Mellow Yellow versus the bright blue Shimmer

Mellow Yellow versus the bright blue Shimmer

The story of my right eye cataract surgery.

The narration of a doctor’s experience with cataract surgery.

I was born in 1956 started wearing glasses in the third year of my MB BS.

I never had proper eye examination. in the Ophthalmology book There Was an explanation about astigmatism and even when I was looking at it still did not realize that I have bad

astigmatism. of course because I used to sit in the front benches I was not very much aware that I have myopia.

so from 1976 to 2017 I have been reading spectacles/ corrective glasses. ritual change from time to time as my   vision slowly  worsened.

When I went to see my opthamologist in 2015 in the town of Del Rio Texas after examination he informed me that my right eye cataract is pretty mature and that I should undergo cataract surgery.

Although I am an internal medicine physician and a former General and pediatric surgeon My knowledge of Ophthalmology was pretty dated. although I was aware of the number of development and improvements in Ophthalmology  in general and particularly in the treatment of cataract and the development of sophisticated intraocular lenses which Can correct both astigmatism and myopia  or hypermetropia at the same time.

I also experienced for the first time  OCT Ocular coherence tomography.

“Ocular coherence tomography (OCT) has become a most useful imaging test for diagnosing, treating and monitoring retinal diseases, as it provides a virtual “optical biopsy” of the macula (Figure 1). This noninvasive imaging technique produces high-resolution cross-sectional images of the retina, anterior segment, optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer. OCT employs low-coherence interferometry of near-infrared light to acquire views of the eye, which resemble histological sections.”

Figure 1

But YouTube where is unforeseen circumstances I could not get this surgery done at the time and I moved over to another small town called Big Spring where are after about 18 months I was finding it more and more difficult to do my computer reading and also on one occasion had significant difficulty driving at night.

I consider myself a very visual man. I enjoy reading almost continuously and would read anything and everything which has printed are written matter on it. if there is a moving picture in my visual field my attention automatically goes to back that picture,Even if someone is next to me sitting and talking.  Once something attracts my attention I have a tendency to keep staring at it. due to all these things I have gotten into trouble  any number of times.

so much sure if my wife wants to talk to me something serious I have to switch off all the monitors and TVs and cover-up all the magazines and books in the We vicinity.I am so much dependent anyway  addicted to the visual stimuli that I would rather die than  lose my vision. But this vision was slowly slipping away especially from my right eye so I had to make up my mind and ( go 4/Gopher,;-) Google Talk blooper) go for cataract surgery.

Big Spring is a very small town with only one ophthalmic surgeon visiting once a month from nearby Midland Texas. his name is Dr. Harshad Shah  originally from Mumbai Who  is working in Midland for the last 30 years. at 10/a thin small belt/built Indian gentleman  with Extraordinary energy and a very kind manner.

Immediately informed me after examination that I need to undergo cataract surgery. And that I have cataract Formation in both eyes end it is up to me to decide which one I wanted to get (off right to the phone)  operated upon  at first.So I decided to get my right eye operated first.

After going through all the pros and cons simple intraocular lenses 2 the most sophisticated (Cox office ticket at once)  ones. I decided to go for a simple intraocular lens without any Astigmatism or bifocal correction. the logic and rationale behind this decision was as follows.

In spite of great faith in modern technology I'm not having great faith in every human being so much so that I cannot fully depend on someone making a custom lens for me and not screwing up something. this is not like having spectacles if something does not work then I will have to go back for surgery which I did not want to do.

the insurance company paste/ pays only for The ordinary sample intraocular lens. so I will be saving about $2,500 each  I/eye.

I also have significant drooping of the eyelids which are somewhat covered by my glasses and my wife felt that I would look even worse without glasses!.

So it was decided that I will be operated upon 12/ 18/ 2017 at 7 a.m.

I was asked to come by for a preoperative check up on the 14th of December.

I think I might have suffered from a little bit of V I P syndrome, because no one even took my blood pressure before the day of surgery. and I was surprised to find my blood pressure running 150 / 110 on the morning of surgery.

As my wife also has cataracts which need surgery she was not driving for some  months. as we are living by ourselves we were in a dilemma how to get to Midland at 7 a.m. and come back in the evening. the taxi services are not good and already cost me they charge about $200 for a single trip from Big Spring to Midland. so we decided to Go to Midland on the 11th night. local taxi for the short trip from the hotel to the hospital and to  Dr. Harshad Shah’s Clinic.

