Cataracts

[A.H.Black]

I have cataracts. Sometime in the next year I need to have cataract surgery.

I am starting to figure out what I want to do about surgeons, lense types, what I want my sight to be like, extra costs over and above insurance, etc.

I would really like to hear as many stories as I can about what other people have experienced with their cataracts and the decisions they made. I have some friends who are thrilled with their surgeries and others, not so much. I have one friend who is mad and wished she had made totally different decisions. I'm hoping some of you will be willing to share your experiences. What did you choose? Are you happy with the results? etc.

I could use some advice. They are my eyes and I want make the right choices.

 

[sk8pics]

I have no personal advice, but I also have cataracts, but am not close to needing surgery. I have had 2 friends recently have cataract surgery and they both were happy with the result. They each had their vision corrected, too. I’m wondering about your friend who wished she’d made different decisions; what did she think didn’t go so well?

 

[Lacey]

Chiming in, me too. I am quite freaked out about Cataracts so haven't done anything. Can still drive at night, however cautiously.

 

[A.H.Black]

I have no personal advice, but I also have cataracts, but am not close to needing surgery. I have had 2 friends recently have cataract surgery and they both were happy with the result. They each had their vision corrected, too. I’m wondering about your friend who wished she’d made different decisions; what did she think didn’t go so well?

She chose the near vision option - thinking she would still be able to read without glasses and just wear glasses as usual for everything else (near sighted). Turns out one of her eyes is a bit cloudy and she has to wear prescription glasses for everything, including sunglasses. She feels like she didn't really understand as much as she needed to.

As for me, I have worn contac lenses for over 50 years - hard lenses with no problems. I thought of doing the near vision option. However, as I get older it is harder and harder to keep my contacs from getting foggy. I think I want to have 20/20 vision and get rid of the contacs. That would mean I would still have to have reading glasses for close-up stuff. I also know someone who tried the 20/20 vision route and ended up with about 20/30 vision and still has to wear glasses for everyday distance seeing. I don't want that either.

I really want to hear other stories. Maybe I can be more aware of what to ask to get what I want.

 

[Judy]

I had to have both my eyes done about 6 years ago. The surgery and recovery was super fast and easy. Only eye is done at a time, for me I didn’t do any upgrades but now I can see pretty perfectly without wearing distance lenses. I had a very strong prescription so it worked out great. As far as one of the person’s above commenting that they holding off .. don’t. It is such a common and safe procedure. i was drugged but technically still awake during the procedure but it’s so fast. Afterwards you need to take drops to prevent infection etc.

 

[sk8pics]

20/30 vision is still pretty good!

Anyway, my friends both chose to get their vision fixed so they would only need reading glasses. I would think that's the more common choice.

If my vision was fixed to 20/30 so my glasses didn't weigh a freakin' ton, that would actually be all right with me.

 

[A.H.Black]

I had to have both my eyes done about 6 years ago. The surgery and recovery was super fast and easy. Only eye is done at a time, for me I didn’t do any upgrades but now I can see pretty perfectly without wearing distance lenses. I had a very strong prescription so it worked out great. As far as one of the person’s above commenting that they holding off .. don’t. It is such a common and safe procedure. i was drugged but technically still awake during the procedure but it’s so fast. Afterwards you need to take drops to prevent infection etc.

Thanks. How did you choose your doctor? Do you have to wear readers for up close?

 

[Lacey]

I'm the one that is holding off. I wear real glasses with readers on bottom and minor distance correction on top.

What kind of anesthesia is used, were you "out" and if so, how long were you "out?" I am treated for anxiety and am worried I would never wake up.

The doc I had ended up with does many many per week, he is known throughout the area for that, they call them his "parties" which rhymes with his name....I left his service when the tech would not let me take a sip of water during the glaucoma testing.

The doc I went to after seemed too small, not enough experience.

My mother had glaucoma, so I am glaucoma-suspect, have had drops off and on, pressure is not bad, 18-20. My father did not have glaucoma.

 

[MacMadame]

Does anyone do monovision? That's one eye for distance and one eye for reading. (That's what I do with my contacts and was wondering if it worked for lens correction.)

