Today I finally got to have my cataract surgery. It did get delayed a bit but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I forgot to bring my eye drops with me.
The surgery seems to have been a success. In a suprising moment colors are coming out better it must have been my cataract thinking it was the astigmatism.
Now I have to take 3 eye drops 3 times a day for 3 weeks. So many three’s in that sentance!
So I got to get my required covid-19 testing done.
It wasn’t really painful just the feeling of something being jammed in your nose.
I am expecting a negative result and this leaves one last hurdle to complete before the actual surgery provided that the test is negative which I expect it to be.
As of today There is exactly one week before I have my cataract surgery.
Things have been going smoothly thus far and anticipating a negative covid-19 test and the Preadmission safety exam that’s over the phone should also go smoothly.
Now to worry how I’m going to keep my eye still for the duration of the operation. Also I keep telling myself “I’m 34 and I have a cataract!” feels a bit unreal.
Today I received the call to get the Covid-19 test that I need to get done before my cataract surgery has been scheduled.
It is set for June 16 at 3:45 P.M. I expect the test to be negative as I been symptom free for quite some time. This is a understandable hurdle as the safety of all involved is deeply important and if i’m an asymptomatic positive it would be gravely irresponsible of me to go through with this surgery as it could compromise my health as well as the health of everyone near me.
Only the PASE appointment remains and then it is all green to get the cataract surgery.
So today I had my preop exam in preparation of my cataract surgery. Things seemed to have went well and now I am waiting for the pase call thats supposed to be 7-10 days before the surgery.
This leaves the remaining obstacles are the pase call i would need to go through before the surgery and the covid-19 test followed by self isolation until the surgery.
Things should be going smoothly and shouldn’t have any issues to get in the way other then family may have to isolate with me which may or may not be troublesome.
So had my eye appointment that was supposed to be for eye pressure check but turned out to be in regards of my contacts. I discussed my issues that I have been having and confirmed that my prescription is in fact changing.
However my fear of progression appears to be unfounded as topography indicates no changes of my cornea. Unfortunately I failed to bring my contacts with me and being that I thought it was going to be just a eye pressure check that I wouldn’t need them. Should have as he could have checked my contact to see if there was anything wrong with it.
I also learned that it would be a terrible idea to go with hybrid contacts at least for my left eye as according to him hybrids tend to suction onto your eye and could do more harm then good giving my partial thickness transplant.
I was about to hold off on this appointment due to my impending cataract surgery but when they told me this was to do a pressure check I went ahead and had it rescheduled as it was previously cancelled to the coronavirus pandemic.
So I was out on my daily walk using my usual route as I can generally avoid people for the most part which is great with the need for social distancing thanks the the covid-19 situation. During said walk I start to sweat particularly above my eyes which makes it into my eye causing discomfort.
I try to be careful to dab the sweat away from my eyes but unfortunately I cause my right contact to dislodge and slip into my eye causing great discomfort. Thankfully I was 3 blocks away from a Casey’s General Store and they kept their restrooms open.
While trying to manually move my right contact back in place my left contact spontaneously pops itself out which isn’t surprising giving the fit isn’t exactly stable thanks to being an edge case of being able to use an RGP in the left in the first place. I grab my baggy i keep my emergency contact lense case and a plunger in for just such emergencies and place my left contact in it as i don’t trust the room to be sanitary enough to reinsert. I continue to attempt to fix my right contact but it too ends up popping out.
This is the first time I actually needed my emergency kit since i started with these contacts but this situation pretty much convinces me without doubt that perhaps it is time for me to move on to something better such as hybrid contacts or sclerals. I plan on making the change after I sufficiently recover from my cataract surgery.
For the past week I have been experiencing really weird behavior with my RGP contacts. One day I would be able to wear them all day and the next I can’t seem to tolerate having them in longer then 3 hours. The day after I again can wear the RGP contacts all day.
This issue is only to my Right eye and I have been noticing while still working good the contacts dont seem to work quite as effective as they were but at the same time the difference was marginal. Overall with how the right contact is behaving i am suspecting that my keratoconus in my right eye might be progressing a little.
The past winter was a pretty bad time for me in terms of dryness as well. I am in just under a month undergoing cataract surgery and I think it may be time to move on to Hybrid or scleral contacts this should alleviate the issues i have been having.
I also plan on getting the right eye checked out to see if my right eye is indeed progressing and if so if my doctor would still recommend undergoing collagen cross linking on my right eye.
Just got the call from Wolfe Eye Clinic informing me that they are ready to reschedule me for Cataract surgery.
The Surgery has been scheduled for June 22 at 10 am. I am pleased that things are finally going forward and things are starting to become more normal.
I will also be getting tested for Covid-19 and have to self quarantine 10 days prior to surgery but its a small price to pay for the safety of myself and others involved with this surgery.
Finally get to make progress of my eye situation and hope this will improve things dramatically.
With the spread of the corona virus all nonessential surgeries have been canceled. This was expected but was hoping that it would have been just past the recommended 3 weeks that this wouldn’t have been effected.
Hopefully things get resolved soon and i can get back to making progress on pursuing a career opportunity. Although disappointing it would be in bad taste with the medical supply shortage to go ahead with this while depriving someone who’s live could have been saved had they had as much as a face mask that would have prevented them from something.