Quantcast

Living with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)

Cataract surgery 10/29

General Discussion
#1

I’m having cataract surgery tomorrow, 10/29. This will be the first eye, and the second one will be done within the next month or so, I think. I’m a little bit nervous, but overall excited. The first cataract developed about 5 years ago, as a result of inflammation. Everything got much worse in the last two years, because of steroids. I was taking a lot of steps because I developed pericarditis. Note to others, avoid steroids with pericarditis because it’s can make it become chronic.

So anyway, that leads me to today, nervous and excited about tomorrow. I’m taking tomorrow and the next day is from work (mostly). I tutor a lot, so that’s the part that I need to take the extra day of from. I’ll check in tomorrow. The good news is that my arrival time is 8:45am, so I won’t be waiting around all day,

1 Like
#2

Best of luck. But you know you’ll be fine. And you’ll be amazed how much better you see after too. Later I’ll tell you a funny story about my Mum after her first cataract operation. xxx

2 Likes
#3

Best wishes Stoney.

My aunt had her first cataract surgery in her early '80s, the second at 85. Neither interfered much with her hectic social life or caring for all the waifs & strays she takes under her wing. And she’s pleased as punch with the results.

Hope you get a brilliant result.

#4

Let me start off by saying, I have never received so many eye drops in my life in such a short time. Before the surgery there was a series of eye drops every 5 minutes apart oh, and I think there were three to six in each round. Not the end of the world, just a lot of eye drops.

I was given happy juice, but not completely sedated. I had laser first, and then the cataract part of it. Apparently you do need to be conscious and cooperative for both parts of that.

The surgery itself went very well. I’m on my way home after a delay. But I’m impressed with how well I’m already seeing. The delay was that I passed out and vomited all over myself, after I was already in my street clothes. So I wound up staying for about an extra 2 hours oh, so they could make sure that I was able to hold food down, and that my blood pressure came back up.

I will see the doctor tomorrow morning for a check-in, and at this point I am planning on not driving myself anywhere tomorrow. But I will be planning on returning to work on Thursday and I will be driving myself all over.

2 Likes
#5

I can’t wait to hear the story

1 Like
#6

The story is that she all of what you had to go through, bar the vomiting or the passing out (you poor thing that must have been awful) and I think it was the next morning when she was getting dressed that she got the shock of her life!

She looked in the mirror and was horrified no one told her she had got that old!!! She was in her late 70’s if not early 80’s. And she aged enormously gracefully too. She was so delighted to see so much better except for looking in the mirror!!!

She phoned me up distraught and all I could do was laugh, which wasn’t helping her at all. But you’re far too young for that shock. Hope your recovery goes well.

1 Like
#7

Oh no! Or woman, she could see clearly and didn’t like what she saw! Truthfully, I’ve been wearing glasses since I was a kid. What I’ve noticed is that I look weird. I look like I have black eyes, just with the dark circles under my eyes. Glasses did a good job of hiding some of that.

1 Like
#8

So I saw the eye doctor this morning, and I’ll go back in a week for a follow up. The good news is that my vision is already at 20/25. I think it’s pretty typical to be around 20/40 the following day, so I’m already exceeding expectations. This means that there’s a very good expectation of having perfect vision. Some minor oddities in my vision. Some of that is because of the mild dilation still, and some of it is because of the inflammation. But regardless, my only complaint today is some light sensitivity.

Why am I sharing all this? First off, it’s helping me track how things are going. But equally importantly, my knowledge of cataract surgery and recovery is pretty limited. Inflammation and steroids can both heavily contribute to cataracts. Hence why I’m sharing here.

1 Like
#9

She had this notion that she actually looked a lot younger than she was, she was just horrified to see more lines in stark definition, having not had the ability to see those lines so clearly for some time. :joy: She aged beautifully though, so she shouldn’t have worried.

I’m the same - I persistently think I look thinner than I do so when I get shown a photo of myself I always get a shock! :rofl: And not a pleasant one.

Best of luck with the ongoing recovery. I too aged 57 was told at my last optician check up that I’ve the beginnings of cateracts developing. Steroids have also given me the beginnings of osteoporosis too. Nasty little things - steroids are - despite how good they are for some things and despite how marvellous they can make us PsA sufferers feel at times.

1 Like
#10

It’s shocking what inflammation from PsA can do. Same for steroids though at least avoidance / minimising use is something we can do, in theory anyway.

So glad things are looking brighter - literally! Sounds like a great result so far.

2 Likes
#11

Thank you ever so much for sharing, will see the eye doc on Tues eve, possibly for similar outcome. Vision has been so low cannot focus anyone, would not be able to drive, can only see in focus one foot away max. All the best to everyone,

1 Like
#12

Thank you @letizia for commenting. I hope that you get an answer like mine. Cataracts are a major cause of blindness, but it is reversible with cataract surgery.

It’s been almost 7 months now since I had my second eye done. I had one eye done for distance and one for near. I’ve been very happy with having the cataract surgeries done. I can do most things without any need for glasses, although I do typically choose to use reading glasses. I like to read closeup. If I don’t have any, I’m fine. I’ll ultimately get custom readers made. More importantly, I can drive even under the worst conditions, namely at night in the rain.

2 Likes
#13

Best of luck. My mother despite being horrified she looked older than she had thought, was blown away how well she could see afterwards, the sharpness of outlines on everything and the brightness and hues of all the colours. She said seeing again in such detail was simply miraculous!

1 Like
#14

Let us know how things go. Good luck letizia.

1 Like
#15

Well, apparently no sweat. Doc checked for glaucoma, runs in my family, and cataracts,. Found my shortsightedness in my left eye had worsened from previous check up in 2013, and gave me another prescription for new glasses, said my problem was dry eye due to age , gave me drops to help humidify eyeballs, and told me to get anti screen reflex lenses. Thank you all for the support, all the best

1 Like
#16

I’m glad it’s something manageable.

1 Like
#17

No sweat indeed! Good news eh!

I have dry eye. It’s not like I thought it would be. I expect these problems to be consistent and fully-compliant with all the symptoms shown on internet sites. But, sigh, they just seem to do their own thing.

So I get blurry vision at random. Sore eyes sometimes. Sometimes vision seems really bad and sometimes it is improved by cleaning my glasses. Quite often vision is fine.

1 Like