 

[love skating]

My mom had both her eyes done a few years ago. She chose mid distance I believe and far? She still uses glasses both for distance and reading and doesn't really see a difference from before, but her vision did not get worse either. She had no issues except that for the last two years she has had bad itchy eyes - she always got seasonal itchy eyes but this was worse which blew up into eczema on her face from her scratching her face. I have no idea if the cataract surgery had any effect or it's just a really bad case of allergies. My grandmother had hers done and she had really bad vision before so she had a more pronounced good effect post her surgery. She got rid of her very thick glasses. My dad also had his done but I don't think he got corrective lenses. I don't remember him having issues except that he moved during the surgery so had to go back. A lady at my church had a bad experience where one lens I think slipped down and she had to go back multiple times and had many issues with it. But I think most have no issues. Good luck with your decisions!

 

[acraven]

Please forgive the incredible length.

I had what I consider successful cataract surgery on both eyes last fall. I'll mention some of the issues/decisions I faced, but please understand that my eyes were extraordinarily bad, requiring very powerful progressive lenses and leading to up to 10 annual visits to doctors and opticians as I tried to get lenses that worked for all aspects of my life, and I knew going in I'd end up still needing glasses. Most patients will have a less complex experience, and possibly fewer decisions to make.

The patient is normally awake during the surgery. I was given something intravenously which may just have been a tranquilizer; I needed either more of it or a second drug because bright lights make me nauseated, and that had to be prevented. The visual effects during surgery were not unpleasant--a bit like looking into a kaleidoscope. My only issue was with the bright lights, something that isn't a problem for most people. I don't remember any pain other than from the lights, before the drugs kicked in.

The procedure MacMadame mentioned (one eye corrected for close-up use, the other for distance vision, intended to totally prevent the need for glasses) seems not be be used as often now as it used to be. I believe quite a lot of folks didn't adapt well to the results. This is something you can discuss with your surgeon and think about. I had always felt funny about that concept and was relieved that it didn't seem to be so much in favor as of last fall--one less decision for me. It's possible, though, that it would be worth considering by others (maybe especially for those with much better native vision than mine). In the end I ended up with somewhat different vision in my eyes; the final decision about what to do with the second eye was made after we had the results from the first eye.

I assume it is standard procedure to first meet with the surgeon to discuss the procedure and your wishes (try for perfect near vision or perfect distance vision, or something in between?), then have the measurements taken (this is non-invasive, via camera). The surgery will be later still, and you'll probably need a pre-op physical before that. There can be a long wait to get the initial appointment, and I assume also for the surgery on the first eye. There will then be at least a 3-week wait, I believe, before the surgery on the second eye. After each surgery you will have follow-up check-ups; I think 3 per eye is probably standard, but if you end up with (short-term) pressure build-up in an eye, as I did, you may be revisiting your surgeon daily for a few days. They will check the vision in the eye several times during the recovery period. You will have multiple drops to use for some time after surgery.

Cataracts can go from not noticeable by the patient to severely impacting vision rather quickly, so I wouldn't want to wait until I had really significant vision issues to start the process; doing that could mean months living with severely impaired and deteriorating vision.

Do you have significant astigmantism? If not, skip this paragraph. If you have significant astigmatism (as I did in one eye), you will probably have a choice of a regular lens implant or a special (toric) lens to correct some or all of that problem. I had to pay several hundred dollars out of pocket for that lens (the other costs were covered, mostly if not entirely by Medicare). The toric-lens bit is tricky. First, if you've got vision as bad as mine, the eye measurements previously mentioned may not be 100% accurate, so you may not end up with quite the intended vision. I was told to use warm compresses on my eyes twice a day in the period leading up to the measurement, because dry eyes can aggravate that problem. Second, regular corrective lenses come in different sizes; the toric lenses do not. My toric lens rotated a bit out of its intended position, so it isn't doing as good a job of correcting my astigmatism as would normally be the case; however, I only notice the problem if I just look through that eye--not something one normally does. In addition, my toric lens ended with a bit of a wrinkle in it, so I needed a quick follow-up laser treatment to sort of tack it down. That was quick, painless and done in the doctor's office. Fourth, the futzing around during the surgery trying to get the darn lens in the right position extended the length of the procedure, and I ended up with elevated pressure in that eye until I used special drops for a few days.

In addition to having a dominant hand, you probably have a dominant eye. In my case the dominant eye is the one that had slightly better vision and little astigmatism. (Maybe the dominance resulted from the difference in vision quality??) It's worth discussing with your surgeon whether there's an advantage to starting with the dominant vs. the non-dominant eye, or with the more problematic vs. the easier eye. My bad, non-dominant eye was operated on first, and I was glad of that since it didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped (and we were just hoping for something like 20/100 vision). I popped the useless old left lens out of my glasses and was able to get around fine outside my apartment with my dominant eye + old lens overriding the corrected but far from perfect left eye for which I didn't yet have a new lens.

