Glaucoma surgery advice or help please ...

[bizzey]

My DM is due a Glaucoma surgery procedure in a few weeks.

It has all happened very quickly from diagnosis to surgery.

I was wondering if any one has had the procedure or someone close to them has , who could help advise me the best way to help my mum afterwards.

Ie...what does the eye look like and if swollen and red for how long ?

How long does the pain and discomfort last ..
Those sort of things.

Mum is 86. and is not going to cope well , so I need to know what is normal and what is not , when it comes to management .

Thank you.

https://glaucoma.uk/about-glaucoma/treatments-surgery/

There are 3 main types of glaucoma surgery so difficult to advise without knowing which type but this website gives a good overview of what to expect.

Has she had her pre assessment appointment? Usually the nurses there can give info regarding the procedure ans what to expect. If she hasn't already been then if you could go too that may be useful- you can outline to the staff any concerns about her ability to cope with the procedure and post op. Is there any specific you are concerned about for afterwards?

@Nursemumma92 thank you so much for repling.

She is having trabeculectomoy .
Not had the pre assessment yet .
Only found out yesterday.

So is the pre opp assessment carried out by an optometrist nurse ?

Just so many questions !

Hair washing!!

She washes her hair over the bath ..
Things like that .

Mum has had glaucoma surgery and she also had a second cataract op last month. She's 87 and very frail, but had no ill effects from either.

From what I can gather the key is to put in the eye drops religiously. Mum used to do them herself, but now relies on Dad to do them as she's too wobbly. I did them for her last weekend and it was very easy.

Do you know what glaucoma surgery she is having?

I am now a veteran of DH's 10 (at least) glaucoma surgeries so very used to it.

Regardless of what she has done, the eye will look normal. The only time DH complained of pain was when he persuaded the anaesthetist to change his anaesthetic - didn't make that mistake again. You go home the same day - the only time we found this difficult was when DH had had both eyes done at the same time.

You get a lot of drops to put in - DH does his own but your DM might want you to do it, especially as she hasn't had glaucoma a long time to be experienced at doing them.

Laser and shunts - he was back to normal immediately and went back to work the following day.

Trabeculectomy - there is an endless amount of faffing around, going back to the eye hospital for follow up, potentially further ops where they fiddle about with the bleb, going back for more follow up etc.

During this time DH could basically look after himself - I wasn't doing any care beyond providing meals - but his vision was sometimes blurry, he often felt very unwell, the incessant going back to eye clinic and having the drops in so he couldn't see was very time consuming and it was stressful not knowing quite when it would be fixed. That said, he was very unusual in needing quite so many redo ops as he did, his surgeon was beginning to be embarrassed at it.

OK checked with DH who points out he has had 2 trabs, 1 trab repair and 3 patches after everything suddenly worked far too well. This is an absolute worst case scenario though.

He says the eyes don't hurt but he had a general 'sore' feeling around the front of his head for a few days.
He was given some eye shields to wear in bed, these are so you don't wake up and rub your eyes. He wore them a bit round the house as well as cat protection as one of the cats likes to sit on his head but otherwise they are just for bed.
He can't remember how he washed his hair but thinks he might have sat in the bath and used a jug.
Other than that, and the endless ferrying him to and from appointments, he just got on as normal.

He can remember me walking him out of Moorfields, leaving him with 2 eye shields on while I hailed a taxi and him immediately walking into a litter bin.

Dh and I have both had a trabulectomy procedure done with our opthomologist. I only needed a few drainage holes for normal pressure glaucoma. Dh several for very high pressure.
Performed in office a fast laser procedure then home.
no drops no instructions that needed follow up. He was very quick, mild discomfort during the procedure which I certainly didn’t consider “surgery”.

@BreakingBroken her procedure is definitely classed as surgery as she has to go for a pre opp appointment next week.

With fasting and restrictions beforehand.

Sorry for late reply!

In my trust the pre assessment is carried out by a nurse from the eye clinic so they do have knowledge about the individual procedures.

In terms of hair washing, it is advised that you don't get water in your eye for 'a few weeks'- this is largely based on the healing of the eye and advice can be sought from the doctors/nurse specialists at her follow up appointments. If she could have her hair washed over the bath by someone else or if she could afford to have it washed at a salon then that would be the safest bet until her eye has healed.

There will be eye drops to give after the procedure and if she isn't used to administering those herself, it might be worth buying an eye drop dispensing aid to help with that depending on her dexterity and grip.

There is also likely to be quite a few follow up appointments including the day after surgery so worth keeping this in mind for transport. The bonus of this is that there is lots of monitoring on the healing process and opportunities to ask questions and discuss any worries.

Really hope it goes well for her.

*Edited to say this is definitely classed as surgery and done in an operating theatre.

@Nursemumma92 and thank you

I have looked up the eye drops applicator thing and will get her one !

She has been using drops ok for the past 6 months , but I think this will help not to be putting fingers near her eye .

Hair washing she does over the bath , forwards.

I will do it for her with a towel over her face if it is ok to have her face bent forwards .?

DymaCare shampoo caps are what your mother needs for hair washing. The cost worked out at about £2.00 a go when I used them after facial surgery, a few years ago. You get them
online. She won’t have to bend. Brilliant invention.

@bizzey, forgot to tag you in my comment above

Ohh my goodness @Footle ..they look amazing !
Just what we need .
Thank you so much .
Would never have stumbled across them ever 🤣🤣..

@bizzeySo glad it’s what you need. I’m very fussy about my hair feeling clean, and it really does work. It made a huge difference to my recovery. Best wishes to your mum.

You had SLT which is trabeculoplasty. The OP's mother is having a more complex procedure.

OP we give people this booklet
https://glaucoma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-07-04-Trabeculectomy-V6.0-digital.pdf

Hope it goes well

@jetlag92 ....thank you so much !
That booklet is really helpful.
We were given a booklet at the hospital, and hat I only scanned but yours seems much more in detail and has helped me a lot .

I think the most heartbreaking thing about this surgery, is that there will be no improvement in her sight which suddenly went downhill in a few weeks .

But. It is better than han loosing the sight altogether .