Cataract Surgery

JJ401

Husband’s cataracts worsened and are impacting his life. So after meeting with an opthamologist we (aka I) made the decision to do the surgery. This opthamologist was recommended as dealing well with people with dementia and the office was great. The surgery is relatively easy and once done will (I think) improve the quality of his life.

Today he was scheduled for a 6:15 arrival, which meant we had to leave the house at 5:30am. I prepared the kitchen the night before with no food notes on the cabinets , fridge, microwave, tea kettle, etc. That part went well. He dressed while I was in the shower. And I mean dressed. When I came out of the shower he was wearing a suit. He wasn’t happy when I told him to change to jeans, but he did.

He did well when we got there. Answered all the admission questions correctly. Seemed calm. But, when they took him back, he told them he couldn’t answer any questions and to ask me. As I was right outside they did.

The surgery went fine. He was fine on the way home. The first round of drops went fine. Second round of drops, he asked why and when I said he had eye surgery that morning, he didn’t remember leaving the house.

Later he’s complaining that he needs to go to the eye doctor as his right eye is blurry. I look and he’s wearing his glasses. Of course he can’t see well with that eye with glasses. It’s the eye he had fixed earlier today. I have him takeoff the glasses and he can see.

Luckily, he’s compliant with meds, so as long as I am keeping track and administering, it should be ok.

Tomorrow we go for his followup visit. Should be interesting.

ghphotog

Glad it went relatively well. My DW will be having cataract surgery in a few months and hope it goes well.

Ed1937

Great start. I hope he doesn't mess with his eye.

toolbeltexpert

I had both of my dw eyes done with no problem then she swears they ruined her eyes because close up she needed readers. She has way better eye sight than me. Which was at times was a two edge sword.

Your doing good for your dh and it's never easy but good job.

Quilting brings calm

His eye might be blurry for a while even without his glasses. And of course, his other eye probably still needs the glasses. Your optical center should be able to remove the glass lens for the eye that was operated on, so he can use the glasses for the other eye.

PookieBlue

jj401

    My DH had cataract surgery about 6 years ago. Prior to that his vision was very, very poor. His vision was great after the surgery. He had already begun having cognitive issues before this. I managed all the complicated eye drop scheduling. He was given a choice between having good far vision or good near vision. We chose the far vision because of driving. In hindsight, I would have chosen near vision since he ultimately had to stop driving. 

    He gets Avastin eye injections for the past 6 years, now at every four weeks to keep him from going blind in his right eye due to a bleed. His peripheral vision and perception have been shot for some time. He used to lose his glasses constantly so I bought him five pair. Now he refuses to wear the glasses at all. He has a long deep seated notion that they will make him go blind. I can’t divert that thinking, so I have become his eyes, ears and brain. He presses all the buttons on the microwave and TV remote. He doesn’t understand and he can’t focus. It’s a pain in the you know what!

JJ401

Just back from the post op visit and everything looks good. He’s also a lot less confused today.

Quilting, I asked about removing the lens, and they said we could, but since he has progressives, it doesn’t always work well. Right now he’s happy with his distance vision and I dug out an old pair of my cheaters for him to use ‘reading’ the newspaper. But, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

PookieBlue, we also did the far vision. Not because of driving though. Driving is going to stop. But, so will reading as comprehension will devolve. My thought is that you want to see across the room clearly. You have a much better shot of being able to recognize people if you can see them clearly. So in my mind, you chose right.

We have.a kitchen calendar and every morning he looks at it and then makes his morning tea and toast. This morning it had today’s eye doctor listed. When I came into the kitchen he said he remembered not to eat. Although the don’t eat notes for yesterday’s surgery were gone, he thought he couldn’t eat again today. It’s amazing what sticks and what doesn’t.

JJ401

Just back from his one week visit. 20/20 vision in the surgery eye.

On the way home, I remarked that he won’t have to wear (distance) glasses again. His answer was that he never wore them. (He’s 80 and has worn them since he was a teen.)

Other eye, August 14. Hope it goes as well.

JJ401

Second eye surgery today. It went well. Last time they had me sit in the waiting room after they brought him back to prepare him. This time they let me come in with him while they prepared him. When they first brought us back, I was the only spouse there. By the time he left the prep area for surgery, there were other spouses with patients. I think it serendipitously turned into dementia patient day and they figured it would just be easier to bring in the spouses.

Ed1937

Hooray! Big win for both of you!! I'm glad things went well.