February 6, 2019
I got up at 4:30 a.m. so I'd have time to drink a cup of black coffee before 5.
Not allowed to drink anything for 4 hours before the appointment. Now, it's 4 minutes after noon, and I'm back home. I've had the cataract surgery on my left eye — my much worse eye — and I'm doing fine.
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168 comments:
OK. Glad to hear.
And you still have an eye for commentary.
Glad to hear it Althouse. My 89 YO dad had both eyes done in Nov/Dec and it went really well: no pain and his vision has substantially improved. Hoping the same for you.
-Friendo
Excellent! We hope you have a smooth recovery.
Good to hear. Hope everything goes well.
Glad to hear it!
Ann,
You gotta cut out the sugar and carbohydrates. Cataracts are caused by an over indulgence of carbohydrates. Get on a keto diet.
May you have a speedy recovery.
Here is an article on cataracts:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/cataracts.html
Congrats! I had cataracts removed a year and a half ago and it's such a pleasure. I am also very glad that I had one eye slightly under-corrected and now I can see both close and middle distance with no need for separate glasses. I like to wear my (weak prescription) far-distance glasses when I drive or look at TV across the room.
Get well soon we want you to get well!
So will you read with a noticeable limp for a while?
I tried bike riding wearing an eye patch just out of curiosity years ago and it works fine. You've got an extra eye.
Good news. I hope you start noticing a difference quickly.
Get well soon! Enjoy the clarity.
Great news! Glad it went well and hope your recovery is quick and complete.
Good to hear. Hope your recovery is as effortless as the thought put into a Guardian column.
Refu'ah sh'lema
Syl1492 said: You gotta cut out the sugar and carbohydrates. Cataracts are caused by an over indulgence of carbohydrates. Get on a keto diet.
I think there is really something to this. I developed cataracts "early," in my mid-fifties. I don't think it's coincidence that this coincided with the development of diabetes--I had no idea this was happening to me at the time. Unfortunately I still have some pesky "floaters," which I also think is related to high blood sugar, and they do not go away. I don't do keto, but everything about my health, including blood glucose/cholesterol numbers, is vastly improved by simply eating lower-carb. Most meals do not include bread, pasta, sugar, or starchy veggies. I so wish I had known the connection between simple carbs and all these health problems in my 40s, which is when the fat started to accumulate around my middle.
Glad to hear you're doing well! My advice is: don't take diet advice from anyone on the internet.
Get an eye patch like James Joyce or Nick Fury
So glad to hear you're okay, Ann!
Good news
Good news Althouse. I hope there is very little discomfort.
Best wishes. It'll be fine. I had both of mine done, and my brother too, and my mother too. No problems at all. They've gotten very good at it.
I'm not diabetic or even pre-diabetic.
But as for what causes cataracts... that's a non-issue for me since I can't get cataracts once the lenses are removed and replaced with artificial lenses.
Very good. I think you'll like the results, from what I've heard others say.
Glad to hear it went well. Best wishes
Congratulations on getting through it (except for the 5 days without sneezing). How long before you see the results?
Some interesting history about how they figured out they could just shove a new lens in and it would work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens#History
A few people asking questions and being observant led to better eye care for all.
Very best wishes. Not surprised that it was uncomplicated. Which is (a) the overwhelming statistical likelihood, (b) good, and (c) easy for me to say since it wasn’t my eye.
And the Althouse record of never missing a day of blogging rolls on. Brava, and here’s To the Ripken of bloggers.
Eye am happy for you.
Glad to hear it. My wife had cataracts, and is still going through the various appointments needed before they schedule the surgery. At this point she is frustrated that the process is taking so long.
Medicine is marvelous.
Best wishes.
Be well.
Glad to hear it went well. Such a wonderful time to be alive. You can restore a persons failing sight with a simple outpatient procedure.
Get a black eye patch so you can wander around the neighborhood & say "Arrrrrrrr, me maties, arrrrrr, let's keelhaul the scurvy devil!".
It's not like you get that opportunity often.
The surgery is truly amazing. One of those things we take for granted now, but how many people's eyesight is saved as they grow older. It is almost a right of passage, like getting wisdom teeth taken out. Both my parents had the surgery and saw better than I did when they were through. Good luck and a speedy recovery.
Get a black eye patch so you can wander around the neighborhood & say "Arrrrrrrr, me maties, arrrrrr, let's keelhaul the scurvy devil!".
Hey, it works for Dan Crenshaw!
Best wishes. I wonder if you’ll draw the rats differently after recovery from the surgeries.
