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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsJust had Cataract surgery.
Had cataract removed from my right eye this morning, Got home about 12;30. So far all's well. Was pretty nervous going in, but it was easy breezy.
Pretty excited. Everyone in my circle of friends and relatives who's had cataract surgery had nothing but great things to say about it.
So can't wait to take the patch off. Left eye scheduled for next week.
Wow, maybe no more glasses!!
padfun
(1,786 posts)Doc said I would need that in about 5 years.
katmondoo
(6,455 posts)Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)leftieNanner
(15,083 posts)I have worn glasses/lenses since I was 2 years old (that's 66 years, if you're counting). After I had both cataracts done, I only need reading glasses.
And I second your
AndyS
(14,559 posts)until the swelling goes down. Then you've got the vision of a 20 something!
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)My husband had both eyes done last year.
The only time he needs glasses to read.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)After covid passes or something
quaint
(2,561 posts)Scaredy-cat asking.
Thanks and congratulations on your success!
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)All I know is I was laying there wide awake one minute and the next the Doc was talking to me and it was all done. I thought he was talking to mr BEFORE the surgery. Lol.
dutch777
(3,013 posts)how did it go? It is a bit scary someone messing with your eyes so don't want to try the "new" thing and end up being worse off.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)cornea, and the other is when it is on back of the cornea. I believe that in the latter case they have to remove your cornea and replace it with a lens.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)That is what I had, Complete removal of the clouded lens then replaced with an artificial lens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract_surgery
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)It was like seeing a whole new world.
I do still need glasses for reading and close up work, but for distance I'm better than 20/20.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)wnylib
(21,433 posts)Amazing difference after the cataract surgery. My vision was so bad before the surgery that I was using a magnifying glass AND glasses combined for reading. Now I can read most things without glasses, as long as the lighting is good and the contrast between lettering and background is good. I have reading glasses for the few times that I need them.
After the first eye was done, I was so amazed at the improvement that I kept covering one eye and then the other to compare them.
gibraltar72
(7,503 posts)Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)Was that after the 1 st or 2nd eye? I have noticed thing seem brighter. I suppose because more light is getting through.
wnylib
(21,433 posts)brighter and clearer because the good eye will dominate.
Funny story about how colors change. My kitchen floor tile is white with dark gray specks in it. But it was getting yellowed, so I tried various floor cleaners on it and scrubbed it vigorously. Thought I'd have to live with it or replace it.
When I got home from the clinic after the first eye was done, I was astonished to discover that my kitchen floor was very white, and not yellowed at all. My lens had been yellowed, not the floor.
ON EDIT: The new lens let in so much light initially that it was necessary for me to wear sunglasses outdoors and in bright lighting indoors for about a week or two, especially when watching TV or on the computer. Then my pupil and lens started working in sync so that bright light wasn't so much of a problem anymore.
gibraltar72
(7,503 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,778 posts)I watched gf's right eye cataract surgery on 17 Dec. 2013
(I had both of mine done earlier this year.) They had a small viewing room slightly above the operating room and a window to look in. Couldn't see a thing; too many people around the table. Instead, they had it on a flat screen tv. A giant eyeball with some clamps holding the eyelids open. It had to be the same view the doctor was seeing.
They cut two tiny slits at the bottom and left side of the eye. The LPN said about point two millimeters (maybe it was two mm). Then they put a metal probe in there (sometimes two) with a rounded tip.
Then they smooshed around the organic lens and broke it up into pieces. It had covered the whole eye. They inserted a small (everything is small) hollow tip in there and vacuumed out the pieces of lens until the eye was clear of debris.
Then they inserted a flat, wide probe that had the new synthetic lens. It looked like a vacuum cleaner wand that's wide and thin.
The synthetic lens was folded over like a tortilla shell folded into the center from both left and right.
As soon as it was pushed out of the wand, it started to unfold into a circle.
The doctor used the rounded tip probe to guide it into place and help it unfold.
It does not cover the entire eye like the organic lens did.
He said the pressure of the eye holds it in place.
When I had mine done, the doctor said he put one in that had a focal point of about an arm's reach.
It doesn't take long at all. Some say eight to fifteen minutes.
My first one didn't take long but the second one seemed to drag and I was impatient/anxious for it to be over with. Don't know what made me feel that way.
They numb your eye with some drops and liquids.
One of them burns. You're not too keen on that one.
My anesthesiologist said that they gave me about two beers worth of anesthetic but I couldn't even notice it.
The patient cannot see diddly.
You cannot feel what they are doing and all you see are some bright lights looking down at you.
The place gf went to did about 33 or 35 cataract surgeries that day. Big bucks for the partners that day.
Plus she had a laser procedure to help fix/lessen astigmatism. That did not take very long either.
She said it gave a little burn feeling in the eye.
It also gave a $1,400 burn feeling in the wallet.
The 'even better' laser procedure would have cost $3,900.
The laser was optional so Medicare does not cover it, of course.
She can tell that her vision is better and the astigmatism is better for the right eye.
Might or might not have the left eye done in six months or so.
.
We get touchy and protective about someone fiddling with our eyes.
.
Just plain FANTASTIC, AWESOME, INCREDIBLE that they can do such things and it's now routine.
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gf's second cataract surgery
done on thursday may 08.
came out fine, maybe even better than the first.
she noticed a tremendous improvement the next day.
i watched this one also.
the doctor had to work a little harder on this one.
the cataract was a bit more developed and tougher to break up than the first.
i learned a new tidbit of knowledge about the operation.
the doctor is barefoot.
he sits on a special stool which does not look so special,,, after all, a stool is just something to sit on, right?
the stool has foot pedals. At least two pedals for water and suction and probably a third pedal to push the new, synthetic lens out of the wand into the eye.
he has to use his hands/fingers to control/position the various probes into and around the eye under the outer layer.
if he had to use his thumb or other fingers to control water and suction, the action of the finger movement would also cause the probe to wander.
