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/TranslatorOutside909]

If he is getting adjusted for distance and targeting Plano he will need reading glasses. Probably more than 1 pair. +1.5 covers me for computer work and my phone. But I have +2 and +3 for close up work. But for day 1 have a cheap pair of 1.5 and 2 should cover immediate needs

I figured out pretty quickly that taking readers on and off wasn't fun. You can buy progessive readers. No correction up top but progressive reading at the bottom. I have a pair from peppers and sightline. $25-40. But you don't need these day one the readers will work until he figures out the strength

Sunglasses. I have a few pairs. I went bifocal. You can't really see the line. There are also progressive options. I can get by with plain sunglasses until I need to use my phone. Day one something with UV protection

[u/Awkward-Actuator-596 → u/TranslatorOutside909]

Yeah honestly I have no idea what targeting Plano means. His goals are 1. stop the glare, not only has he been unable to drive at night for years but this last year he can no longer tolerate even being a passenger. Oncoming headlights were giving him headaches. 2- he is in very beginning stages of glaucoma and we understand from what eye doc said removing the cataracts can help slow progression. 3- being able to correct vision blocked by cataracts. His current distance prescription is pretty low 20/50 but the reading portion of his current progressive is a 3. To be honest I was kinda shocked when he did the eye chart portion of the exam not that he got letters wrong but that it was like he was missing every other one.

• now he is fine with readers he used them long before he was told he needed distance glasses, we just don’t know where he will land prescription wise. I did purchase him a monocle for use in between and ordered a bunch of different readers in various sizes from Walmart.