Cataract surgery in the past.
"In 1954, I was chief resident at Duke University in Durham,North Carolina. I performed intracapsular cataract extraction with retrobulbar anesthesia and three corneal-scleral,
6–0, black, silk track sutures (Figure 2). Only the operated eye was patched, and the sutures, which felt like rope in the eye,remained in place for 4 to 6 weeks. After recovering from surgery, patients had to wear thick glasses. Although the surgery itself was relatively painless, the postoperative course was onerous. Patients were bedridden for 5 days and were not permitted to bend over or lift anything for an additional 6 weeks. In addition, they wore Coke-bottle cataract glasses. As a result, people postponed surgery until they could no longer see well enough to get around."
In 2015 3.6 million cataract procedures were performed in the US.
What a wonderful time we live in.
Don't get cocky
It feels good when it's over. What an amazing miracle our modern medical system. Best wishes for continued healing.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
My wife had the same surgery on November 6th, election day, at 8:30 AM. On the way home she cast her ballot at about 10:15 AM.
She could not be happier about the results in both eyes.
Best wishes for a swift recovery. Good luck with round two.
Glad to hear it- I need one on my right eye!
MIL had hers done. Her only complaint is it wrecked her golf handicap. Since can see she's shooting lower scores and now has to play in a flight with better golfers.
Glad it all went well.
Awesome to hear.
Thanks for letting everyone know it went well, Ann.
I find it surprising and oddly touching, the way people we only encounter online can occupy a fair amount of our thinking out here in meatspace.
Here's wishing you many more years of entertaining and thought-provoking writing! And photography too.
Great news!
In 2015 3.6 million cataract procedures were performed in the US.What a wonderful time we live in.
Is this the procedure that western doctors travel to North Korea to perform, because they have so few doctors there? I've seen multiple clips of older North Koreans having their sight restored.
Then they tearfully thank a portrait of Dear Leader.
I knew she wouldn't miss a day!
Glad to hear it went well.
Wonderful! Spring will seem especially fresh to you.
Prayers answered.
More to come.
Wonderful news!
Many years ago, my mother was getting into serious trouble reading with her cataracts.
She was 95 at the time and several ophthalmologists in Chicago told her she was too old for the surgery.
I talked to an ophthalmologist friend and he said it was no problem. I had her fly to California and she had both eyes done the same day. An anesthesiologist friend did her anesthesia and monitoring. She loved him.
She did fine and, after a convalescence in my home, returned to Chicago where she lived another 8 years, dying at 103,
I had my eyes done one at a time about 7 years ago.
Ann - I hope it works out for you the way you'd like.
Cataract surgery in the past.
"In 1954, I was chief resident at Duke University in Durham,North Carolina. I performed intracapsular cataract extraction with retrobulbar anesthesia and three corneal-scleral,
If I had had any idea of how much money ophthalmologists would make, I might very well have chosen that specialty. I was a resident in 1967-72 and had no interest,.The same applies to Orthopedics. I was offered the residency as an intern and had no interest. As soon as I had finished, arthroscopy and joint replacement appeared.
Good luck with the healing process.
I wish you the most favorable outcome available.
Follow doctor's orders and keep your readers up to date.
Best wishes!
OMG. Knowing that the Professor would devour writtings on screens and in books using cloudy eyes, think what she will do now with cleared up eyesight.
It's a good thing there are Retreats where Recovering Literary Addicts can go through withdrawal, rest their minds and maybe just draw Rats. But I suggest that Meade search through the house and remove all works of Thomas Carlysle, J. S. Mill, and C. Dickens before she falls off the wagon and starts an endless binge reading.
You're gonna have a bright sunshiney day!
Good health and a speedy recovery.
Glad it went well. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
After my cataract surgery at age 69, I could read, see the computer monitor and drive without glasses, though my eyes do get "tired" after a lot of book reading. Kindle usually solves that.
The main difference between my surgery and Ann's is that I no doubt paid much less in Rio de Janeiro than I would have paid in Wisconsin. Another thing was that the weather in Rio's January through April is much nicer and there's no lack of fun things to do.
I see that in 2019 it costs some R$4000 (=$1050).
[ https://quantocustaum.com.br/quanto-custa-uma-cirurgia-de-catarata/ ]
It's a shame that Amerikans in the USSA have to wait for the surprise bill to figure out what they'll have to pay. Let's hope Trump keeps advancing price transparency so that Amerikans can attain the cheap medical care that most of the world's citizens enjoy.
