Adjusting to a Bright New World - My Final Post-Op Checkup

I know that 90% of the folks today who get cataract surgery do not have issues - I’m not in that percentage because I had issues right away with the first eye. They’ve inserted a tension ring to hold the lens in place - if it slips down the line, they must sew the lens in place. 

The second eye seems to have fared better. They were concerned at first because the swelling inside wasn’t going down as quickly as expected.

Today I had my final post-op surgery and my last. I can drop the 4th eye drop but will need to continue two others, just once a day each, until the 1st. It is funny with the drops. I had no trouble giving them to myself with the right eye, with an eye drop gadget. But even with that gadget, I wasted more on my face than I got in my eye. Today, they tell me I can put the drops in the fridge. That way, when I do it, I can feel right away if the drop made it into the eye because of the coolness. That’s a great idea. I wish they had told me three weeks ago.

Also, I’m still not allowed to life or bend completely forward at the waist (no head below heart action) until the 1st. Some surgery centers, they told me, only do this for a week but they are more strict and insist on a full month.

None of this is a biggie. This is all rather good news. They said I can come back in two weeks to pick out frames - insurance pays for one pair of frames and lenses so I might as well get them. I can actually do without except for readers for really small print or some print on some computer screens. Plus, I do still have that astigmatism they found back when I was 20. So I’ll go get them after the 1st. They said that now, with the new lenses in place, I actually have 20/30 and 20/25 and could easily pass my driver’s license renewals without glasses.

The only other thing is that I’ve had a mild, low-grade headache ever since about a week after the second surgery. They said they didn’t know any reason for that and it was not a side effect of the surgery. But I knew it just wasn’t right.

So, I did an online search. Many people have had this issue, not just me, it seems. And every one of them was told by their surgeon and staff that it was not connected to the surgery. One person finally made a connection with a cause in his case. He realized that light was bothering him now.

I thought back and realized that they started after I stopped wearing the wrap-around sunglasses outside, a week after surgery, as directed. Then I remembered that they told me that my cataracts were the worst they’ve seen in years. So I’ve been functioning in a dark world to some extent for years. Now my eyes love seeing the bright clear world around me. But I think I will go back to the sunglasses when outside on bright days. I tested my theory at, of all places, the computer screen tonight. My screen is quite bright at times. I plopped my sunglasses over my readers and worked online for a while. Then I had to take them off for something or other, and...no headache...for the first time in a couple of weeks. Problem solved. I have to just let my eyes adjust a little more slowly to this bright new world.

One other reason some of them discovered was that their headaches resulted from cold air on their eyes.

Thank you, my Father, for my wonderful new eyes. I began this in December, so I consider these a Christmas gift from you. I am very grateful!