My Cataract Operation
It was all very simple and painless.
After the procedures, where they checked that they had the right patient and that everything else was in order, after some local anaesthetic was put in my left eye, I just laid on my back with my head in a rest.
A cloth shield was put over my face and my right eye and my left eye, from which the cataract would be removed was left looking through a hole in the shield.
I was asked to focus on a bright light and I held it there for what must have been about ten minutes.
I held my head and eye still and I felt nothing.
Then the shield was removed, I was told it was all over and I was led out of the operating theatre.
I was in no pain and the only difference in my appearance was the shield taped over my left eye.
How many people hold off their cataract operation because they think it will be painful?
I left the hospital within two-and-a-half hours of my arrival at nine o’clock this morning.
It is now over twelve hours since the operation and I can honestly say, I have had no serious pain. Although for some reason my right eye has developed an itch in sympathy.
Conclusion
If you are told you need a cataract operation, get it done sooner rather than later.
The Anonymous Widower 
I find this report most reassuring. I have a horror of someone messing around with my eyes and I do know that I have a developing cataract in one of them which will have to be dealt with sooner or later. Your description of the procedure is quite comforting and I hope I am as brave as you when my turn comes. Thank you.
Comment by Ron Collins | November 16, 2021 |
No problem! One of the reasons for posting was to reassure people like you. Now, just one day later, I can see my left eye is better.
Although my operation was done in a private hospital, it was paid for by the NHS and organised by Boots at the Angel, where my grandmother used to shop before the Great War.
Comment by AnonW | November 16, 2021 |
Glad it all went well – I hadn’t realised that the actual op only takes about 10 minutes. How long before they do the other eye?
And for the benefit of your readers – the other op that people put off and put off is carpal tunnel surgery. Another one that takes minutes, doesn’t hurt, and you only need local anaesthetic. If you leave it too long you won’t get the feeling in your fingers back properly.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | November 16, 2021 |
It will be a few weeks yet, as they will want to make sure that the left Eye is functioning. I suspect because of Christmas and the New Year, it will be some time in January.
I remember my next-door neighbour, who was an eighty-year-old retired British Army Colonel having carpal tunnel surgery around 1980. It enabled him to continue his gardening. He was absolutely amazed at the transformation in his life brought about by the surgery.
He was one of those people, who with hindsight, you wish you’d talked to in depth. For instance he was in the King David hotel in Jerusalem when it was blown up by the Irgun.
Comment by AnonW | November 16, 2021 |
[…] I had my second cataract operation today and the procedure was little different to my first, that I talked about in My Cataract Operation. […]
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