Congrats, AA. Eye surgery and the technology they use is some pretty amazing stuff. I had retinal detachment surgery almost 3 years ago, then cataract surgery on the same eye 6 months later. I’ve also had multiple steroid injections into the same eye.
Now that one is my “good” eye, with a cataract developing in the other eye and getting pretty bothersome, it’s like looking through a screen door.
People with good vision do not realize how lucky they are, and how much easier it makes everyday tasks. Enjoy it while it lasts ...
Welcome back to the land of the visual.
Wishing you a speedy recovery Ann.
Best wishes to you Ann. And you're not missing a beat.
Good to hear, hope all continues to go smoothly and well.
Here's to a speedy recovery and a new clarity Althouse.
The burning question is...will the rats change?
I would get those lenses that see through girls dresses, becuase they might be carrying explosives or something under there. Better safe than sorry.
xoxo, Althouse
It would take more than eye surgery to stop Ann's unbroken record. Move over Cal Ripken.
Agree with all of the positive comments above.
It's a shame that Amerikans in the USSA have to wait for the surprise bill to figure out what they'll have to pay.
Not true. Much eye surgery, even cataracts, is done outside the insurance system. LASIK, in particular, is a cash basis,
I am happy for you. Read on, write on.
That is an amazing surgery. I was born nearsighted and had catract surgery at 74, what a difference. A lifelong habit of taking off glasses at bedtime is hard to break, as is a lifelong habit of taking them off to bring the paper near your face to read it. But oh the glory of seeing everything near and far in good eyesight!
Then the reality of being 74 sets in and your need at least a 125 power reader to read a book. But you can still read those street signs and what is coming towards you down the road.
E
FP
TOZ
Be sure to have fun closing one eye at a time and noticing color changes!
Blogger Michael K said...
...
If I had had any idea of how much money ophthalmologists would make, I might very well have chosen that specialty. I was a resident in 1967-72 and had no interest,.The same applies to Orthopedics. I was offered the residency as an intern and had no interest. As soon as I had finished, arthroscopy and joint replacement appeared.
We both know; you are not wrong.
I defended a high-volume cataract specialist (in a non-cataract malpractice case) and his charges for a day of procedures (14/day I think) would pay for a new Porsche. Of course, that isn’t what he made. He had to pay for his building, equipment, staff, insurance, etc. But his day often ended around 2:30, with time to still play 18 except on Mondays when the club was closed.
Most of his patients’ charges were Medicare-pays. And he was happy. He had money to spend on things like a van to pick up and drop off patients. And it wasn’t really a ripoff of Medicare. He was so high-volume, in a competitive specialty, that he was really, really, really good at it. Complication rates unbelievably low. Happy, satisfied patients. And no additional charges to Medicare for complications.
Here's to a quick recovery!
My mother had the procedure done on both eyes when she was in her 90s - 91, I think. Everything went perfect. My father-in-law had his done when he was 86, and everything went perfect.
Here's to your perfect recovery.
Cheers
Congratulations. Now comes the hard part. Waiting until you can get a proper prescription again, and glasses or contacts that work right.
Glad things went well. You should be pleasantly surprised with the change. Good health!
Get well soon. -Lincolntf
That's good news Ann, good luck with your eyes
Thank you for sharing your status of such a personal matter. I echo all those that have you and Meade in our prayers. Here's to hoping everything is as it should be, or better, that expectations might be exceeded.
Happy for you that all is well.
I knew post surgery, good or bad,the continuity would continue.
If Wisconsin lost internet for a day,AA would leave the state to find a connection.
Dedication .
Ann, my 89-year-old dad just had cataract surgery on both eyes today, and he's doing fine. If he can do it, I'm confident you'll be fine as well.
Wishing you a complete and speedy recovery.
Best wishes!
Good luck, AA. We're pulling for you.
Glad to hear all went well. Recovery is pretty quick.
Cataract surgery is one of the nicer things of getting older, if you've needed corrective lenses all your life. I'm surprized younger people don't clamor for it but I guess lasix works too.
Good luck - I hope the surgery helps a lot!!
If you have some kind of sudden, breakthrough realization while reading all of our insightful comments in the next few days, don't slap your forehead.
I've had way too many surgeries in my life but the cataract surgery was by far the best and easiest. Here's hoping your recovery is as easy and successful as mine.
I have cataracts in both eyes but so far they're not a problem. I do have Fuchs' dystrophy which is a mild problem so far.
Best wishes for a quick and complete recovery!
Three loud cheers for modern medicine!