NOT a place you want a lot of uncontrolled movement!
she says it still came out great and is now only wearing glasses for up-close reading.
she was seeing 20/20 out of the left eye the day after surgery.
this time, she did not have the laser surgery for the astigmatism.
that would have been out of pocket, just like last time.
when she declined the extra laser surgery, the heavy guns sales pressure kicked in.
not quite called foolish but leaning towards it and 'you really should have it done'.
will get an eye exam in about a month for a real prescription but doesn't look like it will be very strong.
coming out great so far!
.
(added later) ---- it seems that the second eye was a little bit tougher because she did not
have the laser treatment done.
keithbvadu2
(36,778 posts)Cataract surgery several years later.
Sometimes the artificial lens will develop a haze over it after several years.
It does not happen to everyone.
You can see but not focus.
My right eye had that happen about 5 years afterwards.
The left eye seemed fine. Key word; seemed.
The optometrist could see the haze and after a while it got bad enough that she recommended laser treatment.
The laser treatment is done by a doctor specially trained in the laser.
They dilate your eyes and really, really examine them.
They put a lens about ¾ of an inch deep on your eyeball with some sticky goop.
They hold your head very still and you look into the laser machine.
You see four quadrants of red.
Then she zaps your eye a multitude of times and she keeps zapping until she feels it is done.
She is looking at your eyeball all the while.
Sometimes you feel the zap and sometimes not.
It feels a little bit like a static electric shock when you grab the doorknob.
Not painful but noticeable.
My right eye took 39 zaps. I did not feel any of them.
The left eye took 50 zaps and I felt most of them.
Driving home each time, the eyesight was worthless in that eye.
You might see some floaters for a while.
The left eye seemed fine. Or so I thought.
The optometrist and the laser doctor both were amazed that I was claiming how well the left eye worked. It was not fine. It was just much less bad. It focused pretty well but was deteriorating at a slower rate.
It took about 8 to 10 hours for the right eye to work ok and I could easily tell the improvement.
The right eye was so much better that I could then tell that the left was not up to snuff.
Two weeks later, she did the left eye.
There is no set number of zaps.
It is her judgement call as she is doing it.
They thought the left eye would take less hits because it was not as bad as the right.
Actually it took more hits than the right and it did not take as long afterwards to clear up the vision. Next day left eye good but not as good as the right yet.
gfs first eye hazed over in fewer years than mine. It took 55 hits with the laser.
Her other eye is not so bad so it might be six months or more before they do laser on it.
Supposedly it does not happen again.
It is so gradual that it gets pretty bad before you really notice it.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)#2 thanks got the very detailed accounting of the entire process. Hope I dont have a similar experience of the lens clouding over.
keithbvadu2
(36,778 posts)I wrote them shortly after the events.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)quaint
(2,561 posts)yellowdogintexas
(22,250 posts)I will need glasses for close work. Right now I am using Dollar Tree reading glasses, but my doc wrote a scrip for glasses to correct astigmatism.
If I had extra money I would have had the astigmatism correction done but I went with what Medicare will cover.
Fortunately, when I decide to get the glasses that were prescribed, I have a pair of very comfortable frames I can use.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)nuxvomica
(12,422 posts)But the surgeries were scheduled two weeks apart. The week after the first surgery, I returned to work and didn't use my glasses, though they had the right lens replaced with plain glass. It was much easier to see with my dominant eye and the new lens. Mine cost a bundle because the laser and the panoptic lenses weren't covered by insurance but I am running around without glasses for the first time since third grade. I still reach for them every morning.
The weirdest part for me was the second surgery because a lot more seemed to happen than the first. The doctor explained that the sedative I was on will cause memory loss but more is usually remembered the second time, so they will seem like very different experiences. Also very weird was seeing without any lens at all, between the lasing and the implanting. Things are blurry but very bright.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)I do close up work - woodworking and art and stuff - and need to measure down to the 32nd of an inch sometimes.... The Dr. thought I would prob be happiest going that route vs. relying on reading glasses, but... its just freaking me out having to decide. There aint any DO- OVERS!
PS congrats OP!
intrepidity
(7,294 posts)I miss having really, really good close-up vision.
Then again, I don't miss having to wear glasses/contacts from the minute I awake til I go to sleep.
It's a tough decision.
I suppose it depends on how "bad" the far vision is? I should have thought about it more at the time.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)recognize things beyond that. Wouldnt be a total blur. That was my concern cos sometimes things happen like you lose your glasses in the middle of the lake when your out boating.
So if you have something three inches from your eye is it like totally blurry? Can you see down to 1/32 of an inch? Thx foryour input.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,338 posts)I wear glasses for wood-working and metal-working, as much for protection as for vision. Bits of wood, rust, paint, stain, paint remover, all can be annoying if they fly into the eye.
I'd get the eyes set for distance, wear various-strength reading glasses (cheap drugstore specs) for up-close detail work.
One bozo's opinion.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)Do reading glasses really give you that same high degree of detail?
Jeebo
(2,023 posts)Wow, what a difference. I no longer need glasses except for reading.
-- Ron
Wounded Bear
(58,647 posts)after being near sighted and wearing glasses all my life.
Still need reading glasses, though. They didn't have bi-focals.