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Several years ago an orthopedic surgeon told me in his opinion, cataract removal and implants were the number one medical discovery of all time. The alterative is blindness.
This. I worked as a certified ophthalmic technician for many years and have assisted ophthalmologists in about 100 cataract surgeries. It is the most successful surgery performed in the US. The surgery itself is short. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of your eye. To fix it, you will be under general anesthesia. You should bring someone with you to drive you home after the procedure. The doctor will make a tiny incision and use a miniature vacuum to suck the cataract out of your eye. Then he/she puts a clear tiny artificial lens in the incision to replace the cloudy lens. He/she will usually sew up the incision with one stitch, or sometimes two.
After the surgery, you might have a foreign body sensation (no surprise there). The doctor will give you prescriptions for eye drops and may want you to use an ice pack to reduce swelling. Be sure and take the drops as directed. The pain should be minimal. Your vision should gradually improve, and the doc will want to restrict your heavy lifting for a couple of weeks in most circumstances. Approximately one month after both eyes are done, the doc will write you for your new glasses prescription. I hope this helps!
My wife probably is the record-setter out of this board; she had artificial lens implanted in her left eye due to cataracts in ~2003 when she was in her late twenties, and her right eye in her early thirties. My wife was born in the 1970s severely premature, and a condition called retinopathy of prematurity can cause this to happen.
I see you're in southern NH, which is where she's from, though we were living in Cambridge, Mass. at the time. Her first surgery was at Opthalmic Consultants of Boston with an EXCELLENT physician who specialized in complex adult cataracts and had been on the faculty at Harvard Medical School (and practicing at Mass Eye & Ear as well) for more than twenty years by the time my wife saw her.
Her second surgery was after we moved down south, at Duke University's eye center. We felt really fortunate to have access to truly world-class surgeons both times she needed care.
My wife has had few challenges since the surgeries, save for some night vision challenges/halos in lights, etc. Given that she was having early onset glaucoma (and in fact needed an emergency procedure at OCB to deal with rising pressure, a few days before the surgery) she has come through fine.
If for any reason you need follow up care or a different opinion/review for any part of this, would highly recommend OCB and Mass Eye & Ear as options in the metro area.
If you are concerned about the regimen of using the eye drops, how many, what eye, etc. make yourself a little chart and check off a box each time you use the appropriate drop. But, be sure to make a separate chart for each eye. Otherwise, you will definitely get confused. You should be quite pleased with the results of your cataract surgery. It's kind of the nuts and bolts of the ophthalmic surgery procedures. Not making light of it, but really it's tried and true results at this point in time. Be glad you are having them done before your vision gets much worse!
I know there have been other threads on cataracts, but they are from (at least) a couple of years ago ... so here I am.
I was told many many years ago (probably 8-10) that I was developing cataracts. I was in my late 40s at the time, which is pretty early, and they had no explanation, it was "just one of those things." In the past couple of years they have gotten worse and worse, especially in my right eye, so I scheduled surgery a couple of months ago and now it is HERE -- next Wednesday morning!!
EVERYTHING I have read including on these forums says it is pretty routine surgery and most people come out of it extremely well and extremely happy with the results. Still, it's my EYES so I am nervous. They are doing my right eye first -- vision in that eye is 20/400 (yep!!) and even corrected, it's not much better. (EG when I am reading my Kindle, in order to see anything with that eye I would have to use the largest font -- and it's still blurry. That eye is really, really bad.) My other eye isn't nearly as bad (it's correctable enough for me to legally drive, just barely!) but I am having that one done on March 4th as it too is getting worse.
Can some of you please share with me your success stories, especially if your vision was as bad as mine? Please? Despite everything I've read AND the fact that my surgeon is wonderful, I am still nervous ...
What kind of IOL are you putting in, the monofocal or the multifocal ones? Let us know how it works out, I'm very nearsighted and want to hear about cataract experiences as well as I may have to do that soon.
I need cataract surgery on both eyes and have been putting it off for almost 2 years now. I have been to the eye doctor twice concerning the surgery and just could not bring myself to actually schedule it. People have told me that after you have it done you wonder why you were so worried because it was simple, painless and over in no time. There is just something about messing with your eyes that is pretty scary.
As a matter of fact, the nurse from the doctors office just left me a message Friday asking me if I was still interested in scheduling the surgery with them.
I was wondering about something that those of you have had the surgery already could answer. After the surgery did you have someone that helped you put the drops in your eyes? If not, do you have tips on a good way to do this yourself to make sure you get the drops in? My understanding is it is very important to follow the directions exactly with the eye drops and follow up care to avoid getting an infection.
I'll look forward to hearing how your surgery went.
Well my 90 year old father in law just got his done day before yesterday. The following morning, he could see wonderfully! He said it didn;t hurt much and he wasn't put under
Prior he had extreme fog which clouded his vision so much he's crashed a few cars now.
the day after the surgery he said, "it's as if he has a brand new eye".
The Doctor said he had to really try and get through his cateracs, partion of it was very thick. They almost didn't do it due to his heart murmur.
He goes back March 4th for the second eye. He's really excited about it
What kind of IOL are you putting in, the monofocal or the multifocal ones? Let us know how it works out, I'm very nearsighted and want to hear about cataract experiences as well as I may have to do that soon.
I'm getting the monofocal ones. I would have to pay $1,000+ each out of pocket for the multifocal ones (they're not covered by insurance), and my surgeon said many of his patients have not had the best success with them.
I don't have to wear reading glasses now (rare for anyone over 50) but I was told I may have to after the surgery. I won't mind!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dj10
I was wondering about something that those of you have had the surgery already could answer. After the surgery did you have someone that helped you put the drops in your eyes? If not, do you have tips on a good way to do this yourself to make sure you get the drops in? My understanding is it is very important to follow the directions exactly with the eye drops and follow up care to avoid getting an infection.
DJ10, I too was a bit worried about the eye drops as I don't think I have EVER administered them to myself before -- I remember getting them a couple of times at the eye doctor and typically I want to blink, of course! I had to start them this morning (3 days before surgery) so googled for instructions last night and found this: http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/patient_ed...s/eyedrops.pdf . I found it very helpful -- I followed the instructions this morning and had no problems. Really, don't let the eye drops stop you!! (See how reassured I am after all the wonderful posts in this thread? )
I have to add one thing -- when I read about posters' parents and grandparents in their 80s or 90s having cataract surgery, I think, "Wait, I'm not that old!!" Just one of those things to get them at this age (I turned 56 in January), I guess.
Tip for making sure eye drops actually land in your eyes is - Stare directly at the tip of the eye dropper as you are looking up. I read that nih.gov patient educ. pdf and it says to look up at a spot on the ceiling. Well, if you actually look AT the eye dropper tip that drop is going to land right in your eye.
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