There will be multiple weeks mid-surgery when the operated-on first eye will be much better than it was before, but you won't be able to get a new contact lens immediately if you need one, so you may not be seeing as well out of that eye as you were before (pre-cataracts but with contact lens). That can be disorienting. I had to read with the left eye closed, because improvement the distance vision made my near version much worse. Since it felt so odd Based on how odd it seemed not be be able to read any printed material through the left eye without glasses, I asked to have the right/second eye corrected so that I could read through it, in a pinch, without glasses. This means that, without glasses, my distance vision is now worse in my right eye than in my left, the reverse of what I previously had. So I guess I ended up with a mild version of what MacMadame described, but since I still use glasses (graduated lenses) all the time, my brain is not having to process two massively different types of vision.

The results: I'm still dependent on progressive-lens glasses. My distance vision is noticeably better than it was before (even with glasses), I can get around safely (but couldn't drive) without my glasses if I have to and I no longer struggle to read things on a computer screen (though I display most text at 130% to make it easier on myself). My book-reading ability is not as good as it was prior to the cataracts. We're still tweaking the reading part of my prescription and figuring out how the glasses should sit on my face, because things are a bit off, especially if the type is 8-pt or smaller. This is frustrating, but I'm not having nearly as much problem getting workable glasses as I did before, because I no longer have such a massive difference between the corrections needed for near vision and distance vision.

I recommend discussing how much you sit in front of a computer screen vs. how much time you spend reading books with your surgeon so that he/she can try to optimize your vision for the activity most important to you. Keep in mind that how you spend your time may change after retirement (if you are not yet retired), but you'll be living with the results of the surgery for the rest of your life. (The computer-vs.-reading decision may be a non-issue for folks who don't have the dreadful vision I was dealing with.)

I had rather dry eyes before the surgery, though not to the point that I was using eye drops. Surgery may have made that a bit worse, but I'm still not using drops. The usual treatment (per multiple doctors) is: wash eyelids with baby shampoo when you bathe/shower, take fish oil capsules daily, and use warm compresses once a day. You can get a microwavable eye mask for this purpose at CVS or order them online.

 

[paskatefan]

I've worn reading glasses since I was 8 years old. I started having problems driving @ night about 6 years ago. The telltale clue were the halos I was seeing with increasingly blurred vision. About 4 & 1/2 years ago, my opthalmologist recommended distance glasses for driving,/watching TV, etc. That was a big help for about a year & a half. Three years ago I finally had the cataract surgery (2 months apart for each eye). After having the first eye done, I couldn't wait to get the second eye done. The difference in clarity was like night & day. No more issues with distance vision. I still need the reading glasses, but I'm fine with that (and very used to it since I was a child).

I wish you all the best with your decisions re: cataract surgery, etc.

 

[Aceon6]

I chose a basic, single-vision distance lens for my left eye, despite having severe astigmatism in that eye. I will do the same for my right, even though that means that I will need to keep wearing my progressives.

My ophthalmologist explained that correcting more than one thing with an intra-ocular lens is a crap shoot. She said that while there’s a 60% chance of getting it right, the impacts of getting it wrong are pretty severe.

 

[Spun Silver]

I had cataract surgery last year and chose the monovision type, one eye for closeup work and one for distance, with prescription glasses for both detail work and driving (two different pairs).

It's worked out pretty well though not quite as expected. I wasn't exactly sure what focal length I wanted for detail work - if you are interested in monovision surgery, it would be well to figure out in advance exactly what you need. Unfortunately I didn't think it through well and just went with my doctor's advice - I make jewelry, his wife is a jewelry designer, so he figured I would need what she needs. Made total sense. However, my jewelry work is a lot more hands-on than hers (I now realize) and I need a closer focal length. I've been struggling to see what I'm doing. I have the prescription glasses, but they aren't quite right, I have heavy magnifiers which are too uncomfortable to wear all the time, so I've settled with drugstore reading glasses at the highest magnification I could find (+3). I think I'm going to order a stronger pair online. I'm still doing my work and I wouldn't call the surgery a fiasco by any means. I just should have thought it through better.

Other than that, my near vision is fine for any kind of reading, even very fine print (jewelry detail is just on a completely different level from daily life) or computer work. My distance vision is adequate. My prescription driving glasses (two pairs, for day and night) work well. I am surprised that my distance vision without the glasses is not very sharp, but since I've always been extremely near-sighted, I'm used to it. If I went to the opera in a big opera house (unlikely where I live now, but still) I could always use my driving glasses to see the singers' faces.

