Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Slept well last night. Went this morning to get my hair cut and out of my eyes. It's hard when your hair is in the way and you have to tape the shield on your eye each night.
Subjective feelings this morning -- it feels like someone has given me a new eyeglasses prescription. Walking definitely feels unsteady, and it doesn't help that I've had my light-headedness for 20 years. Something must be different. So I am careful where I go and I am trying not to do anything quickly.
The sunrise colors were very pretty this morning. The dawn rocked! Pre-sunrise the light showed a different quality!
There are halos around strong light sources like the TV and lamps, but I assume it's because pupil is dilated and that it will get better.
Last night I looked into my left pupil (dilated) and I couldn't believe it -- I could see the Crystalens. How tiny the lens must be!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
My vision doesn't seem to be a bit better in the left eye. I've checked the halo effect again around lamps and my TV, and it almost looks like the amount of halo margins has decreased a bit -- I think.
Did some research on the Internet. Eyes do not heal at the same rate. It could take up to a week for vision to begin improving.
Friday, January 15, 2010
I put on a pair of blue jeans today and I'll never forget how vivid the blue denim appeared in the mirror.
My article about the Amsler grid is at
Save Your Vision With the Amsler Grid
Showing posts with label cataract surgery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cataract surgery. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 March 2010
The Follow-Up to Surgery
January 12, 2010
Follow-up appointment with Dr. L early in the morning. Joy takes me in the morning and Toni comes to get me after I am done.
Tech assistant at Dr. L's office removes eye patch and some of the gunk. She has me read eye chart and I don't think vision in that eye is very good. I turns out to be 20/70. Dr. L and his optometrist examine my eye, and placement of lens is good, but my cornea is swollen and there's some other edema in another spot. My left pupil will have to stay dilated for all the two weeks so that lens can settle in. This will mean lots of light coming in, and I have to wear sunglasses outside.
Dr. L says my uncorrected vision in the left eye should improve when the swelling abates and it can take several days for this to happen. Full healing take 2 weeks. OK, so I go home.
I think I can better evaluate my vision in familiar surroundings and it's true. When I get home to my kitchen there is a lot of light flooding in. When I cover the right eye, everything looks cleaner and brighter. When I cover the left eye and only look out of the right eye, the kitchen walls and colors definitely have a dingy, yellowish cast to them.
Cataract surgery is like washing the eye with Oxydol or Tide -- all my whites look brighter now! And pinks and blues definitely look better.
In fact, the light early in the morning does have a blue cast. It makes sense, if the world is being subdued by an amber cast, that it has been blocking the blue spectrum of light. How cool! Literally, how cool!
Follow-up appointment with Dr. L early in the morning. Joy takes me in the morning and Toni comes to get me after I am done.
Tech assistant at Dr. L's office removes eye patch and some of the gunk. She has me read eye chart and I don't think vision in that eye is very good. I turns out to be 20/70. Dr. L and his optometrist examine my eye, and placement of lens is good, but my cornea is swollen and there's some other edema in another spot. My left pupil will have to stay dilated for all the two weeks so that lens can settle in. This will mean lots of light coming in, and I have to wear sunglasses outside.
Dr. L says my uncorrected vision in the left eye should improve when the swelling abates and it can take several days for this to happen. Full healing take 2 weeks. OK, so I go home.
I think I can better evaluate my vision in familiar surroundings and it's true. When I get home to my kitchen there is a lot of light flooding in. When I cover the right eye, everything looks cleaner and brighter. When I cover the left eye and only look out of the right eye, the kitchen walls and colors definitely have a dingy, yellowish cast to them.
Cataract surgery is like washing the eye with Oxydol or Tide -- all my whites look brighter now! And pinks and blues definitely look better.
In fact, the light early in the morning does have a blue cast. It makes sense, if the world is being subdued by an amber cast, that it has been blocking the blue spectrum of light. How cool! Literally, how cool!
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
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
Choosing the Lens, Measuring for Surgery
December 1, 2009
Saw Dr. L in his office again to discuss the type of lense. He had previously said that ordinarily, he would enthusiastically recommend the Crystalens, but with my macular pucker, he couldn't guarantee that I'd have the great accommodation and great vision if I got one. But eventually I did opt for a Crystalens-- an expensive alternative, but worth a gamble, I think. Dr. R, the retinal specialist, said I really only had two choices -- a Crystalens or a monofocal IOL -- because any other lens would hamper the peeling of the ERM if he had to do surgery. He said, "You tell Dr. L -- NO to defractive lenses.
If I get a Crystalens, and it doesn't work like advertised, what I'll have in effect is a very expensive monofocal lens in my eye.
December 7, 2009
Had pre-operative appointment with Dr. L's staff to take measurements for my lense, which must be ordered. It will take 30 days for it to arrive. There is plenty of time before the surgery.
My article about the cost of cataract surgery in my area is at:
Cataract Surgery Cost -- Dallas/Fort Worth
Saw Dr. L in his office again to discuss the type of lense. He had previously said that ordinarily, he would enthusiastically recommend the Crystalens, but with my macular pucker, he couldn't guarantee that I'd have the great accommodation and great vision if I got one. But eventually I did opt for a Crystalens-- an expensive alternative, but worth a gamble, I think. Dr. R, the retinal specialist, said I really only had two choices -- a Crystalens or a monofocal IOL -- because any other lens would hamper the peeling of the ERM if he had to do surgery. He said, "You tell Dr. L -- NO to defractive lenses.
If I get a Crystalens, and it doesn't work like advertised, what I'll have in effect is a very expensive monofocal lens in my eye.
December 7, 2009
Had pre-operative appointment with Dr. L's staff to take measurements for my lense, which must be ordered. It will take 30 days for it to arrive. There is plenty of time before the surgery.
My article about the cost of cataract surgery in my area is at:
Cataract Surgery Cost -- Dallas/Fort Worth
Trouble Begins
Sept. 2009
Went to the optometrist for the first time in 1.5 years. Had been noticing eyeglasses prescription seemed wrong. Instead of Dr. C. in Fort Worth, I saw Dr. M. in their Southlake office. Dr. M. advised cataract in left eye was larger -- referred me to Dr. Labor.
Early November 2009
Saw Dr. Labor -- he advised cataract surgery for left eye but also identified an epiretinal membrane there. He advised me to see his associate Dr. R. before having surgery.
Mid-November 2009
Saw Dr. R. in Fort Worth. He did OCT scan on my left eye- said there is "significant traction" on the retina and he is surprised that I don't already have distorted vision. Since we don't know how much the macular pucker is contributing to the poor vision, he wants me to have the cataract out, then come back to see him on Feb. 19. I scheduled the cataract surgery for Jan. 11, 2010.
My article about the choices for premium IOL is at
Crystalens Cost With Cataract Surgery
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