Any eye experts about?!

[thoroclock]

I've got a cataract op booked next week for my right eye and my optician and consultant both agree that as I'm so short-sighted, the difference post-op between the left and right eye will be such an imbalance that I won't be able to wear glasses to correct the vision in my left eye, so they have said I'll need the (less serious) cataract removed from the left eye as soon as possible after I've had the right one done. Apparently I'll be able to wear a contact lens in my left eye to correct the vision in the meantime.
I've just discovered that they haven't yet booked the left eye op in yet and said it will be assessed when I have my post-op appt in 6 weeks time, and will then be a further 6 weeks after that.
My concern is - you cannot wear contact lenses for two weeks prior to your assessment appt or the actual operation - so how am I meant to see for the two weeks prior to the assessment op and two weeks prior to the left eye op? I'm only in my 40's, I've young children and the only driver in my family!
Am I right in thinking it would have been logical to book both eyes in 6 weeks apart and assessed both eyes for lenses at the same time?
Or am I overreacting and should just wear an eye patch over my left eye for the four weeks and just see out of my right eye?

Thank you for any advice/thoughts you can provide!

I don't know how it works, but I do know that my ds (17) has one eye with excellent vision and the other is really short-sighted (a big imbalance). He has glasses, the left lens is plain so doesn't change his sight at all, the right lens has a strong prescription lens in to correct his vision. I don't know if this is a possibility after an op, but is it worthwhile asking your optician or consultant if a plain lens can be substituted in the right side of your glasses after the first op as a temporary measure?

Or can't you use your glasses to correct the left side and 'black out' the right side until the second op?

Using a patch over one eye changes your depth perception so can make driving dangerous, but I believe people who wear eye patches do adapt pretty quickly. Might be worth asking optician/consultant about this, get their opinion on if it is safe for you to drive with one eye or an eye patch.

I hope your ops go well and you get them both asap.

Thanks for your reply.
That's exactly what I thought, just use my glasses but block the right lens out but apparently it will be too much of an imbalance, and yet a contact lens is ok?!
Thank you for your kind words

I had this. My optician suggested putting a plain glass lense into my glasses on the side where my vision had been corrected, until I got the second eye done.
As it happened my vision was so amazing with just one good eye that I never wore glasses again! I did feel quite seasick due to the imbalance which was a bit grim but I can't express the joy at being able to see clearly and not reaching for my glasses as soon as I woke up.

My mother has just had a cataract operation. She's taken one lens out of her glasses. She's been told to visit the optician a week before her follow up for a new prescription.

Can you just remove the lens from one side of your glasses or have it replaced with plain?

Thanks for your replies.
I've been told that I won't be able to just remove the glasses lens on the corrected eye because I am so short sighted in the other eye it will 'throw them both out' (it's too much of an imbalance.)

it's to do with the balancing of the image sizes on the retina by the brain

the image though the spectacle lens will be much smaller than the image through the corrected eye.
contact lenses are much smaller, thinner and on the eye and so the difference is less, which is why this could be a partial solution.

You might get away with a balance/no lens, but if it's a heftyish prescription it isn't likely tbh.

Having said that if your cataracts have been compromising your vision your brain might be monovision-ing of its own accord so it may not be too awful...it's one of these things that should and can cause bother but sometimes do not!

I'd probably try and make a fuss to get the second one done ASAP to minimise the aggro.

Thank you so much MsMighty, I appreciate the explanation and it makes total sense now you have.
I'm -8.5 and -8 so I believe this is hefty!
I'll call them tomorrow and see what can be done to bring it forward, his secretary didn't seem bothered at all by my predicament and said just have a chat with him on the day of the op, which was basically just a fob off I felt.
Thank you again, I really appreciate it.