Well I had my first cataract operation, on my right eye, 4 weeks ago and after all my concerns it really turned out to be a non-event.
I turned up at the day hospital at 8.30 in the morning. Now ‘day hospital’ is a bit of a misnomer because they threw me out at 10.30 that morning. In that time I had sat in the waiting room for a while, done the admissions paperwork, paid some money and got taken to the preparation area. There I took my shirt off and put a gown on, had a sticker put on my forehead above the appropriate eye, had several eye drops, a visit from the anaesthetist and sat around for a bit more. I then got placed on a gurney, the anaesthetist returned and then I was in the recovery room.
You get told before the operation that you will be given a local anaesthetic and sedation and that you will be aware of some of what goes on during the operation. Well I have maybe 5 seconds memory of the first op and perhaps 15 seconds of the second but despite my concerns beforehand I had no worries at the time.
In that two hour period I believe the operation takes 10-15 minutes.
You leave the hospital with a clear plastic cover over your eye held on by a couple of strips of micropore. The cover comes off two hours later. So 4 hours after going into hospital you would not know that I had just had a life changing operation to my eye.
For the first day and a half my pupil was quite dilated and I had to wear sunglasses outside the house but after that the pupil returned to normal and while I now wear sunglasses more than I used to before the operation I can survive without them.
Both my eyes were in the same condition so for the week between operations I could cover my new eye and see what I had before and then cover the old eye and see what I now had. The first thing I noticed was that the flame on the gas stove was a brilliant blue not a pastel, I also found out the the colour of the inside walls of our house were not the colour I thought. Also the blue in the sky was just so much bluer! With the haze of the cataract removed everything in the distance is just so much clearer.
Before the operation I had pulled the RH lens out of my glasses but when I tried them on I found that I was better off not wearing any glasses at all. I imagine that would depend on the type of correction that you needed before the operation.
A week later I had the left eye done. Same story. I had the lens on the first eye set to infinity and it focuses at about 3 feet and further. The left eye was set just a bit closer and it focuses at about 2 feet and further. As my approach charts holder in the plane is about 2 feet away and everything else, instruments, radios, overhead panel are further away it works fine and during the day I do not need glasses at all. At night I am just using a pair of $10 reading (magnifying) glasses while I have a set of bifocals made.
About 10 days after the second operation I went back to the opthalmologist who checked it all out and gave me a letter to say that I was fit to return to flying. My Class 1 medical was due within the month so I just had my normal medical and gave the opthalmologist’s letter to my DAME and a couple of days later I was back at work.
3 weeks off and both cataracts removed.
To any pilot needing a cataract operation I would say, there is no downside and the positives are incredible.
Cheers