Posting may be a little less frequent over the next several weeks than I have expected of myself. Over the last 22 years I have written more than 22,000 posts. That’s more than 1,000 posts per year, nearly three posts a day for 22 years.
Tomorrow I’m getting cataract surgery on my left eye and, honestly, I’m apprehensive about it. I realize that’s irrational but I grew up with the knowledge that my dad’s grandfather had been blinded by a botched cataract surgery. That was more than a century ago and an enormous amount has changed over the last century—that’s why it’s irrational of me.
Whatever the outcome I probably won’t feel like posting tomorrow and I suspect I won’t be able to see well enough to post. The reason for that is, well, I wear glasses and the operation will in all likelihood change my prescription. The present plan is one eye tomorrow and the other in two weeks. That suggests that for the next month things will be, shall we say, in flux.
Good luck! You should be good in a month but for lots of people the blurriness is gone in a few days, especially if you are getting a monofocal lens. It’s much faster and lot less pain. When I was in med school there were still people doing cataracts that had their pt stay in the hospital several days after the surgery. Also, they used to wait until you were almost blind before doing the surgery pretty much up until 60s because the risk of failure or blinding some was high.
Steve
What about the third eye? Sorry.
Best of luck. I opted for lens replacement surgery years ago. (Went in for Lasic, but nacient cataracts). No glasses needed since. 20-20. Just a couple days until I was seeing just fine. The spookiest thing was when they took the old lens out and I was absolutely blind). I’m sure you will do just fine. But surgery tends to focus the mind. Always a small complications rate.
I’m 4 for 4 on successful surgeries. Lenses, cervical fusions, ulnar nerve transposition and TAVR. Watchman coming up in a week. Hopefully can take a rest after that.
My experience tends to be the opposite. I keep hearing the words you do not want to hear from healthcare professionals: “That’s not supposed to happen.”
My most recent surgery was 30 years ago. It was supposed to be a minor inpatient procedure. It turned into major surgery. What are called “idiosyncratic or perverse reactions” to medications are a familial characteristic.
Oof. I obviously can’t speak to specifics. Steve would know better than I, but 30 years ago seems like forever in medical practice. Still, seems odd that they wouldn’t have informed you of the potential for your procedure to escalate.
For my recent issues they went to great lengths to walk me through potential issues, which were stroke, bleed and infection.
Anyway. Best of luck.
a few words of advice, trying to read fine print (train schedules, parts lists, etc) will be an adventure until your eyesight stabilizes, Colors will be very bright and have more shades, Sunrise and Sunset will be awe some. Have no regrets after my surgeries, need readers but who does not at this age, 20/20 vision at beyond arms length vision
hang in there it will get better
Hope all goes well.
Best of luck, Dave.
Probably a bit late for Dave to read this, but I had a cataract removed about a year and a half ago (the other is still ripening), and appreciated people who had that done telling me everything went fine and was quick. My mom said the worst part were the post-procedure eye drop routine, which for me was three different drops at a time, three times a day, for weeks. Unfortunately, I now have one eye good for distance and one eye good for reading. I got my prescriptions updated, but often wonder if I should see about evening things up quicker or if this is the best of both worlds available to me. Good luck, probably won’t need it.
Dave,
I hope all is well.
I had LASIK on the first business day of 2000 and cataract surgery on one eye in early 2013 and on the other in 2018. I’ve subsequently had laser cleanup of both eyes, as the replacement lenses themselves clouded a bit over time. Thus far, all have gone remarkably well.