Cataract Surgery Later Today

[+ Gar1eth]

On my right eye. I'm minorly apprehensive. But I'm sure everything will go well.

I haven't asked my doctor yet.-I will- how long I'll have to refrain from sex. I hope this doesn't end up 'screwing' (see what I did there 😝)  with my busy social calendar. (I'm obviously joking. I think the last time I had 'relations' was two weeks ago.)

Please send healing vibes. 
 

[+ JamesB]

Wishing you a smooth and successful cataract surgery today! You will be seeing the world in high definition very soon, just don’t be too shocked when you realize how dusty everything really is!

[wsc]

It's the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the country. I know that's of little comfort if you're about to have it for the first time, but there's really very little to worry about. I've had it done on both eyes -about two years apart- and the only issue I had was a little scratchiness from the second surgery which went away when I saw the surgeon the next morning for a 24-hour follow-up. After that, no issues at all.

Except for ... the eye drops! I hate doing eye drops. Before the procedure, they put about seven to ten sets of three to five drops of various things in the eye to be worked on - thought they'd never stop! After the surgery, you have to use drops in the affected eye for an extended time (maybe 30 days? - don't really remember.) But the doses are tapered during the treatment period so you use fewer and fewer drops as the course goes on. A minor inconvenience.

Oh, you might experience "specks" floating in the eye's aqueous fluid; looks like gnats zipping around you. I went to lunch at a white tablecloth place a few days after one of my surgeries and kept trying to swat things away from my food. Went away after a week or so.

Best of luck to you. I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[+ Gar1eth]

Thank y'all for all the good wishes. I think it's gone well. In fact---

 

My (almost) brother-in-law described it like going from Kansas to Oz, but I haven't noticed that yet. I'll just be happy to be able to see the road and street signs at night-not too mention closed captioning on the TV. Right now my eye is watery. And I can't rub it. So I don't actually  know what the vision there is actually like. 
 

My brother and mother took me to the surgery place. We were probably there an hour or less. We went to lunch afterward. But on the way back to my Mom's I started getting a sick headache. And I went to sleep for about 4 hours. I seem ok now. 
 

1st follow up is tomorrow (Wednesday). Wish me luck. 

Edited November 12, 2025 by Gar1eth

[+ Gar1eth]

Update Time!!

 

It's post-op day #2. I had a good report from the doctor yesterday. They had me see an optometrist rather than the ophthalmologist yesterday. They hadn't told me they did that. 
 

My eyes still feel a bit irritated and blurry. I'm not sure how much of the blurriness is due to surgery and how much from the drops as I'm not supposed to rub the drops out my eyes. Right now I take one drop of Ketorolac (an NSAID) once a day. One drop of a steroid three times a day. And one drop of an antibiotic 4 times a day. An acquaintance of mine had all his drops mixed together. I wish mine were that way. 
 

I was wondering about sex. Googling the question said something about two weeks. I asked the optometrist about it. She seemed to think it was ok now.
 

But on another question about general  activity she said I shouldn't have my head upside down. So I guess I won't be able to have sex for another month or two after all. 😜😜😜

My almost brother-in-law said after his surgery -it was like going from Kansas to the Land Of Oz. Maybe his cataracts were thicker. I was mainly having trouble seeing words, as well as trouble focusing on things near and far. I hadn't noticed any change in color intensity. Of course if it happened gradually you wouldn't. But I don't notice much difference in color intensity  now. 
 

@wsc and @JamesB, and any others who want to chime in-did y'all notice any significant changes in your perception of color?

[+ Gar1eth]

Oh and I can read closed captioning much more easily now. 
 

But they had to put a (long distance) monofocal lens in because there's something abnormal about my retina. The doctor said a I needed as much light as possible hitting my retina, and a multifocal lens wouldn't work as well. So now I can't read up close with my right eye. I'm supposed to try to get some non prescription readers. But I'll  need to take out the lens on the left side until I have that eye done. Or get a monocle until then. 
 

 

Who knew I'd need a tuxedo too?

 

Edited November 14, 2025 by Gar1eth

[+ Gar1eth]

Well my almost brother-in-law had the right idea after all. While the world may not be Wizard of Oz bright, things  definitely appear brighter  than before. I didn't  notice until I compared the vision between my uncorrected eye and my "surgerized" one. Looking at my HD-TV, the whites seem to have a blue halo  around them. It's very cool. And again while there is a mild blur, the TV picture is much clearer than what I see in the uncorrected eye even with my glasses on. 
 

The eye shield I have to wear while sleeping to prevent me from rubbing the eye while I'm asleep is the pits though. 

Edited November 14, 2025 by Gar1eth

[+ JamesB]

14 hours ago, Gar1eth said:

@wsc and @JamesB, and any others who want to chime in-did y'all notice any significant changes in your perception of color?

 

I haven’t had this procedure myself, I was just wishing you the best on yours.

[BuffaloKyle]

21 hours ago, Gar1eth said:

I was wondering about sex. Googling the question said something about two weeks. I asked the optometrist about it. She seemed to think it was ok now.

No facials for awhile though! 🥰

[+ Gar1eth]

21 hours ago, Gar1eth said:

I was wondering about sex. Googling the question said something about two weeks. I asked the optometrist about it. She seemed to think it was ok now.
 

 

3 minutes ago, BuffaloKyle said:

No facials for awhile though! 🥰

I don't do "either type" of facials so I'm good. 
 

I should probably clarify about the sex. The optometrist said it should be ok. But then she said I shouldn't stand on my head for one, maybe two months. So I guess that means no sex after all. 😢😢

😜😜😜😜😜😜

[+ Gar1eth]

I start new insurance January 1st. So I had to get it done. I had my first post-op surgery today. In my practice,  the ophthalmologist does the preop evaluation and the magic of surgery. Then the follow-ups are by optometrists. They didn't explain that that first time. I was surprised I wasn't seeing the surgeon. 
 

