Welp, I can see, which is good…
I had an 1130 check in at the OKC VA with nothing to eat, drink for 12 hours, except enough to ‘swallow’ my pills in the morning. Friend went with me as the duty driver to get me home.
Got there a little early and checked in, friend got his packet of info and my post surgery care packet with the joke that I’d probably forget them…
Went back to a prep room, and started the Q&A with a prep nurse who did the vitals, IV started, started the numbing of the eye, and three pages of questions that I had to answer. Got through all that, got me reasonably comfortable on the roll around bed/cart/whateverthehell that was…
And the anestheolgist/his resident, surgeon/her resident came in, went through the whole three pages again with each of them, and finally the OR nurse came in and did the whole thing again! But it was nice to know that they were ALL on the same page/eye, etc.
The VA does teaching for residents since OU School of Medicine is adjacent to the VA, and practice on old farts like us is probably as good as it gets… probably… unless they’re going into pediatrics!
Got rolled back to the OR, they did a head count, and all verified that ‘I’ was the patient, which eye was being done, and they started the IV and positioned me on the ‘bed’ (and I use that term loosely). I did get them laughing when I was asked if I was comfortable… My reply might NOT have been PC…
Surgery took about a half hour, and it is truly ‘odd’ to watch your vision suddenly go blurry with the ultrasound breaking up the old lens. And yes, you DO see red when the lens is removed (no idea why)… They did have to ‘chase’ one bit of the old lens that didn’t want to be vacuumed up, but they got it eventually. It was also ‘odd’ to have the new lens unfold and suddenly ‘see’ the bright light more or less in focus again.
The surgeon kept me up to speed as to what was going on, including when I would feel ‘pressure’ as they did various things. And of course my nose started itching about 10 minutes in… sigh… But they scratched it for me…
Post op was with a different nurse, and she had COFFEE!!! Post op was interesting with her making sure I could function and was coherent. She helped me get dressed, was very careful to make sure I didn’t try to do anything by myself (yes, there was some disorientation and loss of depth of field, which made hitting the wheelchair ‘interesting’).
A little over an hour later, I was out and on the way home with the ‘drops from hell’ as some people have called them, and the pirate patch over the eye.
And yes, my eye was STILL dilated 8 hours later!
I have to give kudos to the OKC VA team! They did an excellent job, and I can see! There was a ‘bit’ of double vision when I finally took the patch off after 24 hours, but that was expected and explained, and it’s nice to see bright colors with no ‘film’ across the vision in that eye!
Many thanks to Jonna for turning the patch into a ‘pirate’ patch so I don’t have to tape the patch on every night for the first week!
Now I just have a month of drops to do… sigh…
Seeing is good. It’ll be interesting to hear if it makes a difference at the range. Heal well.
Good luck and speedy Healing, my wife just got the finial clearance after her second cataract surgery. (First in June, second in August) and she states she can see better than she has ever been able to see.
Which is a blessing as her eye sight suddenly went from bad to blind in the first part of this year.
Keeping up with the drops are the biggest pain during recovery, but is worth the effort!
God Bless and Prayers for good sight.
Good news !!!!!
Really glad to hear that all is going well! I am also interested to hear updates-changes to depth perception, etc. But it’ll be cool to see the world in a whole new way!
Yeah having your vision go red for a bit is disconcerting. I went from 20/150 to 20/20 again. Then they started fogging. Last month I went back and they polished the fogging away with a laser. That was interesting as well. Hope you won’t need that. And glad it all went well!!!
Hooah. Glad to hear all is going well. The only snappy line I got off was when the anesthesiologist came in, “Oh look, my favorite bartender”. Staff was very thorough, everyone verifying my ID, which eye, and adorning me with color-coded wrist bands. Just being nosey, did you go for the distance prescription?
What that picture reminded me of (last frame):
https://twolumps.net/comic/send-noods/
(Safe work work, in spite of the dubious url wording)
And for everyone: If you like cats, and have never read the “Two Lumps” strip, well, let’s just say you’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and it’s all worth it.
Safe FOR work. (the things you see, and the edits you wish you could make hours later) *sighs*
When I saw the title – CATARACT AAR – I thought it was a new Sci-Fi novel or perhaps a short story. Even into the first paragraph. Then I realized what was going on and felt a little sheepish.
I’m happy that you’re well and recovery will be managable.
Glad to hear it went well. DH had both eyes done, and is happy with the results.
Go on, get your wife to hit you up with some makeup, a black cowl……presto, Igor from Young Frankenstein. Make a dandy ID pic…..
“Post op was interesting with her making sure I could function and was coherent.”
What were the other 11 tasks of Hercules did she have to accomplish?
Glad to read you are doing well.
Your experience was a lot different than mine. I had an IV in the back of my hand and had, I think, and got knocked out. I woke up after the operation feeling fine. No patch was involved. Didn’t get any coffee, either – just a tiny bottle of water and a protein bar. The big problem was that I wasn’t offered a choice of distance and didn’t realize I could have been until later. I got a middle vision, so I need glasses to drive and to read. I do close work, so I would have loved to have my near sighted vision back.
I go in for the left eye tomorrow. Right next week. Glad to know it went well for you .
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes I went with ‘distance’ vision, since I’m a rifle shooter. I’ll update this occasionally as I progress through the next couple of months. Gerry- shaddap… LOL
I’m glad for you.
Enjoy your new optic, ONFO!
You kids and yer fancy-pants ultrasound. I got to watch up close and personal as the doc cut my lens up with stainless steel and pull it out.
Ed- Me too!
Robert- Wow!!!
Be careful. A friend said while he was away getting his eyes fixed by the VA, the county put up several more stop signs.
Excellent news! My SLW had one of hers done last month, and she’s getting the other one done this month.
Do NOT walk toward the light!!
Seriously, glad you’re on the mend.
Will have Smarter Half do a lap around the beads for your swift recovery.
WSF- LOL
Stretch- Yeah, no… And thanks!
The whole process is a royal pain in the ass. But still better than trying to live with cataracts. Anyone who has had LASIK has already had a dress rehearsal for the process.
Good going.
My mom got cataract surgery a couple of decades ago. She had worn glasses since she was four. They corrected her vision with the contacts. She was not happy with how she looked in the mirror when she first got up in the morning!
Glad it all went well! Rest up.
Dan- True, and that impacts the ‘type’ of lens one gets, which I didn’t know until I got into the process.
CM- LOL, well, I went with distance, so I’m still going to have readers.
Mrs.C- Will do!
I had PRK in 2006. Six weeks of eye drops, all on different schedules. I lived with an alarm clock in my pocket the whole time, since we couldn’t have our phones in the office. Imagine how the senior leadership reacted when it went off in meetings and I pulled out a vial and dumped stuff onto my eyeballs… Actually, they got real interested, and several had lasik or PRK done themselves later.
I had similar done ten years ago, I only use readers now and it is great to be able to see ‘Normally’ One thing about the after effects, about a year after the procedure, my vision started to get a bit hazy. I went back to the eye doctor and he did an adjustment with a laser which was done in seconds. I am 20/15 in stbd eye, 20/25 in port. Nice to see you are doing well out there! Stay well… DC from Barco Sin Vela II
Glad this went well for you. Mine took about 6 months to get right. They are still watching one eye that has some cloudiness I can’t see but they can.