Cataract Surgery

Jacob Petersheim said:
How long does each surgery take, from walk in to (I assume) walk out? A couple hours, half a day?

Are you a zombie for a while until the stuff wears off?
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Depends on how much sedation they use - or whether they use any. It can be done without sedation. My sister got some Propofol. She freaks out over things like that. She wasn't exactly a zombie; she was a little drowsy for a couple of days. If & when I need it, I'll discuss not having any sedation; it's not necessary for me; it takes a lot to scare me, but if the Dr's insist, I'll be agreeable.
 
Jacob Petersheim said:
How long does each surgery take, from walk in to (I assume) walk out? A couple hours, half a day?

Are you a zombie for a while until the stuff wears off?
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If I remember correctly, maybe a couple of hours. Most of the time you are lying in a room getting prepped for the surgery, which mainly consists all the eye drops they are putting in the eyes. You don't even have to change clothes. The surgery doesn't take long at all. You shouldn't feel like a zombie. I don't recall feeling like I was drugged at all. Your surgery eye will probably feel a little gritty for the rest of the day. The eye heals pretty quickly and feels better each day. Just remember to keep putting those eye drops in your eyes for as long as the doctor tells you. It is alot of drops but necessary.
 
where we go. IV for relaxation then deaden the eye, takes 15/20 minutes. But they hv you in a recovery like spot for a bit. Then they go over all the stuff you already have printed out from them. 2/3 hours for whole procedure
Takes us 2.5 hours to get there then 2.5 to get home. All day affair for us.
 
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Jacob Petersheim said:
Could somebody who has completed the process give a blow-by-blow of the process in terms of assistance with driving and care for each step?

It sounds like there is the exam/consultation, then the surgery itself, plus follow-up exams. I'm pretty sure each eye gets done separately.

When do you need a driver? How much "hand-holding" is required (recovery?)? What sort of intervals are involved? Does it all take weeks? Months?

With no local relatives I have some begging ahead. There do not seem to be any medical transportation services I might avail myself of.
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1. Yes you need a driver to get you home. I have an extreme high tolerance for discomfort, but the discomfort from the cataract surgery isn’t one of them, when one is looking into any sort of light. You do not want to drive.

1.1. Buy yourself a very dark pair of non-prescription sunglasses to wear until you can tolerate the light. Have them for the ride home from the Surgery Center. I was not in the hospital. We have a separate Surgery Center for outpatient services such as this, and I went there.

2. I was not sedated at all except for the painkiller they put in my eyeballs. I never felt a thing. I can’t remember how long I sat there. I know that my husband had to have me there by seven in the morning and we were home in time for the noon news. We also only live 15 miles from the Surgery Center.

3. My eyes were done two weeks apart. My ophthalmologist did not recommend getting both of them done at the same time. From what I have read of others on this forum it seems that is the norm, do them a few few weeks apart.

4. You will get instruction sheets and eye drops. If you don’t follow anything else to the absolute inth in this world, follow the instructions for those eye drops to the tee.

5. I hired somebody to do my Barn chores while my eyes were healing, but I still went to the barn to feed the horses every day. I wore wrap around goggles to keep my eyes covered.

6. I chose to get the standard IOLs that Medicare pays for in full for two reasons. Medicare pays for them plus I didn’t trust specialized prescription IOL’s to stay permanent. If my vision were to change, I think I would have to get new iOL’s. As it is I still wear glasses and I’m OK with that because I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 12 years old.

I think that’s it🤠
 
I just had my eyes done. First the was three weeks ago, and the second eye was done last week. The procedure its self takes only 10 minutes. But the prep time takes about 45 minutes. They put a lot of drops in your eyes. Betadine, drops to fully dilate your eyes, steroids to slow down swelling, numbing drops. They wait 10 minutes between drops to make sure they are absorbed. They give you twilight sedation, you are awake, but you don't care.
Three days before surgery you start doing drops.... Antibiotics ( 4 x a day) a steroid (2X a day) and an NSAID( 2 times a day).
The day of surgery your continue on with those drops. After one week you stop the antibiotic, but continue to other two for two more weeks . Next I go down to two drops once a day ( one each of steroid and NSAID). I will be putting drops in until Oct 6th.
No pain, just a feeling of sand in your eye the first day. It is really not that bad.

My appointment was for 7:30AM and I was home by 9:00AM
 
Emma Potter said:
I just had my eyes done. First the was three weeks ago, and the second eye was done last week. The procedure its self takes only 10 minutes. But the prep time takes about 45 minutes. They put a lot of drops in your eyes. Betadine, drops to fully dilate your eyes, steroids to slow down swelling, numbing drops. They wait 10 minutes between drops to make sure they are absorbed. They give you twilight sedation, you are awake, but you don't care.
Three days before surgery you start doing drops.... Antibiotics ( 4 x a day) a steroid (2X a day) and an NSAID( 2 times a day).
The day of surgery your continue on with those drops. After one week you stop the antibiotic, but continue to other two for two more weeks . Next I go down to two drops once a day ( one each of steroid and NSAID). I will be putting drops in until Oct 6th.
No pain, just a feeling of sand in your eye the first day. It is really not that bad.

My appointment was for 7:30AM and I was home by 9:00AM
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Thank you for the detailed account. Best wishes!
 
