Posted by Anne Abbott on May 21, 2018
What is it like to go through cataract surgery in 2018? Have you thought about the medical advances that have happened since 1950, when “Call the Midwife” was written about midwives in the East End of London?
 
For example, my mother had an aneurysm in one of the large blood vessels at the base of her brain. These days, the aneurysm would be diagnosed and repaired, and my mother would have got on with her life. Instead of which, she died at the age of 43. Her father died from chronic kidney disease which progressed from a kidney infection contracted in the war. He died at 50, whereas these days, he would have had dialysis until a kidney became available for a transplant.
 
I began a nursing training at Guys Hospital in London. Heart operations were just beginning, with repairs being made for “hole in the heart” type operations. The machines used to bypass the heart function were HUGE, and although defects in the atrial or ventricular walls were repaired, no-one ever put stents in for coronary arteries that had become blocked with plaque, an operation which is quite common now.
 
I was reminded quite forcibly of what used to happen to patients who had surgery to remove cataracts, when I worked on the eye ward. To begin with, we only had a maximum of 2 patients per week. When they came back from a surgery that would have taken at least an hour, they had to lie flat on their backs, in bed, for 10 days. They had to be fed, washed and toileted in bed, so that their blood pressure was not elevated, and the incision made in the eye could heal. It must have been terribly traumatic for them, in comparison with what happens now!
 
I have been short-sighted since I was 10, and wore glasses for many years until I had my first pair of hard contact lenses in 1968. I came to NZ in 1970 and continued to wear these hard lenses for at least the next 10 years. When I went back to the UK, these were changed to gas permeable ones, and eventually, I graduated to soft ones.
 
I visited my optometrist at the beginning of February because I was having trouble wearing my contact lenses for any length of time. After looking at my eyes, he determined that I had cataracts, and I should see an ophthalmologist with a recommendation that I had cataract removal. He referred me to an eye clinic in Wellington, and I went there on February 28th for an assessment. I was there for about an hour, and lots of measurements and pictures were taken  At the end of all this, I was seen by the ophthalmologist, who said that he would be able to operate the following Wednesday afternoon (because I still have medical insurance).
 
Cataracts develop as a normal part of the ageing process, with most people developing cataracts by the time they are 70. Diabetes, eye injuries and some steroids can hasten cataract development.
 
Symptoms usually begin with a sensitivity to light, and there are often haloes around lights as well. Colours often become duller and darker, and as cataracts worsen, vision tends to become foggy.
 
Above shows an opaque lens with a cataract and the difference between normal vision and how it changes when cataracts develop.
 
Below, is a diagram showing how light travels through a normal eye, and then how light is diffused when cataracts develop.
 
The operation was to be done at Boulcott Clinic, which couldn’t have been more convenient. I was told that the operation would take 20 minutes.  What a change in 60 years! All the fluid would be taken out of the lens of my eye, and he would insert a “Toric” lens into the lens of the eye, to correct my astigmatism. Enough of the special fluid would then be put in to replace the fluid that had become opaque so that I would no longer need either glasses or contact lenses. I would then be able to go home and remove the dressing in 5 hours!  No lying down for even one day!!
 
I arrived at Boulcott Clinic at 3.20 on Wednesday March 7th, as requested. I paid $382.50 for the “Toric Lens” and was escorted through into a small side Ward. I had to answer a questionnaire about my health, which was administered by a nurse who had been in my Foundation class at Whitireia!  She then checked with me that it was my left eye that was to be operated on and put a black cross on my forehead over my left one.  She put 2 kinds of drops into the eye, one to dilate the pupil, and the other to begin the local anaesthetic. I was then left with a magazine for the next 20 minutes. The nurse then re-appeared, and I was given the second set of drops. I was then left for another 20 minutes, after which the anaesthetist came and checked my eye, and administered another lot of eye drops to my left eye and I had to get on to a trolley to be wheeled into the operating theatre.
 
I found that the most difficult part of the whole scenario was when a large white sheet was put over my face, and I felt somewhat claustrophobic until the sheet was lifted enough for me to see, and in my mind, to breathe.
 
The operation was over in about 20 minutes, and all I remember about it was the bright pink and white colours that I could see with my left eye. I assume that there must have been some sort of clamp that kept the eye open, but because of the local anaesthetic, I felt nothing in this eye at all.
 
The dressing was just a clear plastic lens that completely covered the eye, and an eye pad underneath it to prevent the plastic from rubbing on the skin. I was taken back to the side ward and given sandwiches, biscuits and a cup of coffee before I was picked up by a friend and driven home.
 
I had to put antibiotic drops in my L eye for 2 weeks, and then some clearing drops for the next 3 weeks. The R eye was done 4 weeks after the L one, and I can now see without lenses or glasses, and for someone who has had bad eyesight since I was 10, this result is like magic!!