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My cataract surgery experience

Posted , 12 users are following.

susan44499
susan44499

My surgery went well. My dr now uses a Halcion pill rather than an IV ( twilight sleep). He says it’s safer and you can be released sooner. 

I was on the border of 1 or 2 pills ( dependent on body weight and tolerance- I have a glass of wine about 4-5 days a week) and decided on one. Next time I may do 1 1/2 or 2 , though if I have 2 I will have to have someone drive me to the post op appt 24 hrs later! 

I didn’t feel it affected me at all. I found myself tensing up ( like at the dentist) and having to consciously take deep breaths and relax my muscles. 

Three or four times I felt a tiny amount of pain. I hadn’t expected that and worried it might get worse and what if I’d jump and he had a scalpel in there. 

After , the nurse told me that’s normal as long as what I felt was tolerable and it was. 

He inserted a non- prescription contact for a day to help healing because the numbing drops can degrade the eye and cause corneal abrasions 

I didn’t wake up the next day with great vision like my husband had after his surgery. The dr said it can take 7-10 days. I wondered if it was because I had waited 2 1/2 years to have the surgery and the dr said it was dense and a bit tough to remove. 

2 likes, 26 replies

26 Replies

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  • marie55850
    marie55850 susan44499

    Posted

    I had no option of any kind of sedation... Unfortunately I did feel pain.. I has severe problems looking in to the light as I had bad photosensitivity, my eye kept rolling until they said try to focus just below the light. It was still painful and I had to concentrate hard not yo move my eye. I was surprised as I thought they would put something in my eye to stop it moving. Anyway coming out u don't like to scare other people I just said oh it was fine etc... A lovely old lady came up to me and said mine really hurt everyone's saying it didn't hurt... I said mine hurt too but I didn't like to say. It was all a bit claustrophobic as well. My eyesight in that eye after 24 hrs was amazing. It was clear I would need reading glasses as they said but my distance was phenomenal. Two weeks later I started to get blurred vision.. I was told it had capsulated.. So my lazer treatment is booked for August. But around 2 mths after surgery it corrected itself. I was told it can take about 2 mths to settle down and they were right. I havnt cancelled my lazer app yet just in case. I am still waiting for my second eye to be done its been 5 mths now.. UK is slow for this but at least I know what to expect next time.

    • marie55850
      marie55850

      Posted

      Meant to say it wasn't just the photosensitivity that hurt. I felt the cutting into my eye and it was very painful when they put the new lense in.

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An marie55850

      Posted

      I wonder if each person reacts differently to the freezing.   Did they pour a cup of liquid (freezing gel) into your eye being operated on?   I didn’t have any sedation just the freezing.   Felt pressure but no pain.  
    • susan44499
      susan44499 Sue.An

      Posted

      So was that what it was? I kept feeling liquid but I thought they were like rinsing/flushing my eye with water. I did get numbing eye drops pre surgery. 

      My pain wasn't as awful as marie55850 reports. I just had 3 or 4 brief instances of a little pain at the very top of my eye.

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An susan44499

      Posted

      The pre- surgery drops are to dialation your pupil. Those were administered to all of us in waiting area ahead of surgery.  We got 2 drops at 20 minute intervals. Once it was my turn to have the surgery and nurse walked me to OR room to prep for surgery that was when they poured the freezing liquid into my eye.
    • susan44499
      susan44499 Sue.An

      Posted

      I had lots of different eye drops pre surgery and they said some were for numbing.
  • marie55850
    marie55850 susan44499

    Posted

    I did get numbing drops and my eye had liquid on it several times throughout the procedure. I don't respond greatly to anaesthetics at all normally so I'm assuming this was the problem, and I could still move my eye which worried me a lot. My main worry was if I sneezed lol. I would do it all again in a heartbeat tho... Clearly I am for my other eye. The procedure doesn't last long and it's so worth doing.

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An marie55850

      Posted

      Marie once numbing liquid is administered they put a a gadget to keep your eye open.  It is impossible to blink.  They do want you to keep your head still and to focus your pupil on the light so that they can center the IOL.
  • susan44499
    susan44499

    Posted

    Can anyone explain why sometimes when I log in,  the discussion comes up in a different format and I am unable to submit a reply? 
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