Dev post op

I had my cataract surgery yesterday, and things seem to have gone well. I’m going to be dipping in and out of development as I recover, as it’s either that, TV or playing games. The eye is still really dilated 24hrs later, so I’m staying in the dark. Probably the first thing is to update the manual / walk through.

Thanks to everyone who tried to reassure me about it. It did help, I was genuinely fearful about it. I’m going to spoiler the squicky bits…

There were two things that were preying on my mind. Firstly, having my eye pulled open with one of those metal spidery things, I’m sure you don’t need to think far into horror/torture genres to imagine what I’m talking about. That didn’t happen. It was all done with an adhesive backed cloth which also covered stopped me seeing anything out of the good eye.

Then there was the fear of seeing a blade approach my eye, and either not being able to resist the fight or flight response and doing myself damage. I knew it was going to be done under local anaesthetic, so I would be aware of what was going on. However, the intense light from the microscope they use, and the copious washes of saline meant I couldn’t actually see anything apart from some quite trippy colours and fringes. I don’t actually know what they used, and I’m happy to remain ignorant on this as I still need to have the other eye done.

All in all not nearly as bad as I expected, and I was calm throughout, even hooked up to the pulse monitor - I’ve done the thing before when I worry, and my pulse goes up, and I hear the beeps, and that worries me more, and my pulse goes up. Happy to talk about it if anyone is ever facing the same thing.

Five stars, will do again.

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Appreciate your in-depth description of the experience. If I had to undergo anything like that knowing from your experienced is definitely reassuring.

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you want to know terror old cataract surgery from years ago basically involved getting stapped in the eye a bunch with a small needle. or having someone SUCK the lens out with a hollow needle.

Thankfully things have improved. I know it used to be more of a last resort thing, rather than as it seems to be these days, something that’s done as soon as it’s found. Thank you for not sharing this beforehand! :wink:

Pre-Industrial Surgeries - YouTube 4:56 is one source I had if you want to much better explained

“A form of cataract surgery, now known as 'couching, was found in ancient India and subsequently introduced to other countries by the Indian physician Sushruta (ca. 6rd century BC[21][22]), who described it in his work the Compendium of Sushruta or Sushruta Samhita . The Uttaratantra section of the Compendium , chapter 17, verses 55–69, describes an operation in which a curved needle was used to push the opaque phlegmatic matter ( kapha in Sanskrit) in the eye out of the way of vision. The phlegm was then blown out of the nose. The eye would later be soaked with warm clarified butter and then bandaged.”

I took the last bit from wikipida