Cataracts

Location
East Mids
Ok, so after noticing a deterioration in sight in one eye since my last eye test, I booked an apt and was told today I have a cataract in my right eye. It's already bad enough to be referred for surgery. It has developed rapidly as it is only a year since my last eye test & it was not spotted then. I'm only 50 but another family member also had it done in his early 50's. I can obviously talk to him about the actual surgery, I know it's the most common operation and is a 10 minute jobbie plus a bit of recovery time.

I have had severe astigmatism in both eyes since my early teens and worn glasses throughout. Obviously cataract surgery corrects this, which given I only have a cataract in one eye, makes my eyesight between the eyes then massively different which would make my glasses very weird as the lenses are so thick at the edges for my prescription. I also need reading glasses (I actually compromise by wearing varifocals). My optician said they might just end up doing both eyes, as I will probably get a cataract in the other one eventually. I know there is a gap between the 2 ops they make sure one has healed before they do the other. Has anyone been in this situation (ie one cataract, but both eyes done?)

I'm still recovering from the dilatory eye drops so look high as a kite at present - pupils like a bush baby and rather blurry all round!
 
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Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I had 2 done last year, I am just a little younger than you and was the youngest having them done by 20 years. I was different from you in that I didnt wear glasses before the cataracts. My sight deterioration was slow and I didnt really notice it at first, I did get to the point where I was about to loose my driving licence and was put on the urgent list then. I now need glasses to read, my distance vision is excellent. I do wear glasses most of the time, I cant read the screens in my tractor without them.

It is day surgery it takes about 40 minutes an eye, it is very odd as you are talking to the surgeon as he does the op. The biggest issue you will have is your lifestyle after the operation. I was continually lectured about not going farming for a few weeks after, this is because you have an open wound in your eye, it is extremely easy to pick up an infection. I was on antibiotic eye drops 6 times a day. The other issue is you are not supposed to lift anything or bend down this is because the change in pressure in the eye can push the new lens out (this has just happened to somebody I know).

So be prepared to put your feet up for a while. Its worth it.

Bg
 
Location
East Mids
I had 2 done last year, I am just a little younger than you and was the youngest having them done by 20 years. I was different from you in that I didnt wear glasses before the cataracts. My sight deterioration was slow and I didnt really notice it at first, I did get to the point where I was about to loose my driving licence and was put on the urgent list then. I now need glasses to read, my distance vision is excellent. I do wear glasses most of the time, I cant read the screens in my tractor without them.

It is day surgery it takes about 40 minutes an eye, it is very odd as you are talking to the surgeon as he does the op. The biggest issue you will have is your lifestyle after the operation. I was continually lectured about not going farming for a few weeks after, this is because you have an open wound in your eye, it is extremely easy to pick up an infection. I was on antibiotic eye drops 6 times a day. The other issue is you are not supposed to lift anything or bend down this is because the change in pressure in the eye can push the new lens out (this has just happened to somebody I know).

So be prepared to put your feet up for a while. Its worth it.

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Thanks for that - yes I'd read on the NHS website about the infection risk and the not bending down. I'm at even more risk of infection as I am on immunsuppressants due to another condition, I will take advice as I will probably have to come off those first.
 

llamedos

New Member
Mother had hers done about 5 years ago, she has worn glasses since the age of 3 she was 75 when she had cataract surgery, her glasses previously were like jam jar bottoms, there is some family history of blindness, for the first time in her life she can now see without glasses, she does wear them to read still, but just normal prescription ones.
To say she was over the moon was an understatement. There was not much of a gap between having each eye done.
 

Tonka

Member
Location
N Yorkshire
My Mum's 85.....she had the first one done about 4 weeks ago, and is due next week for her second one. Still drives!
I took her in for 12.30, and she rang to be collected at 5pm. Same arrangements this time too.
Lots of daily eye drops - and no bending or lifting.
Already overjoyed at the difference it has made. :woot::joyful:
 

Y Fan Wen

Member
Location
N W Snowdonia
Like you, very short sighted and one cataract. My 2 ops were 7 weeks apart. During that 7 weeks I wore a shield on on the untreated eye to stop the double vision. I can pass the number plate test without glasses now but still wear them as my eyes water too much without.
 

