Essay – All About the Eyes
I have successfully had cataract surgery in both eyes. The last surgery was a couple of weeks ago. I figured I could talk about the experience for those who might at some point be facing the same.
I did not have the slow-growing cataracts that 80% of the population gets. (Those who have problems with cataracts.) When I was initially diagnosed, I was told that I had fast-growing cataracts and that I would need to have the surgery in 3-5 years.
That was in April of 2022. I didn’t really notice much of a difference, except when driving at night. Oncoming headlights always had a star flare to them. As the car drew closer, the flare would resolve and I’d just see the single light.
In September, I started noticing floaters in my eyes. Bad enough to make everything I was trying to read fuzzy. That was kind of scary. I live on the screen, I make my money writing, etc. I need my eyes.
I made an appointment to see an eye doctor, one who would also perform the surgery. The earliest I could get in was November.
The week before I was supposed to go in for my appointment, I came down with COVID.
The next appointment I could make was in January.
At this point, about a quarter of the time, I could barely see the text on the screen of my laptop. I increased the font size, which helped, but there were mornings when I wrote only because I was stubborn about it and I could figure out the shape of the word I was trying to write. It is a good thing I touch type and I don’t need to see the screen. But cleaning up those documents took a lot of time because again, I couldn’t see the screen. Or I waited until I could.
It also affected my doing covers. I remember placing a piece of artwork into a file, then having to double and triple-check that I’d picked up the right file and not the comp version because it looked so blurry to me.
I was afraid that I was going to have to fight the eye doctor on getting the surgery, that he was going to make me wait those 3-5 years before I could have it.
Almost the first thing he told me was that yes, I have cataracts and I qualify for the surgery.
That was a huge relief.
It had only taken me 9 months to get there. (My husband always accuses me of being an overachiever.)
There were some hassles with scheduling the surgeries—his scheduling person left the week I was trying—but I got the first surgery scheduled for six weeks later, in mid-March. Seven appointments, in total.
The first appointment was to get my eyes measured for the new lenses. They had difficulty getting a good reading of my eyes. They finally did a water immersion reading, where the tech adhered a suction cup to my eye, filled it with water, then used ultrasound to measure everything. (Yes, it was as weird as it sounds.)
On the day of the surgery, no food, no water, wore comfy clothes and my Crocs, which are like my slippers. Someone had canceled their surgery the night before, so they took me right in, and I was in and out an hour before I was supposed to be.
The nurses were great. They put lots of drops in my eyes, measured my blood pressure and oxygen rate, and made sure I knew what was about to be done. I only got a sedative, because they want you awake for the surgery.
They wheeled me from the waiting room to the surgical theatre. Lots of bright lights, made brighter by the one eye being so dilated. They had soft rock/pop music playing in the background. They adhere a mask over your face, so all that’s showing is the eye being operated on.
The procedure involves the doctor breaking the old lens, vacuuming out the pieces of it, then placing the new lens in the eye.
Because my eye is so dilated, and the lights are so bright, I can’t see a thing. I’ve had eye-numbing drops, so I can’t feel a thing. I can hear, though. The vacuum sounds like an out-of-tune organ. It feels to me like with the first eye, it took more time to remove the shards of the old lens. The second lens went faster.
Or that part did. There was something wrong with the delivery device for the second lens, and they had to go get another one.
The surgery might have taken ten minutes. All the prep work before took longer.
They taped a clear plastic eye protector over the eye so that I wouldn’t accidentally rub it. Then they sent me on my way.
On the day of the surgery, pretty much all I did was rest. The sedative left me sleepy. I had low stamina after that. Took about three days to recover with the first eye, and four with the second. This was to be expected.
The lenses that I got were each mono-focal. The first eye can see far, and I have 20/20 vision in that eye.
But I can’t read with that eye. So the other eye is for near vision, and I only see close with that eye.
Between the pair of them, I can see fine and I don’t need glasses anymore, which was kind of my goal.
I may end up getting a pair of glasses for driving. I can see everything fine. But if I’m driving someplace new, it takes too long for me to see addresses or names of streets.
As I said, it’s been about a month since I had the first eye done. I still have a little bit of lens flare from that eye. It might take another month for that to go away. I don’t have any sort of glare with the other eye at all.
If I were to do this again, would I get the same lenses? Ask me again in a couple of months. I couldn’t say. I prioritized being able to see close to seeing far. Right now, that appears to have been the right decision, but only time will tell.
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