I hope your recovery is not written up in a medical volume, i.e., that it is normal and speedy. Heal quickly!
I'm happy it went well. Good luck with the other one.
Glad this one worked out! Best of luck on the next one!
Make Meade baby you some more, too! Breakfast in bed, if that's your thing.
--Vance
Good news.
Whole lotta love for the Professor here! Which is very nice to see, because she deserves it.
Please accept my good wishes and hopes as well for your better enjoyment very soon of the visual side of life, so full of beauty, mystery, and inspiration.
This website which may cater to Indonesian community copies some of AA's posts verbatim and apparently without attribution.
Interesting.
They like Althouse
What you will be astonished by is that whites will be dazzling and you will realize just how much your color vision had been off before the surgery. Brighter whites, just like in the commercials!!!
And I was just about awake by the end of the surgery (expected, and the doctor(ess) had warned me).
Best of luck to you!
Hope everything proceeds without complication.
Excellent! It's miraculous that we have access to this technology and skill. I hope that you get to see the world through new eyes....as it were.
- Krumhorn
Best Wishes on recovery. Very happy to hear you had it done.
Had my left eye done last year - aged 55.
Before - it was like looking through a shower curtain (slight exaggeration). After - it is perfectly clear. What a change in only a few hours. No pain or even discomfort.
So glad to hear you are home and doing well. I hope things continue to progress as planned.
Be well Sweetie.
Best of luck. It's good to hear that it is going well.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed blogger is king.
Seek clarify.
Good. Careful with lifting, bending, etc. Nothing to spike fluid pressures until the eyeball heals.
Clarity.
I need my eyes checked.
Huzzah!
We're all sending our best wishes for a complete and quick healing. There's a lot of love out here for you, Ann.
With this crowd, that's saying something.
Good!! Glad it went well. Hang in there Ann!!
Glad to hear it went well and wishing you a speedy recovery.
I'm glad to hear that it all went well.
his charges for a day of procedures (14/day I think) would pay for a new Porsche.
Medicare has kept ratcheting down the fees but the volume is amazing. I know guys who do 20 a day.
My ophthalmologist friend who did mine goes to Armenia every year and does a few hundred for free.
Told ya. Just follow the drs orders and stay away from smoke for a couple weeks.
Great news, Ann. Include you and your eyes in my prayers.
Michael K: Your friend who travels, is he of Armenian descent, or have other connections in that region?
Interesting how many with that ethnicity live in the USA. It's often easy to tell by the names.
It's a shame that Amerikans in the USSA have to wait for the surprise bill to figure out what they'll have to pay.
@Michael K
Not true. Much eye surgery, even cataracts, is done outside the insurance system.
Right, idiot. I live outside the insurance system. That's the point, but you should know:
Medicare generally does not pay for vision care, but it will cover certain medically necessary services, such as cataract surgery.If you have Original Medicare, these services are covered under Part B, which covers outpatient services.
Search domain blog.medicarerights.org/dear-marci-032116/https://blog.medicarerights.org/dear-marci-032116/
Never a doubt - but it is really good to hear that you sailed through.
Here's to a speedy recovery with a perfect outcome. Be well, Althouse.
Good to hear. I'm happy for you. I've done both eyes and couldn't be happier with the result. Now on to eye #2.
Here’s to your gimlet eye! Where would be without it? Best wishes.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. The odds are certainly in your favor, but there's that soupçon of suspense until the bandage comes off......I'm going for cataract surgery later this year. I'd put the level of dread higher than a root canal and lower than a biopsy. My eye surgeon took the news of his Parkinson's Disease to heart and started hitting the bottle. He's been out of rehab for several weeks now and the Parkinson's is nearly manageable most days. Still, I'm not looking forward to the operation.
Best wishes and clearer vision for you.
Speedy recovery, Ann. I've been the designated picker-upper and sitter with for several cataract patients. They barely needed me to pick them up, fussing at waiting ten minutes because they were through early, and generally happy with their new vision. I wish that for you.
PS. William, I hope you are joking. I'm just not going to get drawn in.
Wonderful!
Excellent news. Hoping for a rapid recovery and back to your normal caffeine intake.
Good. One more eye to go.
Good for you, Althouse, Bravo!
All the best going forward......and keep truckin'!
:-)
Funny that you can't drink before Eye surgery. But I suppose it might effect the anesthesia
Still, I'm not looking forward to the operation.
There is an ophthalmologist on every corner. Be smart about it,
Right, idiot. I live outside the insurance system. That's the point, but you should know:
Another reason why I have pretty much quit commenting here.