Although I was trying to act like it was nothing in order not to freak my wife in my heart of hearts I was terrified of the possible complications and the remote possibility of losing vision in my right eye altogether.I had a small bowl of kung pao chicken and fried rice in Panda Express and went to sleep

the alarm rang at 6 in the morning we both got up I took my shower using the chlorhexidine body wash the preoperative nurse had given me.( I will write some other time about the research I did about this, being a surgeon myself).

the  taxi  ( Medissa taxi service) which we arranged the previous night(all right/ )arrived right on time

and we'd  Reached Midland Memorial Hospital At about 6:45 As usual I was put into the infamous hospital gown with my bare bottom freezing into one of the pre operating rooms.

then we have the usual hurry up and wait experiences which are  very common in a hospital   environment (end warniment and more on rent more, Google bloopers)

Finally after stating my name  and date of birth at least 6 times an RN came by to put about 5 different eye drops into my right eye every 15 minutes for almost 2 hours. during all this time I was feeling hungry thirsty and  my bladder was full and was killing me. the RN was kind enough to put the IV bag on a pole so that I could drag it into the bathroom to relieve myself.

then at about 10 o'clock An extra cheering transporter came by to push my trolley along with me into the anesthesia  preoperative waiting room. where I had to answer a number of questions from the anesthetist who also checked my  Mouth to determine it is adequate for incubation if necessary.

then I explained about the short General anesthesia using Propofol which should last a very short time in order to enable Dr. Shah To perform (a durable barMore Google bloopers) retrobulbar block.

Dr. Shah came to see me and to give me a few encouraging words and also to mark my right eye with an indelible ink pen( prank/ pain/ pain).

once I  (scooter down/GB )scooted on to the operating table the start was kind and considerate to cover me up with to warm blankets. the poor lady anesthetist Banged (and the statistic Bank  GB)her

head on  the operating microscope while trying to keep me comfortable.

Then there was not dramatic counting backwards of numbers like they show in the movies. all I felt was a severe burning pain( just a twinge according to the anesthetist) in my right arm where the IV was going in. although I was not aware of what exactly happened after the injection it felt like there was no gap between the Burning in the arm and feeling the swab starting to clean my eye region.

by the time I was getting used to this my face was completely covered up by the  surgical drapes.

all I could see was a bright light in my right eye and the (fathom GB/) pattern of the drapes with my left eye.

this is when I first made the wonderful discovery that I could mentally switch The( William/Region region GB) vision from the left eye to the right eye. which was a unique experience.

all I could make out was some instruments moving around in my right eye at one time I could make out the (de-facto  feco  Seiko GB) Phaco emulsifier  slowly sucking up the white jelly like substance Like somebody is scraping off a piece of pie from my glasses.

soon after this I had a very disturbing feeling of complete blindness in the right eye I was trying to involuntarily blink and squint with my right eye to see better as this had become a regular habit of me for the last 2 years but trying was useless and I could not do anything and I was( to clean/GB) strictly told by the surgeon not to make any sudden movements.

this feeling  (last turd GB/)lasted for about just about a minute. then the intraocular lens was injected And(a jester I just stood ,adjuster GB) adjusted. and I could   (Wrigley/ Wrigley GB) vaguely make out

the face of the surgeon. but immediately after that my I was covered up and I heard Dr. Shaw saying

“ your surgery is over and you did very well”

immediately I was moved back into the holding area and my wife joined me. I was able to get a sip of

bad tasting Hospital coffee which felt quite good.

after waiting about an hour we were on our way to the hotel (   rare GB/)where we had our lunch and took a nap for about an hour and a half. Then it was time to go back to Doctor shah’s clinic for a post-operative check up. After the bandage was removed he asked me to read The chart and all I could see was a big  white circle. as I was panicking  he changed

the chart and I was able to read the Top Line correctly and the bottom line partly.

after this he put some drops in my eye and also added a lubricant antibiotic ointment and( pack back GB) patched my I back again but this time only with a piece of gauze and paper tape.

 we(rent GB)went back to the hotel. till then I did not have any pain. but that night I had to take a few Tylenols to help with the pain.

next day morning I took off the patch and I was able to see some parts of my hotel room as if I was staring through  (tickling GB) thickly frosted glass.

So in fact I made the drive from Midland to Big Spring almost with vision in one eye. but even the minimal Vision in the right eye was helping  with depth perception.

The next day we had to go through with the ritual of putting the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drops in my right eye every 4 hours with a can/ten minute gap between the drops.

I'm thirsty, blah blah blah grass tomorrow.

on Thursday I was able to see clearly through my right eye. the light was so bright and blue that it was hurting my eye. so I started wearing my old( Lincoln/ Ginger/ classes GB)Tinted glasses.

for the last three days I have also been noticing constant flickering a flight/ of light And the outer edge of my right eye. which is given the scientific name of Dysphotopsia, this becomes worse when (i-ReadyGB) a very  bright light shines from the side into my right eye.

this is much less  when I use dim lighting and also cover right side of my glasses.

the difference between the colors when I look from the right IR/ IR/ I/ Right eye Starbright and blue white.

the same picture when I close my right eye is Mellow Yellow.

I am going to see Dr. Shaw on 27th for a post-operative check up.

I still need the time I left cataract operated.

hoping to let you guys know how it goes.

all in all I feel it was worth the trouble.