Cataract treatment

chalky_75

Well I am only 59 and last year my optician noticed 2 spots that she wanted to keep an eye on! This year I have moved so fast up the ladder to a cataract op that I am booked in early Sept. When I went to the hospital 3 weeks after referral they offered to do the op 3 weeks later! I had to postpone that because of prior commitments. So I am amazed about the service . Now I am of course dreading the op but am so looking forward to getting a better view on life!

lollipopsarah

Hubby had both done a few years ago (he's57 now) and loved all the attention he got from the old biddy,s saying he was too young to be there.
It wasn't a nice procedure but the outcome was amazing.
Sadly for MIL (80ish) it didn't work so well.
The hospital and it's staff were amazing, I just really hope I don't have to get it done, 'cos I just don't do needles!
good luck op.
xx

Edny

My mother had one eye done aged 85, 2 years later we are trying to get the second eye done but both the optician and the doctor say they don't think we will be successful.
Policy in rural Wales is one is enough, even though she frequently loses balance and falls over.
Both say if she lived in Cardiff they would do it without a problem.

margaretclare

Edny wrote: »

My mother had one eye done aged 85, 2 years later we are trying to get the second eye done but both the optician and the doctor say they don't think we will be successful.
Policy in rural Wales is one is enough, even though she frequently loses balance and falls over.
Both say if she lived in Cardiff they would do it without a problem.

I've no idea how anyone comes to the conclusion that 'one is enough'. In our experience, DH and mine, having one done and not the other would be almost worse than not having any done at all. We'd been short-sighted for much of our lives, 60 years at least, so we were used to wearing glasses. Once we had one eye done, you can't wear those glasses any more because the treated eye is no longer short-sighted but the untreated one still is (if that makes sense). It's something which is quite hard to explain. We offered to take a cancellation, and I had my second one done about 3 weeks after the first - phone call saying 'can you come immediately', which I did. That was the autumn of 2007, DH had his done in the spring, same procedure. We certainly could not have coped with having only one eye done. We'd never have been able to drive again, either of us, that's for sure, and that would have impacted severely on our quality of life. We wouldn't have been able to use reading-glasses either, which for many people, would be the most serious thing. Just having good vision out of one eye while the other one still needs glasses - no, that makes no sense. I suppose the only difference would be if the person wasn't short-sighted and only had the cataract development in a normal long-sighted eye? Can't see the sense of it at all.

PennyForThem_2

If you need a second eye cataract op go private if you can. DO NOT RELY ON NHS - YOU MAY DIE!

It is terrible that the NHS is cost cutting on this simple eye opertion that can make peoples' lives so much more normal.

My husband had other illnesses - a lot ot them but because he only had one cataract removed his perception was altered and because of that he fell. As a result a broken hip just added to his morbidity woes and he died 3 weeks later.

(no need for condolences - I believe that one eye cateact operations when both eyes are affected is dangerous)

margaretclare

PennyForThem wrote: »

If you need a second eye cataract op go private if you can. DO NOT RELY ON NHS - YOU MAY DIE!

It is terrible that the NHS is cost cutting on this simple eye operation that can make peoples' lives so much more normal.

My husband had other illnesses - a lot ot them but because he only had one cataract removed his perception was altered and because of that he fell. As a result a broken hip just added to his morbidity woes and he died 3 weeks later.

(no need for condolences - I believe that one eye cataract operations when both eyes are affected is dangerous)

Couldn't agree more. As I said above, having one done and not the other is as bad as having neither done at all. If we hadn't had both done on the NHS we'd definitely have gone private, because life was just impossible.

This situation seems to have got worse over the last few years. We had ours done in 2007 and they were operating twice a day, 5 days a week. http://www.southend.nhs.uk/your-services/ophthalmology-services/

At no time was it ever suggested to us that 'one was enough'. We'd have had something to say about it if it had been!

Errata

margaretclare wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. As I said above, having one done and not the other is as bad as having neither done at all. If we hadn't had both done on the NHS we'd definitely have gone private, because life was just impossible.

This situation seems to have got worse over the last few years. We had ours done in 2007 and they were operating twice a day, 5 days a week. http://www.southend.nhs.uk/your-services/ophthalmology-services/

At no time was it ever suggested to us that 'one was enough'. We'd have had something to say about it if it had been!

Aren't cataracts removed one at a time, rather than both being removed in the same session?

margaretclare

Errata wrote: »

Aren't cataracts removed one at a time, rather than both being removed in the same session?

Yes, they are removed one at a time, the second one was 3 weeks after the first. Those 3 weeks were quite difficult, as the previous poster illustrated. Amazing what a difference it makes, when one eye is completely different from the other. The bonus of having cataract surgery is that it also cures short sight, which we'd had for 60-some years. One eye 20/20 and no cataract, the other one with cataract and short sight. I can appreciate how someone would easily fall over with possible disastrous effects.

Doc_N

margaretclare wrote: »

This situation seems to have got worse over the last few years. We had ours done in 2007 and they were operating twice a day, 5 days a week. http://www.southend.nhs.uk/your-services/ophthalmology-services/

The situation's become a lot worse over the last couple of years, and there's a very simple reason for that. The Conservative-led Coalition is cutting back very substantially on NHS budgets across the country, and this is seen as a nice easy option.

Older people are seen as a soft target because they don't complain effectively enough.

pollypenny

Even as a life-long socialist, I wouldn't hesitate to have cataracts done privately!

My eyesight is so important to me.

Furthermore, as Penny said, it's downright dangerous to do only one.