Cataract and lens replacement day of surgery and postoperative instructions. 1-9-2018

hello so today is your big day and we're excited for you we're going to help you improve your vision with cataract and lens replacement surgery and it really should be a pleasant experience for you the surgery itself usually is painless you'll see some lights you'll feel some pressure maybe some fluid flowing over the eye but it really should be quite painless and comfortable it takes 10 to 20 minutes and then you're done once you sit up from surgery you'll be able to see but your vision won't quite be normal a lot of people will immediately notice that their vision looks kind of pink or foggy or rose-colored normal symptoms that they'll notice are sometimes their eye will be slightly red you might see a little bit of red blood on the white of your eye that's very common and should be of no concern usually your vision will improve over the period of about 12 hours that follow surgery the numbing medicine usually wears off after about a half an hour and your eye might feel just a little scratchy a little sticky but it's usually not too bad your vision improves gradually you might notice some very common symptoms such as shimmering lights kind of a flickering sensation a shadow that you notice kind of out to the side you might be a little bit light-sensitive your eyes might feel a little dry and Scratchy and your vision might be a little bit blurry during the first day usually within about 12 to 24 hours your eye will have had enough time to heal such that you can tell your vision is significantly better additional common symptoms are tearing or watering of your eyes your vision will be initially cloudy especially for the first six to eight hours after surgery the tearing will make your eyelid skin a bit swollen and that's normal usually this one goes away after a day or two do not expect to see perfectly or great during the first 12 hours after surgery usually takes 12 to 24 hours before you start to notice significant improvement in your vision the day after surgery when we see you for your follow-up visit your vision will be quite good noticeably better than it was before your cataract surgery the day after surgery most people see about 80 to 90% of their full improvement the remaining 10 to 20% of the visual improvement occurs by one month after surgery let's talk about aftercare instructions you'll be going home with this clear eye shield which is shaped like a teardrop this is the top of the teardrop and this is the bottom of the teardrop the eye shield is placed on your eye such that the top of the teardrop is placed between your eyebrows the bottom of the teardrop is placed on your cheek it's come it's placed almost diagonally enclosed in your eye kit is this roll of paper tape it's usually not very irritating to your skin all you need are two pieces of the paper tape an inch or two in length and you need one piece at the top of the teardrop and one piece at the bottom of the teardrop and then you place the shield as we describe where the top of the teardrop is between your eyebrow and the bottom of the teardrop is on your cheek so it's diagonally taped one strip of tape that's about an inch or two long at the top of the teardrop and one piece of tape that's about an inch or two long at the bottom of the teardrop and it's diagonal okay that's how you place the show we ask that you wear your shield all day on the day of your surgery now to put in your eye drops that you'll need to put in you can remove the shield put in the eye drop and then place the shield back on your eye just on the day of surgery on the day after surgery you don't need to wear it so when you come to our office you don't have to come to our office with your shield on you just need to wear it whenever you're going to lay down to go to bed or take a nap you only need the shield at nighttime while you're awake you don't need it at all it's simply too prevent you from damaging or rubbing your eye inadvertently while you're asleep and you're not aware of what you're doing but whenever you think you're going to take a nap or go to bed at night or fall asleep inadvertently go ahead and put it on for the first week after surgery it's most important the first night after surgery but it's ideally warm for one week after your cataract surgery let's talk about do's and do nots after your surgery you can use your eye you can look around you can bend over you can pick things up you could do most errands you can wash your face you can wash your hair and shower the day of surgery a shower and wash your face of course there's going to be water flowing around your eye let it flow just close your eyes softly if you need to wash your eyelids just you can use soap and water but just be gentle nothing real hard or strong or pinpoint just gentle blotting gentle gentle nothing real hard and firm to solve okay we will see you the day after surgery evaluate your eyes and then make a recommendation on if it's safe for you to drive after surgery there are some do nots or some restrictions there's two do nots for everybody so number one do not rub your eye real hard with your finger or your knuckle or your fist number two do not squeeze real hard so if your eye sting or they go irritable don't squeeze real hard the incisions that we make in your eye self sealed but by rubbing really hard or squeezing real hard especially in the first few days you could put unnecessary torque and strain on the incisions and they could inadvertently leaked a little bit of course we would not want that to happen usually by one week after surgery the eye has regained enough strength that you no longer have to wear your eye shield at night and you apply more and more pressure