At first, I was a little nervous about having the surgery, but I knew I had to have it done. I'm glad I did. Things are so much clearer, and colors are so much more vivid. Before the surgery, I could read without my glasses, but I needed them to drive. After I had the surgery, I can see to drive without glasses, but I need them to read. The glasses I got after my surgery are readers on the bottom and clear on the top. I got tired of taking them on and off, so now I just leave them on most of the time. I didn't realize how much I read during a days' time.
 
I have an appointment Monday with my retinal specialist. My eyesight is really terrible and I know that something has to be done. I've got a lot of questions for him and I hope I can feel more confident in going ahead with cataract surgery. I mostly want to know if my "bad" eye is susceptible to having additional retinal problems if I have surgery on it.

I'm still trying to decide whether to spend more money on the toric lens or whether that would be wasted. I have a slight astigmatism and not sure if it will benefit from the toric lens since I have read that some astigmatism is actually a bend in the eye's lens (not the cornea), so when it is removed during cataract surgery it actually resolves on its own. I need to hear a professional's opinion on stuff like this.

There are two types of astigmatism, corneal astigmatism if the front surface of the eye is misshapen, or lenticular astigmatism if the inner lens is misshapen. I don't know which type I have.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I have an appointment Monday with my retinal specialist. My eyesight is really terrible and I know that something has to be done. I've got a lot of questions for him and I hope I can feel more confident in going ahead with cataract surgery. I mostly want to know if my "bad" eye is susceptible to having additional retinal problems if I have surgery on it.

I'm still trying to decide whether to spend more money on the toric lens or whether that would be wasted. I have a slight astigmatism and not sure if it will benefit from the toric lens since I have read that some astigmatism is actually a bend in the eye's lens (not the cornea), so when it is removed during cataract surgery it actually resolves on its own. I need to hear a professional's opinion on stuff like this.

There are two types of astigmatism, corneal astigmatism if the front surface of the eye is misshapen, or lenticular astigmatism if the inner lens is misshapen. I don't know which type I have.
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I'm getting there, too. I suggest you watch this Eye Doctor; he has great information about what to ask the surgeon:
 
Beth Gallagher said:
@Hedi Mitchell -- how is your eyesight now that you've had both eyes done? Are you happy with the outcome?

@Emma Potter -- how has your recovery gone? Are you pleased with your results?
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It has been 7 weeks and 5 weeks since my surgery.
I am having a problem with the 7 weeks eye. Flashes and floaters are happening now. I have an appoinntment tomorrow to have it looked at.
Also, the doctors office gave me an appointment for new prescription, in December. 93 days after my surgery.
Medicare only pays for new eye glasses up to 90 days. I changed that appointment to several weeks earlier
 
Emma Potter said:
It has been 7 weeks and 5 weeks since my surgery.
I am having a problem with the 7 weeks eye. Flashes and floaters are happening now. I have an appoinntment tomorrow to have it looked at.
Also, the doctors office gave me an appointment for new prescription, in December. 93 days after my surgery.
Medicare only pays for new eye glasses up to 90 days. I changed that appointment to several weeks earlier
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This is something that concerns me, Emma. I already have floaters and flashes in one eye and I'm concerned that my retina isn't healthy enough to have another invasive surgery. I hope yours will resolve itself soon and is just a temporary situation.

I have an appointment with my retinal ophthalmologist later this morning and I have a list of questions for him. I wish he did cataract surgery but his specialty is retinal issues only.
 
Emma Potter said:
It has been 7 weeks and 5 weeks since my surgery.
I am having a problem with the 7 weeks eye. Flashes and floaters are happening now. I have an appoinntment tomorrow to have it looked at.
Also, the doctors office gave me an appointment for new prescription, in December. 93 days after my surgery.
Medicare only pays for new eye glasses up to 90 days. I changed that appointment to several weeks earlier
Click to expand...

My cataract surgery was one year ago in April. I still have floaters and a bit of a flash in one eye. The surgeon and my eye doctor both said that having cataract surgery will not eliminate the floaters and sometimes people experience more of them.
I did not need to wear glasses after my surgery; only cheaters. I could see really well without glasses, I thought. My eye doctor also told me that will not mean that I won’t need glasses down the road. Finding the right strength of cheaters was a bit of a chore. I needed one strength of cheaters for looking at the computer and another for reading; a distance thing.

At my last eye examine he told me that I could use low perscription glasses, if I thought I could see better but, I didn’t think my vision wasn’t bad enough at that time. I think I am going to need those glasses now. 🫤
 
Tony Nathanson said:
I'm getting there, too. I suggest you watch this Eye Doctor; he has great information about what to ask the surgeon:
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That "doctor" is AI, but that doesn't mean that it's not good information. I don't usually watch a video once I realize it's AI but I have watched some because the information was still good.
 
Just returned from the retinal ophthalmologist. He said there are no new issues with my retina, but my cataract is really messing with my vision. Vision in my left eye has gone from 20/30 in May to 20/100 today. 😲 :cool:👩‍🦯

Soooooo, I have postponed the cataract surgery as long as I can. He agreed with the cataract surgeon that I am not a candidate for any specialized lenses due to the damage in my left eye, so it will be the regular monovision lenses. Now I need to decide whether to have manual or laser surgery and get on the schedule. I will probably always need glasses but I don't care about that; I just want to SEE.
 
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