For those of you who may be interested in this type of surgery, I had a cataract removed and a new lens replacing it this past Tuesday. The first picture is the ophthalmologist on the left, his assistant nurse on the right and yours truly on the table.
Here is one of my "baby-blues" pre-surgery. One can see the opaque colouring in the pupil which is the cataract. Interestingly, this is as far as they could get my eye to dilate.
Here, the physician is making an incision on the inferior surface near the iris where he will be doing all the surgery through this very tiny hole. It is about the size of a pencil tip.
He is using a tool to cut the lens into pieces in this picture.
This picture is where he is "peeling" the lens which is now in pieces.
You can see the cataract in pieces in this one and he is preparing to "vacuum" the cataract lens out of the eye.
In this picture, he is putting in the new lens. It is rolled like a crape so he can fit in through the incision where he will unfold it when it is inside the eye.
Here is the finished product.
Complements to my partner, Steve for taking these pictures off of the monitor during surgery.
What was strange was the local injection in the lower part of my eye of the anaesthetic. It will immobilize the eye and makes one blind in that eye during most of the surgery. Afterwards it took approximately 4-5 hours before it would start moving and a bit longer to get it to track properly with my other eye. Therefore, I had double vision and upon looking into the mirror, I was reminded of Professor Moody in the Harry Potter series. My one eye was moving where I wanted it to whilst the other on remained stationary. Very strange to watch when it is yourself experiencing it. I hope this didn't gross any of you out since I wanted it to be informative and not sensational.
I'm still on the mend but my vision is getting better and better as I progress. Thanks to all who sent their best wishes.
Butch
10 comments:
Hey Mad-Eye!! Glad to hear you are doing so well.
Kudos on blogging about the surgery...yah, it's a little gross, but really, it's more fascinating to see just what they are capable of these days.
Greg: Ha! "Mad-Eye" it was. Thanks, I'm glad it's over.
I was wondering if the pics would be too much or not but hopefully, they aren't too gross to see. What is amazing is that I can see this page without wearing glasses. I found that I can wear my reading glasses (so far) to read. We'll see if there are any changes to it once my eyes have stabilized in 2-4 weeks.
It's amazing how uninvasive they can be nowadays. Very informative thanks!
'Mad-eye Butch'! Love it.
There was a medical channel on cable that showed live surgery. I always dreaded surfing past it, afraid of what I might see... or worse, be compelled to watch.
Cataract Surgery is pretty routine these days - hope your recovery is quick and complete.
Torn: I have memories of my grandmother having her cataracts removed and it was much different back in the 1950s. There were no lens to replace the cataract and they needed to make a much larger incision to allow them to extract the diseased lens. They also used sutures to close the wound and the patient was not allowed to move their eye for nearly a week. After her surgery she had to wear very thick glasses over the eye that had surgery. After she had her other eye done, both of the glasses were very thick and quite heavy considering how light glasses are today. She was just grateful she could see again.
As soon as my other eye digresses to the point where I need it done, I will. The one I had removed came up within 4-5 months so I imagine the other one happening later on in the year.
Joe: Thank goodness my eye is behaving now that the anesthetic has worn off. "Mad-Eye Butch" would have sealed my fate. ;-)
Even after retiring from medicine, I find myself occasionally tuning in to the University of Washington's medical programs which include medical procedures. There used to be a surgical channel I watched as well when I had nothing better to do but somewhere along the line, we must have chosen a different cable package that doesn't have it on the menu.
Since retirement, I really haven't missed being in the mix of practicing medicine and would need to go back to school to catch up to where the field has gone and I've only be out of it since the fall of 2001! Lots of changes since then.
Thanks for your best wishes.
Fascinating pics. A little icky, but frascinating. Since everyone in my family, parents, siblings, cousins, has had the surgery, I'll probably be facing it eventually. Of course, you ARE a lot older than me, so....
Anyway, thanks for the update. While the excitement of the first day of retirement has been grand, I actually was thinking about you and wondering how the cataract surgery went. If you visit my blog today, you'll see how tense and worked up i was about it.
Lacey: Ha! I AM older than you so show a little respect for your elders. ;-)
Actually, I was over at your site and I recognize that position quite well. It looked like your concern just tired both you and the dog! ;-)
The nice thing about retirement is that you really do not have to plan your days. Just do what you want, and be sure and get in those naps!
Wow, I hope you taking it easy.
Wonder Man: Thanks, I am. All I need to do post-surgery, is to remember to put in the four different types of drops four times a day. My vision seems to improve daily. Once my eyes stabilize, I will have a new prescription made for glasses which will be only for reading smaller print like in a paper or book. What is amazing is I do not need glasses anymore to type on the computer. ;-)
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