Anyway the optometrist who saw me today for follow-up said I had minimal inflammation. Interestingly enough after the first surgery, I felt good for about  1-1/2 hours. My family and I went out to a local restaurant for lunch. But as lunch ended I started feeling a bit nauseous. I went back home and went to sleep.  I was fine when I woke up. 
 

Yesterday I told the nurse anesthetist beforehand about the nausea. So she gave me some IV anti-nausea medicine. But when I came out of the sedation for the procedure, I had a headache and felt nauseated immediately. So I went home and to bed immediately. I slept about 4 hours and was fine. 
 

My surgeon said because of some retinal abnormality I couldn't get a multifocal lens. So she put in distance lenses. It's very strange after having been near-sighted since I was 12 to need glasses to see up close.
 

Overall I'm very happy with the surgery-new vision for a new year!!

[mizuki777]

Most doctors say to wait about a week before doing anything too strenuous to keep the pressure in your eye down. Definitely double check with your surgeon though. Wishing you a quick recovery!

[+ Gar1eth]

9 hours ago, mizuki777 said:

Most doctors say to wait about a week before doing anything too strenuous to keep the pressure in your eye down

I'm 21 days past the second surgery. I've re-installed  trapeze bar over the bed, so I can now go back to my accustomed sexual 'hi'-jinks. 😉😉

 

Ok you can quit laughing at the thought. 
 

Now for the real update. Last night I was driving home after dinner  from a friend's house. He  lives about 35 miles from me. The clarity I had seeing the highway exits at night were amazing. I hadn't been to his place in probably 6 months because I couldn't take the night driving on the freeway. I couldn't see either the exit signs or the exit lanes clearly enough. In fact nighttime driving in general was beginning to freak me out. Even after I had the first eye done, it was still difficult to drive. 
 

I still find it a real pain having to put on glasses to read. But it is what it is. I'll have to adjust. But it's definitely making reading less enjoyable. Aside from that I am so happy I finally had the surgery done. I had first planned it about a year and a half ago. But life got in the way. I couldn't 'see' my way clear at the time to having it done.

 

It came down to the wire too because January 1st I started Medicare. I needed to get it done on my old policy, as I had filled the out of pocket maximum and the surgery wasn't going to cost me anything. 
Yesterday while driving, I was thinking what a miracle it was that 'we' have the technology to do this. An operation that probably took 15 minutes or less, but that has improved my life 1000%. 

[wsc]

On 11/13/2025 at 9:53 PM, Gar1eth said:

Update Time!!

 

It's post-op day #2. I had a good report from the doctor yesterday. They had me see an optometrist rather than the ophthalmologist yesterday. They hadn't told me they did that. 
 

My eyes still feel a bit irritated and blurry. I'm not sure how much of the blurriness is due to surgery and how much from the drops as I'm not supposed to rub the drops out my eyes. Right now I take one drop of Ketorolac (an NSAID) once a day. One drop of a steroid three times a day. And one drop of an antibiotic 4 times a day. An acquaintance of mine had all his drops mixed together. I wish mine were that way. 
 

I was wondering about sex. Googling the question said something about two weeks. I asked the optometrist about it. She seemed to think it was ok now.
 

But on another question about general  activity she said I shouldn't have my head upside down. So I guess I won't be able to have sex for another month or two after all. 😜😜😜

My almost brother-in-law said after his surgery -it was like going from Kansas to the Land Of Oz. Maybe his cataracts were thicker. I was mainly having trouble seeing words, as well as trouble focusing on things near and far. I hadn't noticed any change in color intensity. Of course if it happened gradually you wouldn't. But I don't notice much difference in color intensity  now. 
 

@wsc and @JamesB, and any others who want to chime in-did y'all notice any significant changes in your perception of color?

Sorry for the delay in responding but just saw this. And, Oh yes! Big change in color perception for my first surgery. The cataract in that eye was so thick the doctor said he couldn't see through it before the surgery. During the surgery, once the old lens was removed, there was an explosion of colors, but it was like looking through a windshield in a rainstorm because the eye was watering so much from the trauma induced by the surgery. Don't remember specifics on this point from the second surgery so I'd have to say unremarkable, which is a good thing; no horror stories to report.

The only post-op sex-related limitations I recall were due to a slight sprain in my right wrist.😉

[Nightowl]

On 11/14/2025 at 7:12 PM, BuffaloKyle said:

No facials for awhile though! 🥰

If you wear the clear plastic eye cover they give you after surgery you can have all the facials you want. 

[Nightowl]

Had the surgery on both eyes and after the first eye was done I spent my time marveling at the different ways I saw colors in each eye.  Worth every penny. 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

1 minute ago, Nightowl said:

On 11/14/2025 at 6:12 PM, BuffaloKyle said:

No facials for awhile though! 🥰

If you wear the clear plastic eye cover they give you after surgery you can have all the facials you want. 

Or...This might be a good time to learn to swallow 😍

[+ Gar1eth]

3 hours ago, wsc said:

The only post-op sex-related limitations I recall were due to a slight sprain in my right wrist

Was it from an IV mishap perhaps? 🤔 

 

2 hours ago, Nightowl said:

Had the surgery on both eyes and after the first eye was done I spent my time marveling at the different ways I saw colors in each eye.

My almost brother-in-law (in all ways but the marriage certificate) described it like going from sepia Kansas to the  full color Land Of Oz. 

[Nightowl]

27 minutes ago, Gar1eth said:

Was it from an IV mishap perhaps? 🤔 

 

My almost brother-in-law (in all ways but the marriage certificate) described it like going from sepia Kansas to the  full color Land Of Oz. 

Good analogy.