I do love not having to wear glasses, most of the time, anyway.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

About 1992, I had corrective eye surgery, the old type, where they actually made incisions in my eyes for the correction. Because I doubt any doctor still performs that type of corrective eye surgery anymore, I won't go into details. I did the monovision, I read with my left eye & distance sight with my right eye.

For me, it has been fabulous! I am 72 & still have excellent vision. With my left eye, I can read itty bitty information on things like nail polish bottles, to find out where the product is made. I won't buy things made in China if I can avoid it. The only problem I ever had directly related to corrective eye surgery is dry eyes.

About eight years ago I required cataract surgery in both eyes. I was worried that the incisions in my eyes would create difficulty for the surgery but I had an excellent doctor (now retired) and everything went smoothly. The procedure took about 20 minutes under some anesthesia but I was awake enough to be able to hear everything that was happening. I had to have someone drive me & the doctor made my driver sign papers that she would drive me home after surgery. I could not get my eyes wet after surgery & during the two week healing period and had to wear a large, metal & rubber patch over the affected eye at night for two weeks after each surgery. I was told not to bend over forward for any reason but i did so once & thought i was going to faint. Everything seemed to rush to my head. I also had to wear huge sunglasses at all times when I went outside. These glasses were provided by the doctor. Also, there was medicine to take.

Since surgery was done one eye at a time & there was a two week waiting period between surgeries, it took about six weeks from the first surgery to completely recover. It turned out perfectly for me.

After my first surgery, it was a bit disorienting for me because I could see so clearly again out of one eye but still could not see well out of the other eye.

Cataracts are very deceptive. You lose your sight so slowly that you really aren't aware of how much vision you have lost until after surgery & you have regained your proper eyesight. On a completely superficial level, I was shocked after my first surgery to see how much older I looked than I thought I really was.

I post on my phone which is a hassle so I apologize for any mess ups I made in this long post.

I just wanted to add that I don't need to wear any type of eyeglasses at all, not for distance nor reading. It is a total win-win scenario for me. Hope it will be for you, too.

 

[puglover]

I had cataract surgery in both eyes about twenty years ago. I had always had good, uncorrected vision but my eyesight deteriorated very quickly and at a younger age due to cataracts. I take an inhaled steroid for lung disease and that is a side effect of the steroid. I am Canadian and the surgery was covered but I had the option of upgrading to a better option lens for I believe about $250.00 which I chose to do. The operation was done under a local with some kind of anti anxiety medication. The surgery was a cake walk and the improvement to my eyesight was amazing. The hardest thing for me was all the eyedrops I had to self administer following the surgery. I wear glasses for very small print now and sometimes if I have eyestrain but I can manage well without them if needed. The only negative for me has been night driving. The headlights from oncoming traffic look like a streamer of light and it is distracting and disconcerting. I can do it but prefer not to. My husband had cataract last fall and an additional procedure at the same time to reduce the pressure in his eye due to mild glaucoma. The anesthesiologist somehow convinced him that he was a tough guy and wouldn't need anything for sedation. Big mistake. The glaucoma part was terrible and especially hard knowing he couldn't move at all. Men can be such idiots!!

 

[A.H.Black]

Thanks for the insights. I have a friend who had the monovision surgery and loves it. If I were younger, I might consider it but I have had times when I have had to go without a contac (lost it) and I couldn't get used to it. I also need very clear vision for work and reading and I understand monovision is not always the right choice for that.

I so glad to read all your stories. Everyone has an individual situation. When you hear the advertising and promotional stuff, they make it sound as though everyone will have this fabulous vision and life will be perfect. I know that is not reality. I appreciate knowing how people are managing their personal situations and challenges.

I found this article by a cataract surgeon about his experience with his own cataracts. https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/cataract-surgery-experience.htm I thought is was helpful.

Second, regular corrective lenses come in different sizes; the toric lenses do not.

I am grateful to know that. I wonder if it is the same for aspheric lenses.

 

[Meredith]

Interesting thread. I had cataract surgery several years ago and believe the best decision I made was the choice of surgeon. I have a family history of glaucoma, so I see him annually.

 

[A.H.Black]

Interesting thread. I had cataract surgery several years ago and believe the best decision I made was the choice of surgeon. I have a family history of glaucoma, so I see him annually.

How did you choose him. Were you able to do research?