to the eye without adverse consequences for women who use makeup or mascara we asked for one week no makeup on the eyelid no mascara on the eyelashes you can wear makeup everywhere else except on your lid and lashes on day eight after surgery you can wear makeup however you please on your lid and lashes the reason for avoidance of the makeup is there is a fine powder in the makeup and the powder floats in your tear film and we can see it through the microscope wooden and we do not want any of that makeup powder inadvertently migrating its way into your eye after surgery also women who remove their makeup they tend to put quite a bit of pressure on their eyelid to remove the makeup so we'd like you to avoid that for the first week facial moisturizing creams moisturizer skin cream in general you can use it you can use it on your face you can use it on your eyelid the day of the day after surgery but just be super gentle again soft very gentle nothing real firm I'd probably avoid sunscreen around your eyelid for the first week as well because it's it can sting and get in and irritate your eye and we just want anything that could be irritating to the eye you just leave it alone for one week another common symptom after surgeries you might feel like there's sand or hair in your eye that's very normal that's the little incisions healing after surgery the incisions we make are tiny they're about two to three millimeters in length they seal on their own without stitches in the vast majority of cases you'll be provided an eye kit that contains in addition to your eye shield and a roll of tape and post-operative instructions you will be given sunglasses that you could wear if the sunlight bothers you you don't have to wear them all the time you don't have to wear them at all the sunlight won't do any harm to your eye but some people are light sensitive so they'll mark while wearing these sun shades they're helpful if when you go out especially after surgery your your your pupil is dilated so you're going to be particularly sensitive to light you can put these sun shades on they are designed to fit over your glasses because they have this space built-in so you can wear your glasses or you can wear an eye shield and place the sun shades over the glasses that you normally wear or your eye shield that you're wearing immediately after surgery use them if you want but they're not required they might help people who are prone to squinting their eyes due to the sunlight it'll block some of the sunlight so you won't feel the need to squeeze or squint the there is the tendency for your eyes to feel dry stinging Burnie feel like there's an eyelash or hair in your eye after surgery that's very common character to in and of itself induces dry eyes that are temporary in nature but tend to get better in your eye kit we've provided you a sample of a type of artificial teardrop there are many different brands these are three excellent brands that we may give you a sample of or which you can purchase on your own at every grocery store every pharmacy these are over-the-counter artificial teardrops you can use them as often as you want they're great for makes me where I feel better clearing your vision up if your eyes dry you put these drops in as often as you want it is not possible to overdose on artificial teardrops use them as often as you want if you think they're helping or if they make your I'm more comfortable a big bottle of these artificial teardrops at the grocery store a large bottle will typically cost about $10 the most important eye drop that we would like for you to use before and after surgery is this bottle it's called PG B and it stands for the three ingredients in this bottle prednisolone Gadda flock CSUN and Brahm Fanuc prednisolone is a steroid designed to prevent inflammation and swelling after surgery G is an antibiotic that is to prevent infection after surgery and broth enact is what we call a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug it is designed to reduce pain inflammation and keep your eye very comfortable after surgery in this bottle which has a purple cap there are three point five milliliters of medication there's 20 drops per milliliter therefore in this bottle there are 70 eye drops we ask you to use the drops three times a day starting one day before surgery continue three drops per day for one week after surgery so that's 24 drops and then we ask you to use one drop a day for weeks two three and four let's go for instructions on how to use the pgb eyedrop first of all as you can see on the bottle it says shake well so you shake it well let's say I'm having surgery or I just recently had surgery on my right eye here you remove the cap of course and the best way to still eyedrops is to tip your head back and then pull down on your lower eyelid to create a little pocket using a magnifying mirror can be very very helpful and then you just place one drop into that little pocket and if you blink a little bit it'll distribute itself using multiple using multiple drops inadvertently let's say I put in two or three drops sequentially bam bam bam into the eye all at once will it do any harm no not at all it's very safe but the eye can only absorb one drop at a time so if you put in multiple drops the second and third drop if they're placed sequentially within a few seconds they're just all wasted they'll flow down cheak they won't actually stay on the ice surface so all you need is just one drop three times a day so think about it is use it breakfast lunch and dinner every day starting one day before surgery use it for three times a day breakfast lunch and dinner for the first week after surgery and then once a day for starting date eight until day 31 if you need to use