JCMaloney

Member
Location
LE9 2JG
@Princess Pooper .... Mrs M has just had both her`s done at Loughborough. Truly life changing op, she had a very complex optical prescription (Specs would cost about £450 a pair!) and has now gone to a pair of off the shelf distance glasses for driving only.
She had the first one done then about a 6 week turnaround for number 2. Its a fairly easy op, takes longer to have the dilation drops and anesthetic than the actual op takes!
Old lens is removed and a new one injected in..... bit of a squirt of fluid to position it and jobs a good `un.
Lens are £55 each...... :)
 
Location
East Mids
Done! Clocked in at Loughborough on Tues at 1pm, discharged at 5pm but only because I was the last one of the day (being the youngest!) - the first 1pm clock-ins were finished a couple of hours earlier. 5 in the afternoon session. Succession of paperwork and 'bushbaby' eyedrops, then the anaesthetist and surgeon came to look at notes and discuss any potential issues re: current medication and health conditions.

10 mins in prep area getting anaesthetised - the only bit that hurts is then and only for a minute or so. Then into theatre to spend 20 mins under a surgical drape and hardly felt a thing - certainly no pain just the occasional slight sensation of a bit of movement and mild tugging. My surgeon was not chatty, just the odd comment to let me know what was happening next. Only issue I had was due to my Raynauds my hands did get cold and my SATS monitoring was a bit hit and miss - I had warned them this might happen. Bit noisy at times, presumably that is the ultrasound probe.

Cuppa and biscuits for 20 mins then signed off and a neighbour drove me home.

Since I started this thread, when I saw the opthalmoloist in October, he told me I did have a cataract in the other eye it's just it wasn't affecting me yet, but because of that I will getting both eyes done; he did say that due to my current prescription it would be very difficult to sort glasses for me if only one eye was done anyway.

I did have horrendous lower back pain yesterday it had gone into spasm - this does happen to me sometimes and I suspect it is due to so much sitting around on Tues and then the op lying on my back (they do put a cushion under your calves to help push your back into the bed). Now back to normal. Also very very tired and sleepy which I can only assume due to the local anaesthetic and or release of stress (and trying to get loads of 'bending down' jobs done before the op like painting the dairy walls prior to farm assurance visit - I was working until midnight the night before.

So the only post-operative problem I have is due to my poor eyesight. I am as I type wearing my old glasses which are varifocals, as a I need the 'reading glasses' bit to type or read any thing. So if I look further away, my 'new' eye is blurred as I am looking through a glasses lens that I no longer need, for distance vision, but I do still need it for my left eye. I have clearer vision through my new operated eye now for distance than when I was wearing glasses. When I am not reading then I am taking my glasses off. I am not sure whether I will be able to drive once out of the week's imposed ban - not due to the cataract surgery but due to this problem because of my astigmatism. As soon as I see my optician in 5 weeks as long as all OK I go on the list for the second eye so I will be fine after that. And like everyone else who has this done, yes the world is now crystal clear and bright through the new lens with the cataract removed. You realise that for the last x years you have been seeing life through a sepia filter (the cataract).

So now Prince Pooper has loads of extra work to do and will also have to experience the delights of the supermarket shop as I can't drive (I did stock up but not for ever!)
 

Sussex Martin

Member
Location
Burham Kent
Had an eye test last week and told by the optician that I have early stage cataracts in both eyes and will be needing them sorted eventually but probably not for 5 years or so :(. Eye test yearly now instead of every 2.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Don’t worry about it. Just don’t let the nhs stall when your eyesight starts deteriorating, with yearly tests you will soon know when. I didn’t wear glasses before mine were done so it was only when there was a sevior deterioration that I noticed anything.

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As reported in Independent


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