Cataract surgery

Factual Questions
1

I’m due for cataract surgery this year and though I’m looking forward to potentially being able to see better, I am quite afraid of the event. Anyone have any experience to share to alleviate my fears? Of course I’ll ask my surgeon these questions, but just so I’ll know what answers to expect and what to get more details on, I’d like to know if the anesthesia is general or local, what is the normal recuperation time and pattern, and how long I have to wait before getting the other eye done.

I also have diplopia combined with my myopia, so I’ll still have to wear glasses even if the new lens corrects my vision perfectly for distance. Is it not possible to create a lens with a prism, similar to what’s in my glasses, so that my diplopia can be corrected also?

2

I had cataract surgery and lens implants in both eyes (not at the same time) when I was a teenager. All in all it was a pretty easy experience.

The anesthesia is typically local. While that may sound horrifying (I will be awake when they’re slicing my eye up?! :eek: ) in practice they pump you so full of sedatives you’re barely aware of what’s going on at all. I have a memory of a very brief moment when I was aware that my eye was being operated on, and I didn’t really give a shit.

The recovery time is quick – you should be out of the hospital the same day and you will have to wear a plastic shield taped to your eye for a day or two. (On one of my surgeries I had an allergic reaction to the tape they used and my face got all puffed up. Oops. They changed it to a different tape and it went away.)

After that you will have to refrain from most physical activity for a couple months and take antibiotic eye drops, that’s about the extent of the recovery. The incision is barely visible and will close with self-dissolving micro-sutures. You won’t even notice it there.

ETA: I think the recommended time between surgeries is at least six months. Mine were a couple years apart because I was busy being a teenager in the interim.

3

Sit back and enjoy (almost) the experience. It’s cake.

I’ve had it done twice and the operations were nonevents. Except I got too comfortable while the piped in music was playing during the first operation. I suddenly heard the Ophthalmologist say: “BarnOwl you’re killing me.”

“Oh (shit!).” Was I humming?

Yes.

Just before the second operation, I was a little worried that I was worried. :smiley: Honest. I didn’t give a rat’s ass before or during the first surgery.

I recounted my previous lassitude, and asked my eye doctor why I wasn’t in lala land. He explained he didn’t take me down so far because he wanted to avoid the possibility of a common spasm (which is a term I am probably misusing).

It’s that jerky thing we all do in bed at one time or another. Just as we’re about to fall off to sleep, we suddenly lurch, jerk our bodies, say in reaction to a sudden feeling we’re falling, and come wide awake.

Now, if he has the scalpel in my eye and I do that…!

So I said to myself, "Okay in that case, I’ll be happy to worry. And maybe for a nanosecond I did!

But the biggest pains the ass are the pre-op and post-op details. The nurse coming in to give you eyedrops, etc., etc., and the post op precautions friedo mentioned.

However, I didn’t suffer one iota of pain.

Will it all be worth it? You’re damn right it will!!

I’m 74 years old and see better than when I was 8 or 0. Swear to God.

I hope you have a similar - or even better - experience. flex727.

4

I have also had cataract surgery in both eyes. The first was a couple of years ago, and the second just a few months ago. Both surgeries went very easy with no complications. Follow the post operation instructions carefully and you will have no problem.

5

Piece of piss matey.

I had cataract surgery on both eyes some years ago and like Barn Owl says I see better now than I did when I was a sprog, I’m now 66

6

I had cataract surgery in both eyes as well. I had them done when in my 30’s but more than a few years apart. The anesthesia was local both times. The first time they strapped my arms down so I would not strangle the guy trying to put a scalpel in my eye.

When my second eye went bad enough that I need to have the work done, the Doc offered me the option of correcting it to reading distance. If I had chosen to do so, I may have been able to avoid the need for glasses for the rest of my life. I believe he referred to this as mono vision; one eye for distance the other eye for reading. It was not commonly done at the time but I had been using my eyes in that fashion for several years after I had the first eye done. I went with the more common two eyes matched for distance + reading glasses procedure. I still wonder if I made the right choice. Not having to use reading glasses was pretty tempting. The deal breaker was when I asked if I went with the mono vision, what guarantee could he give me that he would get it right…If it was not perfect I would need a glasses prescription to correct the lenses for reading. They gave no such guarantee so I went with what I felt was the safe choice so could buy $15 cheapo reading glasses from the drug store rather than take the chance that I would need $200 glasses to read.

I did dismiss the young cute Doc who was to do my second surgery after interviewing her. I went with the old guy who had done it a thousand times.

All said and done it was not so bad. The recovery time is fast. They said I could go back to work the next day if I wanted to. I took a few extra days off, just tell them eye surgery and it’s a done deal.

-Bat

7

Sounds to me like you made the better choice, Bat.

The small inconvenience of reading specs is nothing
compared to a life of lop sided vision.

8

Thanks for the replies and the heartwarming good wishes. I have a complication I didn’t mention called Fuch’s Distrophy. This will require repair to the cornea at the same time as the cataract surgery. Fortunately, my teeth and all the plumbing are still good, but my eyes started deteriorating when I was 7. I guess two of the four major problems with my eyes will be done with by next year. I will remain stuck with diplopia and presbyopia.

9

I have a cataract in one eye and will have to have surgery to remove it at some point, but the other eye is currently fine (the cataract was a complication from using ophthalmic steroids to correct uveitis). I don’t have a lot to add about the experience, but I’m basically in your same boat and have been looking at options.

From what I’ve seen, you basically have 3 options:

  1. The “normal” choice. You get a new lens, which is, unlike a young person’s lens, but like an old person’s, inflexible. This means that you’ll be able to see at a distance, but will need reading glasses (presbyopia). This will, however, fix your myopia, as will the rest of the options.

  2. The “mono vision” choice that bat312 mentioned. This involves one eye corrected as above, and the other eye given a lens shaped for close objects, instead. Essentially, you’ll be using only one eye for any given task (though the other can help for things like 3d viewing, just not details), but you’ll be able to do both tasks with no extra equipment or reading glasses.

  3. Newer (and more expensive) lenses have been developed which simulate the flexing of a natural lens. Theoretically these give more natural vision and you do not need reading glasses. However, I have only seen advertisements from the lenses’ makers, so I do not know whether or not the claims hold water.

For what it’s worth, my uveitis required 2 different injections into the eyeball, so I have an inkling of what it will be like, on a smaller scale, of course. My experience matches with the above. Especially "I will be awake when they’re slicing my eye up?! :eek: ". Trying not to move while someone jabs a needle in your eye was a frightening experience… but it wasn’t all that bad when all is said and done, the local anesthetics did their job, and I’d do it to avoid uveitis again in a heartbeat (it was excruciating).

10

When I do cataract surgery, probably 80% choose the first option above (distance vision/reading glasses), and roughly 10% each do either monovision or premium intraocular lenses (IOLs).

The surgery itself is usually very easy to get through, painless and less than 10 minutes. Don’t be afraid to let your surgeon know if you do feel something. There’s nothing that bothers me more than to find out someone felt things after the fact. Speak up if need be.

11

Can an old fart (74) whose had both lenses replaced, realistically opt now for number 3, above?

12

To BarnOwl : Not easy to do. Once you have one style of implant, becomes difficult to exchange after a few months (the implants get “healed” into place, and difficult to remove).

13

Echoing what the others have said.

I havent’ had it done but I took my dad to get both eyes done (a few months apart). He was done under a local, so he was awake, but he reported no pain. He said it was a bit “uncomfortable”, but nothing actually bad.

As for the routine nature of the operation, the surgeon casually said, “Oh, I’ve done seven of these this morning…”