artificial teardrop let's say you're using artificial tears to moisten your eye because you have some dryness to your eye how long should you wait after putting in this drop how long should you wait until you put in this drop it's only about one minute so you want to allow at least one minute for the first medication to absorb into the eye before you put in any subsequent eye drop because you don't want the second drop to wash the first drop out about one minute is all you need between two different medication eye drops okay to recap pgb is the most important eye drop you said three times a day starting one day before surgery and for the first week after surgery and then starting day eight and four weeks to three and four usually just once a day you'll use a total of about fifty drops if you apply it correctly there's 70 drops in the bottle it should last you the full month you should only need one bottle of medication pgb per eye let's say it's been one full month after your surgery to your right eye and you stop the drop and your eyes starts to feel a little bit sore or red or light sensitive but your vision is still pretty good but your eye just doesn't feel right it's okay between one and two months after surgery for you to go ahead and put in an extra drop once a day if your eye still hurts try to stop it after the first month but if your eye feels achy sore painful uncomfortable it's safe to use this once a day as needed between month one and month two after surgery so between the and sixty days after surgery if your eye starts to ache or feel sore put in one drop and then don't take it the next day see if your eye is comfortable enough to stop it can stop it completely if you go a couple of days and then your eye starts to ache again go ahead and put in another drop as needed to keep your eye comfortable but most people I'd say 95% of people only need this medication for the first 30 days after surgery and then they can stop it but if you have to take it between day 30 and day 60 as needed it's probably safe if you still need the pgb drop after 2 months after surgery because your eyes still painful or your visions not clear or your eyes not feeling normal and seeing normally then we should then then please call our office so we can examine your eye and make sure everything's okay if you have redness to the I will check out the day after surgery typically it'll just reabsorb on its own without special treatment within two weeks after surgery but 2 weeks after surgery here I should be very white and quiet there are some warning symptoms that if you experience them we would want you to call our office number one excruciating pain number two nausea or vomiting fever vision that initially is getting better and then suddenly gets worse vision that improves gradually over the first few days and then suddenly gets worse redness to your eye that it is present initially and then starts to improve and then the redness suddenly gets worse we would want you to call our office so we can evaluate your eye it's normal to have some discharge the day of surgery but usually the chances of infection the first 24 hours after surgery are exceedingly rare because we've given your eyes so much medicine and antibiotics it's not likely the discharge is of any danger in the first 24 hours after surgery but if you experience discharge to your eye after the first day then we want to evaluate your eye to make sure that everything is okay so when you get home today you can resume your normal diet there's no dietary restrictions you can resume all your normal medicines of course we don't ask that you stop any of you usual medicines before your surgery the valium pill that most of our patients receive to help them relax during surgery will tend to make you sleepy so go home get some rest if you're resting of course remember to use your eye shield usually the valium wears off in about 12 to 18 hours if your vision is clear and you feel safe driving you can drive yourself in for your follow-up visit however if your vision is not clear or you do not feel safe driving then we would ask that somebody else drive you so you can come in for your one day after surgery evaluation will take great care of you today during your surgery our team is outstanding they should make you feel comfortable and know that cataract and lens replacement surgery is our specialty we've done this thousands and thousands of times it's very safe it's highly successful you're going to receive the best care possible so come in relaxed come in happy everything's going to be taken care of for you you don't have to worry about anything we'll make sure it goes well for you and that you're gonna have your vision improved and you'll know that within the first day after surgery and you'll and you'll you'll be able to tell for yourself how much better your vision is usually within 24 hours after surgery so we'll make sure you feel comfortable and we'll take great care of you and I'll see you in the operating room and then I'll see you tomorrow on your first day after surgery follow-up thanks for trusting us have a wonderful day and we'll make sure your surgery goes well thanks again

Channel: Shannon Wong, MD

Views: 1,273,127

Keywords: what to know about after cataract surgery, after cataract surgery care, complications after cataract surgery, problems after cataract surgery, dos and don'ts after cataract surgery, thoughts after cataract surgery, normal symptoms after cataract surgery, after cataract surgery experience, during cataract surgery experience, do's and don'ts after cataract surgery, cataract surgery recovery, HOW TO use and eye shield, how to place an eyeshield

Id: TSOStVwxy_A

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2018