Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries performed in the world. This procedure is done to replace the lens of your eye with an artificial one. The need of doing this replacement arises when the clear lens of your eye gets cloudy with a cataract, compromising your vision. Nowadays, the surgery is done on the outpatient basis, meaning the patient doesn’t have to spend the recovery time in the hospital. Mostly, the surgery is done using ultrasound energy or by laser technology to remove the cloudy lens. To learn more about this surgery or to get it done yourself, it might be worth visiting a website like https://sharpe-vision.com/austin/, for example. Those eye surgeons will be able to answer any questions you might have.
Even though cataract surgery is a very safe procedure, there are several things that you should be careful about while recovering from the surgery. Here in this article we’ll discuss what you must expect when recovering from a cataract surgery.
What to Expect After a Cataract Surgery
Once you’re done with the cataract surgery you can expect your vision to improve within a few days. It’s perfectly normal if your vision is blurry at first till your eye recovers from the surgery and slowly gets adjusted. Another major change that the patient first feels is that the colours seem brighter than before because you’re now looking through a new and clear lens. A cataract usually has a brownish or yellowish tint which must’ve dimmed the brightness of colours before. That’s why this change is felt so much.
The Visits to Your Surgeon
Once the cataract surgery has been performed on you, you have to make the regular visits to your surgeon in order to make sure that your eye is recovering properly or not. This is necessary because at times there can be an infection in your eye after the surgery which needs to be checked and treated. Your first post-surgery appointment will be a day or two after your surgery. Then it’s highly likely you’ll be called in after a week for a check up, and then again after a month to make sure the healing process is going just fine.
Effects of the Surgery
It’s perfectly normal to feel itching or slight discomfort in the eye that has been operated. However, you should avoid rubbing or scratching your eye in response to the itchiness. Your surgeon would advise you to wear an eye patch, like a pirate, for several days and would recommend that you wear a protective eye shield when you go to sleep to avoid any rough contact with your eye. You can also expect your surgeon to inject steroid medications into the operated eye in order to prevent it from any inflammation. To find a suitably qualified surgeon you can visit places like personaleyes.com.au.
Recovering from the Surgery
After two or three days, most of the discomfort will be gone, and the complete healing of your eye will take about eight weeks. However, you should contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following:
- Vision loss
- Pain that never seems to end despite taking the medications
- Increasing eye redness
- Flashes of light or floaters (spots) in front of your eye
Sometimes patients feel the need of spectacles after the cataract surgery. The average duration your eye needs to get fit to wear spectacles after the surgery is between one and three months. Moreover, if you have cataracts in both your eyes, then your surgeon will schedule the second surgery after your first eye has been healed completely.
