What You Should Know About Your Upcoming Cataract Surgery
When you go to your eye doctor for a routine eye exam and checkup, the last thing you expect is to be told that you have cataracts. However, cataracts are one of the most common eye disorders in the country and can, luckily, be treated through surgery. If you are in the process of preparing for your cataract surgery, you may wonder what you can expect from the procedure and the recovery process. Before you become overly preoccupied or worried about your upcoming cataract surgery, get to know more about what will happen on the day of surgery and what recovery will be like so that you can be better prepared for what is to come.
Leading Up To Surgery
Cataract surgery is a routine procedure for most ophthalmologists. As such, they have the routine that you need to follow for preparing for surgery down to a science. Leading up to your surgery, you will be given prescriptions for different eye drops that you will need to begin using the days leading up to surgery. One of those is an antibiotic eye drop. This type of eye drop is designed to preemptively prevent an infection in your eye following the operation.
The other eye drops are often anti-inflammatory (steroid) eye drops that help your eye to heal faster following surgery. Be sure that you take these eye drops exactly as your eye doctor tells you to so that you can minimize your chances of complications and shorten your recovery time from surgery as much as possible.
The Surgery and Recovery
When you go in for your cataract surgery, it is important that you have a friend or family member come in with you. They will be your transportation to and from the appointment, as you will be unable to drive safely for at least 24 hours after your cataract surgery. You can expect to likely spend a few hours at the eye doctor's office on the day of your cataract surgery.
While the procedure is often quite fast for your eye doctor to complete, you will need to fill out paperwork, be prepped for surgery with more eye drops and anesthesia. You will then spend time in a recovery room to ensure you do not have any immediate complications. Planning for a half day at the doctor's office is the safest bet to ensure that you do not underestimate the amount of time your companion will need to wait with you.
Once you go home from cataract surgery, you will need to limit certain types of movements for several days while your eyes heal. For example, bending down to tie your shoes or pick something up off of the floor will be a restricted motion for several weeks. The reason you should not bend down in this way following your cataract surgery is that having your head tilted so far down places more pressure on the head and eyes. This extra pressure could rupture your sutures and cause permanent damage to your eyes.
Lifting heavy objects and other strenuous activities that could raise the blood pressure will also be restricted until you are fully healed (usually within a few months after the surgery has been completed). Some people may also find that drinking caffeinated beverages can cause their eyes to feel uncomfortable following surgery and may want to limit their caffeine intake until their eyes have fully healed.
For more information, contact Midwest Eye Care PC or a similar company.