Cataract Surgery at age 43

Last Thursday, February 18, 2021, I had a cataract removed from my right eye and received a new, multifocal lens, which allows me to see better than I have in over 30 years. It's insane how much the inability to see from that eye was hindering me mentally. I first started noticing that my vision was declining in that eye about 2-3 years ago. My thought at first was that it was related to my contact. I thought it was buildup. But it was frustrating because I would change contacts and within a matter of days, I would notice the same issue. It appeared to be just a small smudge on my contact. I've been wearing contacts since I was a sophomore in high school, so I was familiar with the occasional smudge. This didn't seem any different, except that it was happening far more regularly. Eventually I decided it was due to the toric (for astigmatism) lens that I had, as prior to those I was wearing regular contacts and it didn't seem to be as bad. So I made an appointment and switched back to regular contacts. Over the next few months however, I noticed my vision in the right eye getting worse, little by little. By the beginning of 2020, I decided there was something wrong with my eye. I knew at this point it couldn't just be my contacts, so I set up another appointment with my optometrist. Unfortunately, I was unaware until the day of my appointment, that the doctor I had been seeing, had moved to a new location and the doctor that I was seeing was just a fill in, as they had not yet found a permanent replacement. I went ahead with the appointment and asked the fill-in optometrist about a cataract, which she seemed to brush off and mentioned that I was too young to have cataracts. I rolled my eyes and went with a new prescription, again. Soon after this appointment, Covid19 hit and everything was being closed down, so I didn't even get my new contacts ordered after the trial pair that they'd sent me home with, which I could already tell wasn't correcting my vision enough. It was over this time that my vision began to rapidly decline in the right eye. Fortunately my left eye was still, what seemed to be, nearly perfect (with the use of a contact or glasses). In November of 2020, I finally made an appointment with an ophthalmologist. Not to my surprise, they did find a cataract. In both eyes, actually, however in the left eye, it is not directly in my line of sight, so it isn't affecting my vision terribly, just yet. I had some concerns with this first place that I went to. For one, they didn't take insurance (which usually covers the very basic cataract surgery), which raised a flag for me. There were some other issues there also, but I'll spare those details. The holidays were approaching and I decided to hold off on going somewhere else until after. At the beginning of January, I made an appointment at the same office where my mom had gone to have her cataract surgeries, less than 10 years ago. After a few hiccups, I finally was able to get in there on February 9th and was lucky enough to schedule the cataract surgery just over a week later, on the 18th. I had plenty of anxiety leading up to the surgery, including some nights that I found it very difficult to fall asleep. The day of the surgery came, I fasted, arrived at the clinic where my husband dropped me off, as he was not allowed to come inside, due to covid restrictions. The nurse came outside to get me when they were ready for me. I signed some papers then went and sat down to have some vitals taken, start and IV, and for the doctor to mark my eye. After a bit they had a bed ready for me where they hooked me up to a heart monitor and started gave me 3 syringes of whatever it was to relax me. After what was probably 30-45 minutes of monitoring me, they wheeled me back to the operating room. They placed me under the laser where they placed numbing drops in my eyes every so often as they waited for the doctor to come in. The laser part only lasted maybe 1 minute. Two tops. It was a little weird to say the least. My eye was mostly numb, but I could feel the pressure and what it seemed like I could see the lens being suctioned out, but that was probably just something else. After the laser part, the doctor performed the rest of the surgery by hand, under the microscope, which is where he put in the new lens. It was really tricky for me though. He wanted me to stay focused on a light, but I really couldn't see one and I was worried he was going to send me away uncooperative and blind. When he was all done, he stepped away and they asked if I could see. I could, but it was very dark (I'd been staring into a very bright light for the last 15 or so minutes, so naturally it was dark) and I felt like there were spots of just black, like if I tried to look at the light on the ceiling. They put a patch over my eye, sent me out to listen to some discharge orders, and I left. I was to leave the patch on overnight and take it off the next morning. I had real fears that after removing it, I would still have blind spots. Those fears were laid to rest the next morning upon removing the patch. My eye was dilated almost completely due to some drops they had used, and my vision was a bit blurry, but I could see!! It was amazing. Over the next couple days my vision continued to get better and at my 5 day post op appointment, I was able to read some of the smallest lines on the eye chart. Before the surgery I couldn't not even see the giant E! In a few months I will go back to have them evaluate the cataract in my left eye and decide if it's time to have that one removed. It's interesting, because prior to having the right one removed, my left eye almost seemed like my vision was crystal clear. Now comparing it to the new lens in my right eye, I can see a big difference and know that the surgery will be necessary in the not too distant future. I look forward to it with excitement!