cataracts

[redbird]

I saw my eye doctor two weeks ago, expecting to get a new eyeglass prescription (I've had the current ones since early 2016, before I left Seattle). Instead, he told me I should schedule cataract surgery for some time in the next year.

I have had a couple of conversations with his surgical coordinator, and am probably going to schedule the surgery for late February and early March. They do one eye at a time, but prefer to do them fairly close together, so the patient doesn't spend too long in an in-between state when the glasses that are appropriate for the not-yet-treated eye are no longer right for the one where the cataract has been removed.

In those conversations, I found out that the "don't look down while you're healing" part of the aftercare instructions applies to things like looking under the sink; I should be fine brushing my teeth or looking at a book or my keyboard. (I may stay close to home, though, because while looking at the ground while walking should be okay, retying a loose shoelace sounds problematic, and I'm not going out in sandals in winter.

I'll have to go out to Lexington or Concord to have measurements done before the surgery, and then Waltham and Chelmsford for the surgery. For reasons that they didn't explain, he does cataract surgery in Waltham on the second Tuesday of each month, and in Chelmsford on the third Wednesdays, so having both eyes done in the same place means a longer wait between operations.

I do not want to discuss the surgery itself, because I would rather not think about it. I am going to think about logistics (like whether cattitude, adrian_turtle, or both will be there at the surgery to be the competent adult of my choosing (as Cattitude's oral surgeon put it) to get me safely home after the operation. I will also need to make an (extra) appointment with my GP, for her to check/confirm that it's okay for me to have the surgery, which has to be done no more than 30 days before the surgery.

I know this is very routine outpatient surgery, and I go home the same day. I'm still nervous, which is an argument for having the surgery relatively soon. "Relatively" because he's booked up through January, and I want to go to Boskone, and don't think scheduling surgery for the Tuesday before the con would be sensible. I think the nervousness is because surgery, because eyes, and because it will be a change, though hopefully a very good one. I don't expect not to need glasses, but am hoping that I will have a simpler prescription—and even if I still have near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism, I won't have the cataracts blocking areas of my vision. (It doesn't matter how carefully I clean my glasses, that's not where the spots are.)

(Back in Seattle, my eye doctor said I had "incipient" cataracts. When I first saw Dr. Lazarra, he said they weren't "incipient" (I think partly he thought it was an unhelpful term in general), but that the appropriate thing to do at the time was to wait. So I knew this was in my future, but wasn't expecting it this soon.)

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Logistics: would having any food made and dropped off be helpful?

[redbird]

I'm not sure yet, but thank you for the generous offer.

[julian]

Calluna's got one cataract that they figure she should get operated on sooner rather than later. She's got to do some insurance research, first, though.

Anyway. My sympathies on the nerves, of all varieties, and I knock wood on your behalf.

[pameladean]

I'd be nervous too. My mom had cataract surgery a few years ago and was amazed at how different colors seemed afterwards. I guess cataracts are yellowish, so she wasn't seeing blues well? Something like that. She was even more amazed to realize that, at eighty-something, she could see well enough to drive at night again if she wanted to. I don't drive, but I still would find better night vision useful.

Best wishes for a very easy procedure and quick recovery.

P.

[redbird]

My mother had cataract surgery about ten years ago. When I talked to her on the phone a few days ago, she said--I think correctly--that she thought part of why I was nervous is that, while I knew she'd had the surgery, I'd been thousands of miles away. Before she had it, she'd kept her husband company for his cataract surgery, and gone with my grandmother when she had surgery on one of her eyes, so she'd seen first-hand that it was simple.

[pameladean]

There are certainly a number of things for which only first-hand experience will banish nervousness. Also, honestly, it can't help but be different when it's your own eyes. I just had a regular exam and at one point while checking the pressure, the eye doctor apologetically said that he needed me to be closer to the apparatus. He talked as if he'd not set things up properly, but in fact I'd actually backed out of the apparatus that keeps your head in the right place. I remarked on this, and he said, "It's natural to want to protect your eyes." And of course I WAS protecting them, by having the pressure checked, but the part of my brain responsible for my backing away didn't regard that as significant.

P.

[drplokta]

My mother had cataract surgery a few weeks ago, and wishes she’d had it done years ago. She can’t wait for them to do the other eye. She’s seeing better than she has done for a long time, and doesn’t need glasses for distance, only for reading (but she has good eyes, which I’m grateful to have inherited).

[princessofgeeks]

ALL THE HUGS

[drwex]

Hope it goes as easily as such things can.

[catherineldf]

May it go splendidly!