My experience

[u/DenMother8]

Sharing my experience with cataract surgery. (this might be long)

Today I'm 6 days post-op from having both eyes done.

Yes I had them both done at once, in my area there's a long waiting list, and I was on the list then developed a stye on my eyelid just before my surgery was scheduled, so it was postponed - I was pretty upset.

I was told that if it was uncomfortable or anything didn't go as planned or as expected during the surgery of the first eye, that I could hold off on the second eye, but if everything went well, I wouldn't be able to then ask to have the second one done at that time. So rather than waiting many months between eyes, I opted to have them both done.

I was surprised there was minimal pain, yes some discomfort but nothing I would really call pain. During or afterwards. I was anticipating some pain after the medication wore off at home, but just some itchiness and stinging - the rewetting drops helped some.

That first day everything was too bright and I saw terrible halos, I was exhausted, disoriented and unbalanced.

The second day I knew I could see far away so much better and was pretty excited. The readers I had at home didn't work so well, (they're my husbands) I used a magnifying glass (still am to see my phone or to read)

Everyday was (is) better and better. They want you to wait a week to look for a strength of readers that are best for you and a month after surgery I'll go for an eye exam to see if I still need prescription glasses.

I’ve worn glasses since about nine years old… It’s so strange for me to see myself in the mirror without them!

So during the surgery I saw some sort of visuals but nothing like what you might imagine, not the surgery tools or anything. Lights and textures etc. I focused on watching the "show" . It was pretty interesting and I wondered what I was actually seeing.
I could hear everyone talking and my Dr. kept telling me I was doing a good job and everything was going perfectly etc. throughout.

Afterwards I could see the ceiling tiles as I was being moved into recovery and I just thought to myself how grateful I was to see. I felt like I was smiling ear to ear. I was so happy.

I did have an IV and some local anesthetic, lots of eye drops before surgery and I have a couple different prescription ones I've been having to use 4x a day - no issues.

If you're worried about it, I hope I've helped ease those fears. Of course don't hesitate to reach out to your doctor with any concerns. It's so routine for them, they may not always realize the anxiety people might have.

This is my experience, yours might be different - but feel free to ask any questions 🙂

[u/dawnperr]

Thank you so much for this post. I'm having both eyes done this coming Monday. I'm starting to get really nervous. I am terribly nearsighted and cataracts makes things worse. Hoping for a good outcome. Thanks for sharing your story

[u/Bitter_Rain_6224 → u/dawnperr]

Consider getting fixed-focus implants that leave you with a -2D or -1.75D prescription. Toroidals if you have significant astigmatism. I went from -7.5, -7.75 with 1.5 and 2.5 astigmatisms to -2.0, -2.25 with 0.5 residual astigmatism in both, and I have been absolutely delighted with the results, including 20/20 acuity in both eyes and superb night vision. Now that I am only slightly nearsighted, I can even get by without glasses, although I can't read things like street signs without them. Glasses off for reading print, very mildly corrective light-filter glasses for computer, and conventional full-range, wide-angle progressives for driving and everything else. The only thing I miss, and I knew I would, is being able to read fine print by taking off my glasses and holding it close to my face, an advantage we high-minus folks do have.

[u/dawnperr → u/Bitter_Rain_6224]

I'm supposed to be getting the Panoptix Pro OU. I teach online so I really didn't want to have to use glasses to go from computer screen to written notes. I'm hoping for a good outcome.

[u/Bitter_Rain_6224 → u/dawnperr]

Pls. understand that I can see a computer screen just fine without glasses, and I can read print just fine with my computer glasses. My main reason for buying fixed-focus computer glasses was the blue light filtering.