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I am what is referred to as a "solo senior" who lives alone and enjoys the peace and quiet of my life (no drama!!!!!). HA. I am a 69-year-old female who is without "good" friends or any family close by (have an estranged sister 90 miles away). I have acquaintances, but they are self-centered, self-serving types who feel you owe them if they do you a favor.
I need to have cataract surgery on both eyes, and unfortunately, my follow-up appts. are 34 minutes/23 miles away from where I live. The office-based surgery will take place 7 miles/16 minutes away from where I live, but my doc does her followups very far away. Grrrrrr! I never would have picked her if I had known that I would have to travel so far for the follow-up appointments.
I found one medical transportation company whose drivers use regular cars (not wheelchair transport vans) near me. Their fees are $79 per hour (one hour minimum, billed by the quarter hour thereafter) from the scheduled time of pick up, plus $1.50 per every 2 miles traveled. If I were to use them, they would have to drive me to my follow-up appt., wait in the office, and then drive me back home. This is likely going to cost approx. $225 just for the left eye. I have to repeat this process for the right eye two weeks later.
The ophthalmologist office does not care how you arrive for surgery, but you must have someone drive you home after surgery because of the anesthesia. I'll probably use Uber to get to the office and the medical transport company to get home on the days of surgery. These 2 short trips will probably cost approx. $130.00 x 2 ($260.00).
I don't want to spend another $450 for my follow-up appt. rides, so my question is has anyone, here, ever driven with a patch over one eye? Do you know anyone who drives and has only one good eye?
I have 3 weeks until surgery, so I plan to buy an eye patch and run some tests.
I am what is referred to as a "solo senior" who lives alone and enjoys the peace and quiet of my life (no drama!!!!!). HA. I am a 69-year-old female who is without "good" friends or any family close by (have an estranged sister 90 miles away). I have acquaintances, but they are self-centered, self-serving types who feel you owe them if they do you a favor.
I need to have cataract surgery on both eyes, and unfortunately, my follow-up appts. are 34 minutes/23 miles away from where I live. The office-based surgery will take place 7 miles/16 minutes away from where I live, but my doc does her followups very far away. Grrrrrr! I never would have picked her if I had known that I would have to travel so far for the follow-up appointments.
I found one medical transportation company whose drivers use regular cars (not wheelchair transport vans) near me. Their fees are $79 per hour (one hour minimum, billed by the quarter hour thereafter) from the scheduled time of pick up, plus $1.50 per every 2 miles traveled. If I were to use them, they would have to drive me to my follow-up appt., wait in the office, and then drive me back home. This is likely going to cost approx. $225 just for the left eye. I have to repeat this process for the right eye two weeks later.
The ophthalmologist office does not care how you arrive for surgery, but you must have someone drive you home after surgery because of the anesthesia. I'll probably use Uber to get to the office and the medical transport company to get home on the days of surgery. These 2 short trips will probably cost approx. $130.00 x 2 ($260.00).
I don't want to spend another $450 for my follow-up appt. rides, so my question is has anyone, here, ever driven with a patch over one eye? Do you know anyone who drives and has only one good eye?
I have 3 weeks until surgery, so I plan to buy an eye patch and run some tests.
Many thanks for your input!
I've had cataract surgery, my husband has had cataract surgery, my mother had it, as well as a number of people I know. From my own experience and seeing the post-cataract surgery experience of others, they give you a plastic eye protector to wear over your operated eye at night when you sleep, but you don't have to wear it during the day ( except if you are napping).
The post op instructions give you a list of do's and don'ts, but I've never seen any instructions for wearing an eyepatch after the surgery, or for that matter, not driving yourself to your post-op appointments.
They do require that you have someone drive you home after your cataract surgeries, and instruct you not to drive the day of surgery, but that is mainly because they're concerned for the possible effect of the anesthesia ( conscious sedation) on you that may affect your cogntive abilities, level of sedation, and may affect your driving ability.
You can ask your surgeon, or the staff about driving yourself to your post-surgical appointments, but it may be entirely possible you can drive yourself to those.
