticed my pupils were still dilated in the mirror and once I arrived at the doctor was told this is because they use a stronger dilation solution than for typical examinations and that it would be OK the next day.

The doctor also informed me that due to the incision points of the surgery, and a little inflammation, the dark link in the right side of my vision was normal in some patients. When the dilation, inflammation, and healing was further along it would no longer be noticeable.

Though my eye will still take a full 6 weeks to completely heal, my initial vision test came out that I have 20/20 vision again! My near vision is a little blurry, but once the dilation is gone that will change.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. My surgery went well, and with healing will be even better. So next week I will return for also get the left eye done as well.

Thank you for sharing in my journey.