Howdy,
As there are both the "young-old" and the "young" here at MFO; and that anyone may develope an eye cataract at any age; I will present my recent experience with two cataract procedures, in the hope that someone will benefit from my experience; either near term or into your future years.
First, cataracts are part of my gene pool on my mother's side of the family. I have had these for more than 15 years; gradually causing more problems. My last eye exam 2 years ago, and another "scrip" for the glasses did not improve much for clarity of reading or distance viewing. I put up with this problem for those 2 years and finally had enough this past January. Both eyes with the reading glasses indicated 90/20 for both eyes. But, the real problems existed with night driving and halos from every possible light source. This became a safety issue. Reading; well that was a whole different experience with having to use a magnifier for everything. This was not only very frustrating; but I calculate wasted at least 1-2 hours each day from wasted efforts and time from everything from grocery shopping, to house cleaning, reading the small print on labels to having to reread printed materials over again; as I was not able to capture full portions of text in one glance. This was really a lot of fun with the reading we all do at web sites.
If a doctor has an office setup for this procedure; the surgery may be performed at the office. In my case, our insurance would cover this medical procedure; if performed at a nearby hospital, as an outpatient. Arrived 1.5 hours before surgery (prep time as with most surgery). No shoes, no shirt, no service !!! Only had to remove my shoes, socks, top and undershirt (replaced with one of those cute top gowns). A small dose of an anti-depressive pill, an IV pick for the VERSED (see below) and ready for the show. With the first eye one month ago, I recall being transported to the O.R. and having a small chat time with a few folks and then "la-la" land. Fifteen minutes later I heard "everything went just fine". I was fully alert within the next 10 or so minutes. Had a glass of Vernor's ginger ale, chatted with a few folks and my wife; got dressed and was out of the door about 25 minutes after leaving the O.R.
Eye number 2 (right eye) last Friday (March 9) was a bit of a different experience. Mr. Curiosity, (being me) had a chat with my most wonderful doctor and wondered about doing VERSED LITE. I told him that he could explain what and when he was doing this or that and I would tell him my experience. Sure no problem. Lite it was. Keep in mind that the eye area is numb from a topical liquid, not unlike a treated area of the mouth, when at the dentist. He explained what he was doing and I described what I could or could not see during the procedure. I could only view upward towards the bright lights above my head; and did find some changes in distortion of shapes and colors. Nothing really exciting; but now I know. At least I had the opportunity this time to thank all in the O.R. for their efforts. The most interesting part of this day is when the doctor reported to my wife in the surgical waiting room that the surgery went well as expected, and that he and I had a good chat during the surgery. This conversation apparently turned a few heads of others also waiting; as there were surely those waiting upon family members who had complex surgery taking place; and probably not chatting with their surgeon during the operation.
A few technical notes: As my lens implants were to correct for the cataracts; I can not express any opinions regarding any other condition of the eye related to vision problems. The replacement lens are "monofocal", meaning there is no corrective focus attempted to be made at the eye. This generic implant is intended to correct and/or set proper focus for distance, with any other correction for close-up work such as reading; needing to be adjusted with glasses. I will still need glasses for reading; as I am doing now for this write. However, the elimination of halo images from light sources while night driving (safety), the full clarity of contrast and colors and not needing a bright light source for reading are overwhelming benefits of this low risk surgery. I have to use 4 different eye drops, 4 times a day for one week and then this is reduced to only 2 eye drops after one week. This is a small inconvenience for the benefit. The likelyhood of a problem with any type of rejection or healing of the implant is minimal for me; based upon my overall health condition. Six hours after the surgery required a follow-up visit for an inspection of the eye with the surgeon at his office. The old eye chart thing was displayed on the wall, being generated from a laptop pc program. I asked the technician what setting was being used for the first chart and she stated the graphics were set at 70/20. I then asked what was that little upward pointing arrow at the very bottom of the image. She stated that it is the mouse pointer graphic and if I could focus upon that properly, that I was viewing at 20/20; which indeed is what the test indicated at the ending graphic.
Lastly, in this area; there are some minimum restrictions for about 10 days, post surgery. No effort/work that would place high pressure upon the eye, including not lifting more than 20 pounds of dead weight. Needless to say, I follow this precaution in full. I did not or have not experienced any form of complication, pain, eye itch or bright light sensitivity following the surgery.
The downside: I discovered that my 64 year old face has a hell of a lot more wrinkles than I thought. And although my heart was always in the right place, I have also discovered that my house cleaning skills (of which, I am very good at knowing what I am doing) was really lacking in quality. I literally could not see before; what I was missing in the cleaning process. I am sure, that after a "grace period" for full healing; my wife and our daughter will set a higher standard for my performance goals in the house cleaning portion of my quarterly review of quality.
VERSED (Ver-said).........Midazolam is given before medical procedures or before anesthesia for surgery to cause drowsiness, relieve anxiety, and prevent any memory of the event. Midazolam is in a class of medications called benzodiazepines. It works by slowing activity in the brain to allow relaxation and sleep.
---This link is to a 14 minute video which describes and shows the step by step procedure used for both of my eyes. If you are twitchy about watching medical procedures, then skip this. Personally, I was curious and am not bothered with viewing the real thing.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcjngf_typical-cataract-surgery-video-with_tech---This link is a short story written by a cataract surgeon; who relates his experience to having cataract surgery.
http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/cataract-surgery-experience.htmOkay, I covered a lot of "stuff" with this. If there are serious grammarical, spelling or composition errors; we all will have to await my write for the brain transplant, as I now can not push this off to poor vision. Questions or comments welcomed.
Take care,
Catch
Comments
Thanks for your post and good to hear about the positive results. I haven't seen the eye doc yet or discussed any of my medical history with him. I am diabetic and while that has not had any negative affects on my eye health to my knowledge, it may make me a borderline candidate. Given my present situation, I was only considering this to get rid of my progressive lense eye glasses which can be a nusance at times, provided the cost isn't exhorbitant (I still have a daughter in college).
Long ago, I can remember the feel of plastic contact lenses which I quickly threw in the garbage due to the discomfort they caused me, I am also curious of what these replacement lenses feel like. I can certainly understand some initial discomfort, but would hope its not like getting used to having plastic contact lenses.
All the best,
Gandalf
"Long ago, I can remember the feel of plastic contact lenses which I quickly threw in the garbage due to the discomfort they caused me, I am also curious of what these replacement lenses feel like. I can certainly understand some initial discomfort, but would hope its not like getting used to having plastic contact lenses."
>>>>>Immediately after surgery and to this date (1 month + for the left eye); I have not had any sensation of something in my eye that did not belong there. Not unlike the feeling of an eyelash or similar being on the eye surface, of which I am familiar with that sensation. Reportedly, some folks have a slight "itchy" feeling after surgery for a few days. But, I have not experienced anything with either eye that "feels" abnormal.
We have eye insurance, but the plan only covers an eye exam every two years. The eye surgery transitioned over to our health care plan. I just recieved a partial statement of payments yesterday, and all costs were covered in full; which includes all of the folks and the hospital fees/charges involved. The exception being, that the eye surgeon payment is not yet listed. I am going to check into this today.
You may want to ask about insurance coverage for this surgery; in the aspect of a future thought about going forward with the surgery, pending a consultation with your eye doctor as to how you may benefit from an implant.
My glasses are set to tri-focals. I am using them right now; but only to look through one part of the lens that doesn't use that small area of the glass. I will have a full eye exam in about another month to determine what is best for reading glasses. As it stands right now, I am able to use a cheapie set of reading glasses from a $ store to do the job.
Take care,
Catch