One Day After Cataract Surgery - Is This Normal?
Posted , 7 users are following.
I had cataract surgery yesterday afternoon and although I realize I shouldn't be expecting great things right now, I am wondering if this is "normal". The first thing that concerns me is it would almost appear they didn't take out my cataract. Everything still has that "film" over it. Not blurry, just cloudy.
On the outside of my eye I get a strobe like light flashing. It is very annoying. I have read it could be the lens just settling into place, so not really worried about that, but it is almost constant. However, I have also read if you put the 2 together cloudy vision and flashing light it could be retinal detachment.
Of course my doctor does surgery on Saturday and then his office is closed on Sunday and I don't have my first follow up until Wednesday. Has anyone experienced these things the day after surgery? Thanks for any information.
1 like, 27 replies
karin08666
Posted
I thought I would give an update on how my eye is doing. I had the Tecnis 1 put in my left dominant eye a week ago. Day after surgery my eye was having a disco light party and it was like the cataract was still there because everything was cloudy. I went to an emergency eye clinic and they called my surgeon who said it was just natural healing. The next morning it was the same disco light party, but I now had a black spot on the temple side of my vision. I went to see my surgeon and he dilated my eye and checked everything out. The lens was positioned properly and everything looked great including the retina. So just my brain trying to figure out what was happening.
Since then my eye has improved every day. When I close my right eye I can see how clear things are with my new left eye. Distance is great and things are way more crisp and clear than when I wore glasses, even before cataracts. So far I can see clearly from distance up to 3 feet away, but this has also been improving daily. From 3 feet to 2 feet things are still clear, but any printing is not clear unless it is a larger font. I can’t read my cell phone clearly even at arm’s length, although it looks clearer than it did a couple days ago. Not sure if this will improve when I get my right eye done as they say binocular vision is better.
My right eye is nearsighted, so I can see close up right now, but that will change when I have surgery on it. I find with the difference in my eyes I can get dizzy and my depth perception is off. I am a bit of a klutz, so when I go for walks I always look at the ground, especially in the winter with snow because the ground is so uneven. One thing I was worried about is that I wouldn’t be able to see the ground clearly. I find it is clearer now than when I wore glasses. I walk or bike ride every day and needed to see the ground in front of me clearly, so I am happy that is not going to be a problem.
My left eye has become extremely dry with the prescription drops I have to use and I found it was making my vision not as clear. Since I have been using over the counter eye drops for dry eye it has improved my vision a lot. Pharmacist and eye doctor both told me I could use over the counter eye drops as long as I didn’t use them right before or right after the prescription drops. I make sure to use the over the counter drops at least an hour before or an hour after using the prescription drops. I just bought nighttime drops to use because my eye is so dry in the morning I can hardly open my eyelid and it seems to take a good portion of the day to get it feeling good again. So hopefully that will help a lot.
Eye doctor said I was doing really great and I must be a fast healer. She told me a lot of people who come in 3 days after surgery still can’t see their hand in front of their face.
I am getting my second eye done tomorrow. I know there are a lot of reasons to wait six weeks, but since I am not having anything out of the ordinary done like monovision, I thought I would go ahead with it. I can’t drive right now with my eyes being so different and my depth perception being off, so I thought it best to get it done. I hate not being able to drive. My left eye was targeted for -0.1 (which is the closest he could get to -0.25 with the power of lens I needed without going over) and my right eye will be targeted for -0.55. It will be interesting to see how much more my vision will improve with time and with getting my second eye done.
So far I am happy with the lens I chose. I will miss being able to read without glasses and this will be an inconvenience in some situations, but I am happy with the distance vision and clarity I get with this lens. I can’t remember the last time I could see clearly in the distance, even with glasses. I can once again see street signs clearly before I am driving past them, when my husband points something out to me that is in the distance, I can actually see it. Yes, putting glasses on and off when I need to see printing will be an inconvenience, but as with all lenses there is always a trade-off. Looking at your lifestyle and deciding what is important to you really helps in making the right lens choice.