I had cataract surgery yesterday afternoon and although I realize I shouldn’t be expecting great things right now, I am wondering if this is “normal”. The first thing that concerns me is it would almost appear they didn’t take out my cataract. Everything still has that “film” over it. Not blurry, just cloudy.
On the outside of my eye I get a strobe like light flashing. It is very annoying. I have read it could be the lens just settling into place, so not really worried about that, but it is almost constant. However, I have also read if you put the 2 together cloudy vision and flashing light it could be retinal detachment.
Of course my doctor does surgery on Saturday and then his office is closed on Sunday and I don’t have my first follow up until Wednesday. Has anyone experienced these things the day after surgery? Thanks for any information.
Karin, I did not experience anything like this flashing thing right after surgery. I am not sure if my vision was perfectly clear right away though. About 10 months after surgery I got this PVD thing which is a posterior vitreous detachment. I recall at the time the optometrist telling me that when that happens the eye does not know what to do with the detachment process and may report it as flashes even though there is no real light present. I had flashes at that time, but I am quite sure they were reflections off the edge of the IOL. I still get them very occasionally when I am in the dark and there is a bright light off to the side. I am not familiar with retina detachment or the symptoms.
Did they not give you a 24 hour hotline number to call in case of emergency? Could you look in your area and see if there one available? I do know that if the retina is detaching, that it needs to be looked at immediately, or it might not be fixable. You could call emergency at a hospital near you, but unless they have an ophthalmologist on duty, it might not help you.
All cataract surgeons h ave someone on call 24/7. Call your drs office number and the answering service will connect you to a dr on call
There is a good chance they might have an Ophthalmologist on call. With AMD if there is a sudden change in vision you are told to get in IMMEDIATELY for a shot or you could go blind. That made me aware that most facilities would have an on call Ophthalmologist on the weekends.
I don't know if this would help but I sometimes (every two months or so) for several years will start to see dancing lights in the periphery of my vision. They are jagged, bright, moving lights. Very odd and scary. I can almost feel it coming on when I am using my eyes too much and/or am agitated.
I finally after years of this asked my eye doctor about it and she said it is a migraine.....sort of like a migraine headache but with the eyes. I do not ever get headaches so it is not related to my head but is strictly in the eyes.
It seems to happen when I am under stress so you might in addition to visiting the Ophthalmologist try to work on really relaxing. To get these dancing lights to go away I put on dark glasses and totally relax for about 30 minutes or so and they do go away.
Thank you all for your replies. I went to our Emergency Eye Center and they called my surgeon. He said it is just "normal" healing and nothing to worry about, but if I wanted I could go see him tomorrow morning. It was like a disco party in my eye, which was not fun. Not as bad now, but still flickers. If it is still this way in the morning I will for sure go see him. Better safe than sorry.
I just remembered with these comments that several years ago, long before cataracts etc for both of us, my wife got the flashing lights thing. She called her optometrist and was told to go to the hospital where they do all the eye surgeries. I recall now that the concern was retina detachment. I drove her there and she got checked out. Fortunately it did not turn out to be something serious. This may not always be the case.
Yes, do go in the morning if you are still having those sensations.
Sounds like the right move!
The flickering is the IOL settling in, that's 100% normal. I've had the same thing and it just gets better over time. I have progressively less of it every day. This is mentioned in every post-surgery info package i've seen including videos online. I've noticed some floaters are more visible with the clear lens installed.
It seems to be at its worst first thing in the morning, although it goes on all day. I get headaches from this flashing light. I also see light streaks coming from lights that are the length of the room. I thought Tecnis didn't have these. Hopefully they will go away also. On the bottom outside edge of my eye it is blurry and that remains all day. Not sure what that is about. Things aren't as clear as I thought they would be by now, but seems to improve a bit every day. I go to the doctor tomorrow so perhaps some of my questions will be answered, not that this clinic has answered any of my questions in the past. I don't understand why my clinic doesn't put together an information package letting patients know what to expect after surgery, what may happen and what is "normal" and what isn't. They send you off with instructions on what not to do and that's about it. Sorry for all the complaining, I obviously woke up in a feeling sorry for myself mood lol.
My eye had perfect sharp vision on the first day, now there's some ghosting in it when used without glasses. It's a bit better in the morning and in good light, but it's not what I saw earlier yet. With glasses the picture is sharp, but i'd like to obviously get back to that stupefying sharpness without glasses.
There maybe still swelling in the eye / wound and possibly some minor astigmatism because of that. I'm just going to keep using the drops like instructed and i'm sure things will turn out great. I bought a bunch of cheap readers and I have my previously prescribed +1's with better quality optics. Those give by far the best vision but the cheaters work great too, especially on the computer where +1 isn't quite enough. I just swapped one of the lenses to keep my old eye in line a bit more.
I also already scheduled my second eye for 24th of this month, i'll probably get the same tecnis1 lens for that. There's the option of mix/match using the eyhance also for the non-dominant, but I might just opt to not complicate things. We'll see how this turns out. My lens hasn't settled in yet either. The doc said it'll take about a week.
I have to keep reminding myself it is only 3 days after surgery and I shouldn't expect perfect. I have started using drops for dry eyes and that seems to help. I just watched some YouTube videos on what to expect after surgery, so thanks for that suggestion. I should have thought of doing that before.
I have to laugh at myself when I am trying to read something and I bring it closer to see like I did with my "normal" eye and then realize, nope that doesn't work anymore. The eye I haven't had corrected yet still lets me see near without readers, although my eye does get tired fast. I have to go out and get readers before I get the second eye done.
I got a 2 page Post Op Instructions document that had some brief instructions. Parts that may be relevant:
It is normal for the eye to feel as if something is in it (like a scratchy sensation). This is because of the incision that is used to remove the cataract.
You can wear your old glasses if they give you better vision than without. Whether you wear them or not will not hurt your eye.
.
Call the Surgeon if:
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1. You notice a decrease in vision
2. You are experiencing worsening pain in the operated eye
3. There is a discharge from the eye (that is not tears) or worsening redness
4. You notice an increase in the number of floaters in the operated eye
.
I hope things continue to improve for you. Best of luck.
I get it! Your clinic sounds like my HMO! Hope things will improve for you with time. Will be interested in following your feedback. Thanks for posting your results after surgery!
I was told not to use drop for eye drops directly after cataract surgery because they might dilute the regimen of antibiotics and steroids I presume you are on. But check with your dr
I never had a flickering sensation.
If you don't get a clear satisfactory answers from your dr, press him or her until you do. Be assertive.
I presume you meant stop taking lubricating drops directly after eye surgery since they might dilute the other eye drops required?
I asked the pre-op nurse about the stinging of steroid drops and she said to add a lubricating drop 5 minutes before taking the steroid drop. I really wondered about that and would be afraid it might dilute the steroid too much?
I might think to use lubricating drops but might wait 30 minutes after taking a steroid drop but still unsure about that also.
That's VERY hard when you never had to wear readers before! My doctor keeps warning me about what to expect in terms of using glasses and I am trying to grapple with that now. I would have gotten a multifocal (2K each eye more) but I was told I could not because of AMD (I was secretly happy not to have to shell out the 4K!) Hang in there! 3 weeks will be a good indicator of what you have.