As for knowing someone with one eye who drives, that would be my brother. He lost one eye in a horrific accident when he was 5 years old. He has driven for years. The vision only in one eye changes his depth perception, but he's adjusted to that.
My father was functionally blind in one eye for years before he died. He continued to pass the DMV tests and drove most of that time.
I would suggest you try driving with one eye covered in advance, in order to find out how much your depth perception and field of vision would be affected. You may or may not feel comfortable doing it.
I bought a little eye patch from CVS and will practice my driving to the actual building where I will be having the follow-up appointments. If I go super early (6 a.m.) on Saturdays and Sundays, there won't be as many cars/trucks on the road. I really need to practice quite a bit because I will be driving on the highway (Rte. 66) as well as in town.
The scheduler said that I could use Uber to come to surgery, but that I would have to use a friend or medical transport after surgery because of sedation. She did not mention any restrictions about a patient driving themselves to the follow-up appt. with a patch on one eye.
I'll be asking God to hold back any rain on my appt. days. That would be the last thing I need... the car windows can get so steamy when it is really humid/rainy outside.
My question is why do you want to wear a patch on your eye? After my cataract surgery that was the eye with the best vision. I would not have wanted to cover it up. They gave me a clear plastic thing to wear over my eye during sleeping and showering and that is the only time I wore it.
They told me I would need a ride home from the surgery "because anesthesia" but they never gave me any. I was still "required" to have a ride, and I did, but nobody checked to enforce it.
I bought a little eye patch from CVS and will practice my driving to the actual building where I will be having the follow-up appointments. If I go super early (6 a.m.) on Saturdays and Sundays, there won't be as many cars/trucks on the road. I really need to practice quite a bit because I will be driving on the highway (Rte. 66) as well as in town.
The scheduler said that I could use Uber to come to surgery, but that I would have to use a friend or medical transport after surgery because of sedation. She did not mention any restrictions about a patient driving themselves to the follow-up appt. with a patch on one eye.
I'll be asking God to hold back any rain on my appt. days. That would be the last thing I need... the car windows can get so steamy when it is really humid/rainy outside.
I bought a little eye patch from CVS and will practice my driving to the actual building where I will be having the follow-up appointments. If I go super early (6 a.m.) on Saturdays and Sundays, there won't be as many cars/trucks on the road. I really need to practice quite a bit because I will be driving on the highway (Rte. 66) as well as in town.
The scheduler said that I could use Uber to come to surgery, but that I would have to use a friend or medical transport after surgery because of sedation. She did not mention any restrictions about a patient driving themselves to the follow-up appt. with a patch on one eye.
I'll be asking God to hold back any rain on my appt. days. That would be the last thing I need... the car windows can get so steamy when it is really humid/rainy outside.
Again, thanks for the input!
I don't know why you're hung up on wearing a patch on your eye after surgery, because it's just not done. I'm a 73 year old widow who lives alone, and I had cataracts removed from both eyes last year. I had medical transport for my surgeries, and a neighbor took me to two of my follow-up appointments. I drove myself to the other appointments (no eye patch either). The biggest issue for me was actually the sun. Even with the little sun eye protectors that they had at the office, I still had problems with the light being too bright. I bought big sunglasses and still wear them at times over my prescription Transition glasses as bright sunlight hurts my eyes.
This thread has been interesting to me, because I honestly had no idea that it was legal to drive with only one eye.
Quote:
Originally Posted by virgo
The scheduler said that I could use Uber to come to surgery, but that I would have to use a friend or medical transport after surgery because of sedation. She did not mention any restrictions about a patient driving themselves to the follow-up appt. with a patch on one eye.
Their post-surgery restriction on who can drive you makes no sense. There is functionally no difference between riding in a car driven by a friend and riding in a car driven by an Uber driver.
Quote:
Originally Posted by virgo
I bought a little eye patch from CVS and will practice my driving to the actual building where I will be having the follow-up appointments. If I go super early (6 a.m.) on Saturdays and Sundays, there won't be as many cars/trucks on the road. I really need to practice quite a bit because I will be driving on the highway (Rte. 66) as well as in town.
Before you tackle I-66, please practice in an empty parking lot first. I've never driven with an eye covered, but I suspect it'll take a little time to get used to it.
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