Ann, speedy recovery. When you have your first opportunity to see Meade clearly, you'll have to let us know what you think!
recover soon, the day becomes difficult without reading your post and update
@Althouse, I will echo what Jon wrote upthread. Once your inflammation is down try this experiment. Look at something with vivid colors on a white background with one eye closed, then look again with the other eye closed. (Either order.). If your eyes were like mine, you should see quite a difference. In my case, it was as though there was a grey-ish amber filter in front of the eye that had not been operated on. YMMV.
I have cataract surgery to look forward to myself, so Althouse's account and all the encouraging words in the comments have given me heart. Ordinarily I'm quite heartless.
Funny that you can't drink before Eye surgery. But I suppose it might effect the anesthesia
I'm betting it was the caffeine in the coffee that the doc was worried about.
As with all the well wishers above, I am glad to know you are half way done and doing good. Also, so much good advice, as I will be doing the same thing in a year or so.
Look forward to more posts about your experience. oh, and I'm sure it's been said a lot, but that post on the State of Union address was a masterpiece.
Speedy and painless recovery to you!
What should a cataract operation cost per eye, paying cash?
Another well wish for quick recovery to our Cal Ripken Jr. of the blogosphere.
Good for you Ann!
Are new rods and cone cells generated after cataract surgery?
"Are new rods and cone cells generated after cataract surgery?"
They are just replacing the lens in the eye with an artificial one with a 'prescription' built in. I had a genetic cataract when I was about 38-39 and had surgery.
One downside to cataract surgery is that for some reason there is a correlation with detached retinas within 1-2 years post-procedure. Now, Althouse is probably not at risk because she's older and less active (physical sports, building, moving furniture, etc.) than most people who get detached retinas. I was 40 when mine happened and I was surprised to hear that most sufferers are between the ages of 25-50. The general consensus is that it's somewhat of an elderly affliction, but that's not true.
Hope all goes well.
"Keep Your Eye On The Pri !" ;-)
Best Wishes, Double I (oops-- 'A')
Here's wishing you a speedy recovery! And a Happy Lunar New Year!
I am so happy for you! It’s a modern miracle. Here’s to your mending well and enjoying the change.
I saw the dentist yesterday. He told me that my teeth on the lower left were hanging onto my gums purely by the love of adventure. My other teeth were not much better. And then I saw the opthomologist today. He says I have a cataract starting up in my right eye, and a little macular degeneration starting in my left eye.
I lost my right eardrum a decade ago. I wear a hearing aid on that side.
I am 59 years old. Getting old ain't for the young and inexperienced. They would panic.
I had my eyes done a year ago! I can see! I thought I was done. And a hundred years ago I would have been done. But I see great!
Lewis Wetzel:
Your very bad day, at least provided me an opportunity to take moment and compile my gratitude list for today. Best of luck with your assorted maladys. On your gratitude list should be you are living in a time of unbeliviable medical care.
Gahrie said...
Funny that you can't drink before Eye surgery. But I suppose it might effect the anesthesia
I'm betting it was the caffeine in the coffee that the doc was worried about.
2/6/19, 7:25 PM
I'm pretty sure that it's risk of aspiration, or vomiting, whether from the anesthesia, or maybe some reflex tripped during the operation.
Then she can either choke on her own vomit, like Jimi Hendrix or the victim in The Verdict, or they can roll her on her side to clear her airway, with the probable incidental outcome of turning her opened, instrumented cornea into Shredded Wheat, which is probably also not good.
But that won't happen to you, Althouse, because you are sensible enough to obey the doctor's orders, and keep your alimentary tract clear.
...
Lewis - bless you, old soul. My parents are getting up there and it's a drag.
Whew! After the first three sentences I was assuming that you had killed your husband. Best wishes.
Glad to hear it. Hoping for a quick and easy recovery!!! :-)
fascinating experience, I know.
If all goes well, as it ALMOST always does, a whole new world of light and color await you!
And for you, especially, that is a lovely thing.
Godspeed.
Professor, Best wishes for a quick and uneventful recovery. If you need something to pass the time and are able to read, here's a recent article you might enjoy on the latest book of essays by Jonathan Franzen, for whom you've expressed an admiration that I do not share: ”Hating Jonathan Franzen"
Excellent Ann. Great you are just going forward. Keep it up.
So glad this went well for you!
You will be amazed when you look with that 'fresh' eye,
and see color and brightness and beauty...
and capture all of that for us with your photography!
Blessings!
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