Elderly father has concerns re cataract surgery - can anyone share their experience?

[SassyLemonFinch]

My 67 year old father is due for double cataract surgery on the NHS in about a month's time, but he's got a lot of misgivings about the outcome and whether or not the new lens will be 'worth' it. Since it's on the NHS the lens will be monofocal, and at the moment he's agreed to have it corrected for distance vision, with glasses required for close up.

To give some context, he's had one cataract for 5 years and the other for about 1-2 years, and since around the beginning of this year, his eyesight has deteriorated a lot, leaving him near-blind and reliant on my (his long-suffering daughter) help.

I won't go into the full details but in short, he's the type of guy who is stubborn to the point of it being detrimental to his health and he has a lot of distrust for doctors, believing they're all shills for big pharma/big tech and are generally incompetent, etc. He was supposed to have a cataract operation 3 years ago but had a bad experience with the surgeon and he basically walked out and the operation didn't take place. And he spent the next few years putting up with having good sight in only one eye, until this year when that eye got worse too. Sight loss has massively impacted his mental health, and he's also dealing with a lot of other age related health issues. He's also got a fear of lying flat for surgery and an inability to stay still, so the surgery will be under general anaesthetic, which makes it much more of a hassle. Plus, the discussion we had with the surgeon was pretty rushed and he wasn't very good at explaining how the new lens works to my dad. Basically, getting him to agree to have an operation at all has been like pulling teeth, and now that we're almost there, he just needs a little more reassurance/convincing that it will indeed be worth it.

So, if anyone here has had cataract surgery, I'd be really grateful if you could share some thoughts/info about your experience and how well you were satisfied with your vision afterwards. My dad's biggest concern is what he thinks of as the 'gap' in vision - i.e., with a lens fixed for distance, close-up stuff will be blurred unless you wear glasses. He doesn't mind wearing glasses but he has extremely high expectations and is pessimistic about the quality of the lens, and I think he's imagining that close-up vision will be much poorer than it actually is. So what I'd like to hear about is people's experience with the monofocal lens and how much of an inconvenience, if any, you find it. My dad had pretty good distance vision before his sight loss and mostly wore glasses for reading the crossword/laptop/working on model trains, so it seems to me that it won't be much of a different situation after his lenses are replaced. But like I said, he has a lot of misgivings and needs a lot of convincing, so any assurances I can pass onto him would be appreciated. Thank you for reading such a long post!

Oooh I've never found another measles- affected- eyesighter. Hello!

@SassyLemonFinch your father does sound extremely anxious about his upcoming surgery, so I think it’s a good thing he’s having both eyes done together under general anaesthetic. Everyone here can tell you how much having cataract surgery helped them, but is this information really helping him?

Since having cataract surgery, I use reading glasses to read or use the computer. My eyes adjust immediately from glasses to without glasses. My near vision isn’t too bad, but small print isn’t clear without glasses. My distance vision is very good and I can see a lot more detail and colour than before. My night vision has also improved.

My vision wasn’t too blurred leaving the hospital, but my eyes definitely needed a few days to adjust to the new lenses. You could tell your father that he leave hospital in a wheelchair if necessary and he’ll presumably have someone with him at home to help after a GA anyway.

I could see well enough to use the stairs after surgery but found getting water into a glass and squeezing toothpaste on the brush was interesting on that first day! My husband made my hot drinks for the first 24 hours, as I wasn’t sure about using the kettle but I managed everything else. It’s a good idea for your father to have sunglasses available for a while after the surgery, as the new lenses let in a lot more light.

I don’t know anyone who has taken up a hospital bed for this. I’m quite amazed it’s offered.

Plenty of people do, it’s far less common than LA but for things like Neurological disorders that cause movement like Parkinson’s etc, children, some mental health conditions. Not everybody is able to stay as still as required, although it’s a very quick surgery, it is still very delicate.

@ginoclocksomewhere Yes, I know I have had one eye dome. I was also offered LA for much more complicated and lengthy eye surgery (1 hr 15 mins) and that was a stage too far for me but 10 mins was pretty easy. I was private for both though as covid played havoc with waiting lists! I can see why some people who cannot stay still need GA, but being apprehensive is fairly normal.

would you say the same to a woman who requested GA for a hysteroscopy for anxiety? If 'taking up a bed' is needed to ensure that a procedure can be done safely and without causing trauma, then that's what's needed.

Umm? Cataract op is 10 mins! It’s completely and utterly different. That’s barely worth a response. For 10 mins you do have to find your courage.

I'm 70 and have had one eye done recently, now waiting to have the other done. I can tell you and your Dad that without a doubt the worse bit was worrying about it beforehand! The procedure itself is very quick, there's no pain, and it's a bit like looking into a wonky kaleidoscope. I was a bit headachey afterwards though, so tell him to have some painkillers in, and rest for a day or two. The thing that has surprised me most is how bright colours are, I didn't even realise that my colour perception was deteriorating!

For simple cases it is 10 minutes you're right, but in mature cases when the cataract has been present for several years, it can take 20 mins plus. The surgeon told us that my Dad's procedure will be closer to half an hour due to the cataract in one eye being very dense. So yes most people can grin and bear it but there will always be exceptions. My Dad has a very specific trauma-based fear of surgery, which he himself has admitted that he probably would have been able to ignore had his mental health not been so negatively affected by becoming blind. It's a lot harder to be brave about eye surgery when you can barely see the operating theatre, let alone the surgeon. So a general anaesthetic is best in our case.

67 is not anywhere near elderly 🙄 how depressing.

It’s quite common for people to need sedation if they are older and/or have other health issues. I needed mild sedation as I am unable to remain completely still due to my disability. The surgeon told me sedation was essential for me.

On the days I had my cataracts done, the day surgery unit was full of people having cataract surgery under sedation or GA.

Good luck in your efforts! Since making this thread, my own cantankerous father has begrudgingly come round to the idea and is officially due for surgery this coming Tuesday, so barring an outright refusal on the day, it should be the end of this situation.

What helped him was partly some choice comments from this thread, I tried to make it clear to him as best I can that he can expect general vision to be massively improved after surgery, and that as long as he has a pair of glasses for close up vision there'll be nothing that he can't see with the new lenses that he couldn't see before he lost his sight. Also, I think the time pressure and the fact of having the operation scheduled (and the forms signed, and the taxis booked, plus a bit more sobbing and arguing from me) has also helped to cement the idea of it in his mind.
I hope you can convince your own father to go through with it. I suppose it's a matter of addressing exactly what his concern is. (My dad unfortunately has a pre-occupation with an alternative method to cataract surgery - a non-invasive light therapy method currently in development but not proven, it's called Revisyon and made by Edinburgh Biosciences - and because he's um, slightly odd, he spent a year or so trying to make his own version of this device instead of actually seeking surgery. So he was against the idea of cataract surgery partly because of what he perceived to be a better method of doing it. I hope in your situation it'll be a bit simpler.) Like everyone else has said on here, I suppose the main points to reiterate are that cataracts are not reversible, they will only get worse over time and lead to debilitating blindness, and the sooner they are treated, the simpler the procedure is likely to be.