Right Before Cataract Surgery

Pre- Jan. 11, 2010

Started pre-operative eye drops -- Vigamox, Navanac and dilating drops.

Jan. 11, 2010

Joy takes me to the surgery appointment at the surgical hospital. We are to get there at 9:00 AM. I don't get called to start the pre-operative process until around 10:25 AM. Joy and I keep seeing cataract surgery patients coming wheeled out to go home, and all have patches on the right eye.

It turns out that Dr. L does all the right eyes first, then the left eyes. Only one other patient and I are having the left eye done today. I am the last person to have the surgery today! Dr. L does it this way to avoid confusion. Seems very intelligent.

I start by having lots of eye drops put in -- every five minutes -- then the nurse comes to look for a vein in my hand to put the IV. Then I also have some goop (Lydocaine) put all over my eye, to numb it.

They put me on a gurney and I have to wait in the hall -- seems like a long while. My watch reads 11:30 AM. I am wheeled into the O.R. around noon. Before I get in there, I can hear music coming from the O.R. Oh no! Some light rock F.M. station playing. I guess some surgeons like to have music playing. I'm reminded of the movie The Doctor and the kind of music the surgeon liked to have playing. This makes me laugh. It has been ages since I had surgery.

Well, they get me ready for surgery and I definitely know when the sedating fluid (Versed) is going in my arm -- I can feel it stinging. Apparently the position for this ophthalmic surgery is not supine or semi-supine. Nope! They put me with my head lower than my feet -- and I feel my neck kind of going off the pillow and my head kind of hanging -- on what, I don't know. I don't know how it's being supported at all. But then I don't know much of anything! I don't remember anything about the surgery except for Dr. L telling me to look at some pretty lights a couple of times. Later I learned that the patient needs to fixate on something to keep the eyes opened.

I wake up in the recovery room and it couldn't be much after 12:45 PM. This twilight sleep isn't bad! The nurse comes around to check on me and give me water. My blood pressure keeps getting checked.

Around 1 PM, the discharge nurse gets me ready to go home with a patch over my left eye. Joy goes home with me and stays around 2 hours till she's sure I will be OK.

That night, I go to bed around 9:30 PM and sleep most of the night. Since I must sleep with a patch over my eye for a week, Tessy and Meadow have to sleep in their crates -- too bad for them, but I don't want them pawing at my head, even by accident.

My article about Refractive Lens Exchange is at


Refractive Lens Exchange, A New Alternative to LASIK