 

[hollygrove]

No one else has mentioned IOLs so far. As of 2015 my vision was very impaired by cataracts, and I had both prescription and cheap glasses in every room, purse, etc. I switched to a different ophthalmologist, and he mentioned that I was a good candidate for the multifocal (IOL) lenses in both eyes. He sent me home with a CD and some websites to check out. The cost of IOL lenses was NOT covered by insurance, but I decided to opt for them. Not sure what the cost would be in 2020. $$$, but I've been very happy to be free of glasses ever since. Driving, reading, watching skaters at competitions -- no glasses. I do have a pair of old reading glasses that I use for threading the needle on the sewing machine. The surgery and the IOL lenses really did change my life. I've taken film classes, joined a book club, returned to some handcrafts I had given up.

 

[Judy]

Thanks. How did you choose your doctor? Do you have to wear readers for up close?

My eye doctor referred me to the cataract surgeon and gave me choices as to locations/doctors (they operate out of different hospitals) and I choose the hospital closer to me. Also keep in mind that I am in Canada. So he made the referral then I had to wait for appointment. My referring dr explained about the cataracts first. I didn’t find it very confusing because I was speaking to the eye doctors so easy to ask questions. I think I waitEd at least 4 months? to see him but maybe it was shorter. So at the time I was wearing progressive glasses and could no longer tolerate contacts . We made the decision to do distance lenses and I would just wear reading glasses. So I didn’t get into a lot of different options with him. However, I think that once you are speaking to the dr everything becomes much clearer and they can guide you to a good decision on different lens replacements.

 

[hanca]

My brother had two surgeries for cataracts, one in each eye. The first one he had last year, under general anaesthetic and so he slept through it, no problems afterwards, healed pretty quickly and he is very happy with the result. This year his other eye was needed to be done too. Even though the doctor prescribed again general anaesthetic, the doctor who was doing the actual procedure decided not to do it under general anaesthetic. My brother is very squeamish and not very good with pain, and possibly even with imagined pain. My brother described this procedure as the worst time of his life. He told me that he was drugged, so he couldn’t really walk out when he realised that he would not be sleeping through it! He says he still has nightmares about it. After the surgery on his first eye, he was only invited for a check up, but they did not need to take stitches out, so I am guessing they did it with some dissolveable ones. After the second procedure, about a month or two later he was invited for an appointment to get the stitches out and he fainted, so they are still in. Not sure if it will need to get out at some time... It appears that two completely different ways of doing cataracts have been used... I am wondering whether the current situation with C19 has something to do with it, if perhaps they didn’t want to use general anaesthetic so that they could get rid of him quicker... He also had some problems with the second eye afterwards (with his vision) and now he is going through various checks to figure out what has gone wrong. I am sorry, I can’t really share the technical bits about the procedures because I didn’t really asked, but if it was my surgery, before they give me any medication on the day of the surgery, I would want to see the doctor who would do the procedure and hear from them what exactly they are planning to do and check that I will be sleeping, and make sure that they understand that this bit is important for me. And walk out if I am not happy with their answers. Some people may not mind if they are not sleeping, but I would. I know I am squeamish (maybe not as much as my brother, but I can’t even insert contact lenses, so why would I think that I would not mind if someone will do procedure on me while I am aware of it?)

 

[Judy]

I'm the one that is holding off. I wear real glasses with readers on bottom and minor distance correction on top.

What kind of anesthesia is used, were you "out" and if so, how long were you "out?" I am treated for anxiety and am worried I would never wake up.

The doc I had ended up with does many many per week, he is known throughout the area for that, they call them his "parties" which rhymes with his name....I left his service when the tech would not let me take a sip of water during the glaucoma testing.

The doc I went to after seemed too small, not enough experience.

My mother had glaucoma, so I am glaucoma-suspect, have had drops off and on, pressure is not bad, 18-20. My father did not have glaucoma.

You are sedative IV during the procedure so you are awake but not really aware I guess? It seems like the procedure is over in 15 seconds ... it is pretty fast .. and you are taken back to recovery. you’re talking, get dressed and wait for your pickup ride. They give you a list of instructions etc. You have to do a visit to the surgeon the following day. There is another appointment too.

I found it really simple. You can always ask them for something for the anxiety but you are with experts who know what they are doing. You just need to be there .

 

[hanca]

You are sedative IV during the procedure so you are awake but not really aware I guess? It seems like the procedure is over in 15 seconds ... it is pretty fast .. and you are taken back to recovery. you’re talking, get dressed and wait for your pickup ride. They give you a list of instructions etc. You have to do a visit to the surgeon the following day. There is another appointment too.

