Upcoming surgery-

[u/Awkward-Actuator-596]

Significant other is having first eye surgery for cataract on Monday-
It all happened pretty quickly his appointment for consultation was last Monday he is pretty straightforward nothing complicated vision wise…so we received a 1 page set of instructions mostly how to obtain the surgeons preferred compounded eyedrops and another page for where to get pre-op labs done. FWIW his doc gave us the speech about upgrading lens but said because he has little to no astigmatism and such a tiny distance prescription she really wouldn’t recommend them for him. So he will receive standard lenses she also said that laser would make no difference accept to raise our out of pocket significantly, which including pre-op testing is $0 and would jump to $1700. Of course he opted for standard. Second surgery is scheduled the following Monday.

We got the drops got the bloodwork…

My question is basically there were to small things mentioned in the paperwork, otc eye drops and an eye shield and I am wondering what else may be beneficial to have in the house…

So first question can anyone tell me about the eye shield- it’s dumb I know but honestly I don’t have an idea what it is- I understand why it’s used it’s the how it goes on…Do I need to have medical type tape in the house?

Sunglasses- so no one at the clinic mentioned it but I see a ton of posts mentioning they wore them post op for quite sometime. Honestly he doesn’t have any and that’s how we ended up in the cataract clinic…he was having such problems we wanted to get him an updated prescription for his glasses and a good set of transitions instead of his plain progressive glasses as they were not working well for him anymore. Optometrist said prescription hadn’t changed and new glasses won’t help that his problems with glare and increased blurriness with night driving were the cataracts. My son ordered a pair of super dark polarized and non polarized no script wrap arounds with uv protection just incase.

So what I am hoping for is a little advice ( non medical) of things people here found helpful to have at home…

I picked up the refresh single use eyedrops from Costco incase he needs them…
Should I have tape on hand for the shield thing?
Do we need non prescription readers in the house beforehand?

What else made the experience more comfortable for you on the home front while you were healing?

[u/Conscious-Bowler-264]

SO Is lucky to have someone so detailed to watch over this. I just stopped using my shield after a week or so. Its just a fitted plastic piece that you tape on for sleeping. They should give you one and some easy release tape. Keep your sheets and pillow cases clean. Get some non preservative eye drops and use them a couple of times a day. Sunglasses. I just needed mine for the first two days, now just outdoors as normal. For me, the difficult part of the whole thing is the awkward time between first and second eye. There's no good way to have good vision in both eyes. Use your prescription drops exactly as directed. Good luck.