Friday, 24 April 2015

Cataract surgery

Oh boy I'm glad to be home! Today was my cataract operation on my left eye. To my surprise and some alarm, I was told as soon as I arrived that I was being moved from afternoon to morning surgery because one of the patients had not turned up. This was a good thing of course, because it meant that I wouldn't have to hang around for so long. I was taken straight through to the pre-op area, got into my gown and soon was in the anaesthetics room. I had already been given lots of drops in my eye to numb it, and now one of the nurses put a sort of metal frame around my eye to hold the lids open. Unfortunately this sent me into a fit of coughing and wheezing, probably because of nerves. I managed to get control of it and I got a big jag of local anaesthetic into my eye socket before being taken into the operating theatre. Then a big sticky patch was put over my face and the operation started. The good thing was that I couldn't see a thing. That may sound strange but I had been worried that I would see exactly what the surgeon was doing to me in horrible detail. But I think the local anaesthetic made me unable to see, which in turn made the operation easier for me because I could at least try to ignore what was happening. I could feel pressure and was aware that the surgeon was working away. At one point the nurse said something and I said "Did you say disco?" which made everybody laugh because in fact she had said something like "viscous" - I had thought she was referring to the music that was playing in the background. Also the surgeon kept saying "drops" to get more liquid squirted into my eye, but before I worked that out I honestly thought he was saying "Oops" which worried me.
The operation was soon over; I have a big patch over my eye! I was taken up to the ward where I was given a cup of tea and a biscuit. I was glad to get home to my kitties.

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