I found it really simple. You can always ask them for something for the anxiety but you are with experts who know what they are doing. You just need to be there .

I don’t know, how my brother is describing his second eye procedure, it doesn’t seem that he wasn’t really aware and that it felt that quick for him. I think it really depends on each person individually, and if you know that you don’t have stomach for certain things, don’t let the doctors persuade you to have it that way only because it might be easier for them. Saying that, my brother is really squeamish.

 

[acraven]

With respect to the stitches, I remember being told that sometimes they are needed and sometimes not; I believe it depends on how easy it is to remove the pieces of the old, cloudy lens. I may have had stitches in only one of my eyes. In any case, I don't remember much if any discomfort when they were removed. There are numbing drops that are used in eyes, and in my experience they do a very good job of keeping you from feeling much of anything.

I was able to speak despite the intravenous tranquilizer; that's how I communicated during the first surgery that the lights were bothering me so much I was getting very nauseated, at which point the adjusted the drip, and I was fine after that.

Everyone is different. I've had a lot of eye procedures (these were #7 and #8) and pain hasn't been an issue for me (other than the bright surgical lights). But I am in general wimpy about pain, and my dentist knows to dose me up on Novocaine before doing any drilling.

The cataract procedure at my surgical suite (which I assume is standard in the US) is for both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist to speak to the patient before the latter is taken to the operating room. They as well as the nurses explained what was going to happen as well as post-op care. I was in the pre-op area for quite a while because there was a whole series of drops to be put in the eye to be operated on.

I had forgotten about the don't-bend-over and no-water-in-eye rules until someone else mentioned them above. I was warned about those restrictions ahead of time, and I gave some thought to how I was going to manage.

 

[sk8pics]

I had forgotten about the don't-bend-over and no-water-in-eye rules until someone else mentioned them above. I was warned about those restrictions ahead of time, and I gave some thought to how I was going to manage.

I have heard about these restrictions too, and while I don’t need the surgery yet, I’m pondering how to deal with them. Do you have pets? I’m wondering about cleaning my cat’s litter box.... Maybe I’ll have to position it so I can sit down next to it, so I’m not bending over to scoop.

 

[Aceon6]

I have heard about these restrictions too, and while I don’t need the surgery yet, I’m pondering how to deal with them. Do you have pets? I’m wondering about cleaning my cat’s litter box.... Maybe I’ll have to position it so I can sit down next to it, so I’m not bending over to scoop.

It’s fairly easy to work around it. I sat on a low stool when I needed to do anything low. The hassle was remembering to bring the stool with me.

 

[Vash01]

I had cataract surgery on one eye. I have been near sighted since my graduate school days. I wear glasses only for driving. Never wore them for reading. Before the surgery I told my ophthalmologist that I read a lot, so we agreed to keep me near sighted. So after surgery there was no change in my glasses (I wear them for driving only).

I was told that I would be half conscious during the surgery, but I was not conscious at all. They must have given me too much medicine.

Right after the surgery I was told that someone should be with me for the first 24 hours. There was a patch on my eye, so I could not drive. My nephew drove me home and stayed with me for two days.

I had to see the ophthalmologist 48 hours after the surgery. I had to see him again one week after that. The patch was removed after 48 hours and I was free to drive after that.

I had to use eye drops for several days. I forget how many times.

There were no restrictions for me. I could do everything.
I did not experience any problems.

 

[Lizziebeth]

A friend had both eyes done this summer. The first eye went great and he had the other one done 2 weeks later. His second eye got very red but that cleared up after a few weeks. Doctor was not concerned. He did use eye drops for a month after each eye. His surgery included a procedure to help with eye pressure which also went well. His vision is just about 2020 in both eyes so he can do almost everything without glasses. He uses reading glasses, which he used before. He is happy with the results.

 

[hanca]

The cataract procedure at my surgical suite (which I assume is standard in the US) is for both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist to speak to the patient before the latter is taken to the operating room. They as well as the nurses explained what was going to happen as well as post-op care. I was in the pre-op area for quite a while because there was a whole series of drops to be put in the eye to be operated on.

I would hope that it is everywhere prior to any surgery that the surgeon will find one or two minutes to see the patient before the procedure, repeat briefly what will be done and reassure the patient. And yet it clearly wasn’t done during my brother’s procedure. Unfortunately my brother is not assertive enough to challenge doctors, and ended up in a situation where he was finding out hat he would not be sleeping only when he was drugged, so even less able to challenge the medical professional. I could not believe that, when he told me!