The final post in my three part “Expectation” series:
The Day After Surgery
1) You should arrive at your surgeon’s office at the scheduled time (usually in the morning). Please bring your drops with you.
2) Your surgeon’s staff will remove your eye shield and check your vision. Your vision may or may not be better the first day after surgery as there are many variables that can affect vision early after surgery. Â Most people who do not have other diseases of the eye will experience significant improvement in their vision with new glasses by one month after surgery.
3) Your surgeon (or his or her staff) will check your vision and intraocular pressure. Your surgeon will complete a brief examination of the eye. Sometimes it is necessary to lower the intraocular pressure either in the office or with additional drops.
4) You may receive a pair of “cataract glasses” (wrap around plastic sunglasses) to be used when you are outside. This is mostly for comfort as bright lights will be bothersome while the eye is healing.
5) The first week after surgery you will be swimming in drops. These drops protect the eye from infection and inflammation. Your surgeon may have removed the cataract and replaced it with a new lens, but the ball is in your court after surgery. It is critical for proper healing that you use your eyedrops as instructed and limit your activities to those approved by your surgeon.
6) You will likely have another appointment with your surgeon about a week after surgery. By this time 95% of the healing is done and your vision should be clearer (unless you have corneal astigmatism or other ocular disease such as glaucoma or macular degeneration that could limit your vision). You may be seen by the surgeon or another doctor. The purpose of this visit is primarily to confirm that the eye is healing as anticipated and to re-instruct you in the care of your eye. Most likely the doctor will allow you to reduce the number of drops you have to use.
7) Around two to four weeks after surgery your eye can be checked for new glasses. Unless you chose a “presbyopia-correcting IOL” you will need bifocals or both distance and near glasses. Some optometrists prefer to double check this refraction in another week or so to confirm that the eye is no longer changing as it heals. You can also schedule surgery on your second eye around this time if you have a significant cataract in your other eye.
8) I prefer my patients to keep the eye “clean and dry” for the first month after surgery. Essentially, this means no swimming and no gardening. It’s generally OK to take a shower and wash one’s face or hair. It is not OK to submerge the eye under water or work in the dirt.
9) As for physical activities, I instruct my patients to avoid lifting objects greater than 20 pounds for the first few weeks. For grandparents, it’s a good idea not to lift that toddler grandchild (toddlers have an uncanny way of whacking an eye after surgery when they are excited or upset). Light aerobic activity such as a Stairmaster or stationary bike is OK but I’d stay away from kick-boxing or high-impact aerobics.
10) It is usually OK to resume driving a few days after surgery (assuming you were driving prior to surgery) but this should be confirmed with the surgeon.
11) Ocular irritation and a little redness in the white part of the eye is OK. However, any significant pain, swelling, or loss of vision is not. These symptoms demand an immediate call to your surgeon.
In general the post-operative experience is uneventful other than the usual “Wow!” experience of improved vision. However, following the guidelines of your surgeon is critical to the success of the surgery.
© 2009 David Richardson, MD
10 days after cataract surgery. my eye is still uncomfortable. but, i have seasonal allergies. it’s fall right now & headaches are constant (usual during this season) could this be why i am feeling discomfort in surgery eye? i assume, yes. or do i have to check it out.
Dear Joe,
Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to give personal medical advice online. A good rule of thumb, however, is that one’s surgeon should be notified of any problems or issues one is experiencing after surgery. When a surgeon operates on someone, s/he tacitly accepts the responsibility of dealing with (or assigning someone to deal with) any unexpected issues that arrise. When I operate on someone I am personally available 24/7 to answer their calls and address their concerns.
You should not have to search online for answers to your post-operative questions. I would call your surgeon’s office and speak to someone there that can give you advice based on knowledge of your particular surgery and eye condition.
I have halos and ghosts with tecnis iol lens,what is the longest time it takes to go away? IT HAS BEEN THREE MONTHS SO FAR.
Well, if what you mean by “tecnis iol” is the AMO Tecnis MF (multifocal) IOL then technically they will never fully go away. Multifocal IOLs work by splitting the light between distant and near images. Thus, when someone with a multifocal IOL is looking at an obect in the distance s/he will see a “halo” from the near objects or lights which are poorly focused on the retina. The opposite is true when looking at near objects (distant images/lights will be the source of the halo). Over time many people will experience a process called “neuroadaptation” which essentially means that the brain learns to ignore the image that is out of focus. This can take up to six months and tends to work better when both eyes have multifocal IOLs implanted. Needless to say, choosing a multifocal IOL for the second eye when the vision in the first eye is unsatisfactory requires a leap of faith.
Rarely, neuroadaptation does not kick in and an IOL exchange may be considered. However, many people who thought they were annoyed by the halos learn (after the multifocal is removed and replaced by a monofocal IOL) that the need for reading glasses for all near and intermediate tasks is even more annoying. Thus, one must consider very carefully just how bothersome the halos are prior to opting for an IOL exchange.
Before considering IOL exchange the surgeon generally rules out other causes of glare or halos such as residual refractive error, dry eye, capsular opacification, macular disease, etc.