How Can You Achieve the Best Cataract Surgery Recovery
Cataract surgery is one of the safest and most commonly performed surgical procedures worldwide, with most patients achieving an excellent surgical outcome, as long as their eyes are otherwise healthy. Today, most doctors use eye drops to anesthetize your eyes during surgery (called topical anesthesia), and the visual recovery is faster than ever imagined, with the surgical procedure lasting for as little is ten to fifteen minutes.
What Is The Typical Cataract Surgery Recovery Time? When your eye patch is removed for your first check-up, your vision may be cloudy, blurry or even distorted. Do not worry about this, because your eyes need some time to recover and adapt from the surgery to remove the cataract and the intraocular lens implantation. You may also notice a redness of eyes which can range from a pinkish hue to frank bloodshot eyes because of temporary damage to blood vessels of your conjunctiva/which heals with a week or so. Your vision will improve dramatically over the next few hours, and most people report an excellent vision on Day 2 of surgery, while some people recover their best vision by up to a week or two after surgery.
What should I do to make sure all goes well after surgery?
The answer to this is simple. Listen to your doctor!
Medication: Your eye surgeon will prescribe antibiotic eye drops to prevent infection and anti-inflammatory eye drops which may be steroids, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory eye drops, to help reduce the swelling in the eye. You must use these eye drops exactly as prescribed, for the duration that they are prescribed. Most eye surgeons prefer to taper steroids, so you must pay attention to both frequency and duration of eye drops. This duration can vary from two to four weeks depending on how your eye is healing, and also your eye doctor’s personal preference.
You may need an oral pain killer such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, and your eye doctor will advise you how and when to use them.
Follow-up visits: Do not miss your follow up appointments as scheduled by your doctor. In fact, if you are not comfortable in the postoperative period, do not hesitate in contacting your eye doctor immediately.
In addition, in order to make your cataract surgery recovery faster, and more optimal, here are some tips that you can follow for better results.
The tips to ensure best results after cataract surgery include:
• Make sure someone accompanies you on the day of surgery, and you don’t have to drive on the first day. • Avoid any heavy lifting or strenuous activity for a few weeks, most doctors will allow you to go back to normal activity after two to three weeks. • Try and avoid sneezing, retching or vomiting right after surgery, as much as possible. • Be careful walking around after surgery, Try and avoid any accidental trauma and and bumping into doors or people. The idea is to not jar the eye. You may also avoid bending and lifting things off the floor for a day or two. • Your doctor will ask you to avoid swimming for the first two weeks in order to avoid infections. In fact, it is a good idea to avoid water from getting in the eye, even while taking a bath. • Don’t rub your eye as this can damage the eye and interfere with healing. . • Wear sunglasses when outside to protect the eyes from dust, pollutants and gusts of wind during the first few weeks after surgery. This will also help you avoid the problems of glare in sunlight. • Rest your eyes for a day or two, even though you can watch a bit of TV, and check your emails and messages after a few hours of surgery. You may want to sleep or rest with your eyes closed for a few hours once you get home.
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