Well, I got my eyepatch off today from having cataract surgery yesterday, and OMG - what a difference!
I see so much clearer out of my right eye now. Man, 12/6 can’t get here fast enough for me to get my left eye done!
Hopefully you took the opportunity to meet some new people while you had the eyepatch on. This will give you the chance to see them a second time with the eyepatch on the other eye and confuse the heck out of them.
I’m jealous! Hopefully I’ll get my surgery in February or March (can’t do it yet as I have to wait for some preliminary treatment to heal first).
What kind of lenses did you get, mono-ocular or - I can’t remember what they are called officially, but you know what I mean - the multi-focus ones?
Did it improve your color vision? I feel like mine is fine, but from what I read, people don’t realize that their color vision has faded until they get the cataracts removed.
Congratulations, Clothahump! With your newfound vastly improved perceptivity, you’ll become a Liberal before you know it! 
Great news!
If you’re in the mood, of like a blow by blow description of the whole process.
Glad to hear things went OK! My dad just had cataract surgery a week and a half ago, and will have the other eye done soon. Do you have to prep your eyes with meds rubbed around the outside skin?
Color improved greatly, because now more light is entering the eye.
The lens is one that will correct my astigmatism and it’s doing a tremendous job of it so far.
Hump? What hump? 
From my point of view (hah!)…
About two weeks before, I visited the doc’s office so they could take measurements of my eyeballs to get the correct lens.
The day of, we showed up at 0700, did all the prelim stuff about what drugs I’m allergic to, etc. The nurse then took vitals, put on the monitor leands, and started my IV and a while later, they wheeled me down the hall. When I got into the room, they did some more setup stuff, getting me all wired up to the monitors, then the RNA gave me a cocktail in the IV and I mellowed right out. I was “awake” throughout the procedure and it was not unpleasant at all. Frankly, the worst part seemed to be that I would just start to doze off when they needed to flush my eye and that stuff was cold!
Total time in the operating room was about 20 minutes, then they wheeled me back to recovery. I spent about another 30 minutes or so there, then got dressed while SWMBO got the car. They plunked me in a wheelchair, ran me out and I got in the car. Home by noon (we had to stop and get some scrips at the Walgreen’s) and I spent the rest of the day hibernating on the couch. Went to bed at 7 pm, finished sleeping off the happy juice and went in for the followup the next day.
There are several videos on YouTube that show the entire procedure. I watched a couple to educate myself on what was going on. This is one of them and it explains things much better than I did.
Excellent info. I’m getting mine done next month. But I’m curious: why did you have to get undressed?
Thank you for that link. Later this week, I plan to drink half a bottle of wine and then watch it. 
I plan to have it in the next few months. I just got on Medicare last week.
So pleased everything went well!
Sounds like we need to form a Cataract Club here on the SDMB. What to name it…?
The Oglers?
A friend told me today that he had his done last month. He said the only mistake they made was not to scrape his cornea before measuring. Apparently older folks can develop bumps. If the measurement is off, then the lens is wrong and you end up with less than 20-20 in that eye.
formerly foggy
Top only, I kept my pants on. Mainly so they could easily attach the contact points for all the monitoring.
The Peeping Toms?
This, of course, would be our theme song.
My mom really needs her cataracts worked on, but she’s scared of the surgery. She apparently doesn’t tolerate stitches well. That was her latest excuse anyway. Did you even have a suture?
I’m heartened by the level of sedation you describe. I’ve been thinking it would be done strictly with a local anesthetic, while I trembled in terror the whole time.
My mom had a cataract removed from her left eye a couple of months ago. I think she’s supposed to get the right eye done in December. She’s thrilled with the results. She said she’d lost a lot of detail and her vision had yellowed over the years. Now it’s crystal clear.
Her funny story about the surgery:
They gave her Valium before, so she was extremely relaxed and untroubled. At one point, the doctor told her to “look into the light.” Only, she didn’t hear that. She heard “go into the light.” And while she was more annoyed than upset, she tells me she thought “there’s no mortality rate for cataract surgery, what the heck is going on?” Then, the doctor told her she was doing fine, and she thought “that’s just not appropriate. You’ve got no business telling someone they’re doing a fine job dying.”
When she went back for her checkup, she told the doctor about it, and he promised her he’d work on his enunciation.
No sutures. The incisions are tiny and are held closed by the normal pressure within the eye. They will heal by themselves.
Left eye getting done on Friday. Woo-hoo! 