So as the title says, all about the eyes. Going in finally for cataract surgery, and they told me today not to swim for 3 weeks after, but shower after 4 days is ok. I asked why the difference, and they said because of public pools and risk of infections. I dont swim in a pool with a 1000 kids, in fact usually half dozen adults at lap swim and that is most the day for the pool.
So question is for those that had this done, how long before you went back in water, any complications? And of course for our resident eye doctors, what is your thoughts on the matter of getting back into swimming? Any problem with the goggle suck on the eye?
In the end I went with the standard lens, was a 3500 uncharge for the all 3 one. Does look like I will have to eventually do the other eye, so I suppose I could pay the extra when I get that one done, will one eye with it be enough to read well??
I tell my patients to not swim for a week. If your careful, I think it’s fine after three days to wear goggles and swim. My incisions are 2.2 mm though and your guy might make bigger incisions. When in doubt always go with what they tell you.
Thanks Brice, I will ask what incision width he uses. So is it basically as they say, after the first few days mostly just to keep from getting infected? In a clean pool doesnt seem like a big risk, ocean and other lakes probably a lot higher risks…
yes, mostly just risk of infection after three days. pretty minimal in a pool and with goggles pretty much no risk, especially if you time one of your antibiotic drops just before swimming. Of course, if you were here in Utah, I would probably just say lets swim later that afternoon. haha.
We usually do not mix a standard lens in one eye with a multifocal lens in the other. Patients who wear contacts with one eye distance and the other near often chose this option when having cataract surgery.
For patients that do not wear contacts we will occasionally do a trial of monovision contact for a few days to see if they like it before making a decision on the lens.
Feel free to message me and I will give you my phone number if you have any questions.
My cataract doctors told me that since I had Lasik previously I was not a candidate for the multi focal cataract lens.
Also it depended on whether the Lasik was for near vision or distant vision … so I stuck with the monovision lens.
My wife had the multi focus cataract lens … several years ago … and is pleased with the results …
Also … while not uncommon … I had some tissue over the interior of the lens after a few months and had a 5 minute procedure to use a laser to cut it away and clear up my vision after the cataract surgery.
My cataract doctors told me that since I had Lasik previously I was not a candidate for the multi focal cataract lens.
Also it depended on whether the Lasik was for near vision or distant vision … so I stuck with the monovision lens.
My wife had the multi focus cataract lens … several years ago … and is pleased with the results …
Also … while not uncommon … I had some tissue over the interior of the lens after a few months and had a 5 minute procedure to use a laser to cut it away and clear up my vision after the cataract surgery.
I’m a retina surgeon and not a cataract doc so I’ll leave the LASIK/multifocal lens discussion to them.
As far as the “5 minute procedure†part, that’s what is called a YAG capsulotomy and is very common after cataract surgery. I tell pts it doesn’t mean your surgeon did anything wrong, or your body is rejecting the lens implant, it’s just a common expected (mostly) occurrence. Fortunately, as you experienced, it’s a quick fix and most people are very happy with the results.
I just had semi-emergency surgery for a retinal detachment on Monday. All went well, 24 hours of face-down positioning, and am now lying on my left side for six very long days. I was a little shell-shocked, as I had no symptoms. Could you please give some general guidelines on returning to swim, bike, run, understanding that of course it will be different for each individual?
I just had semi-emergency surgery for a retinal detachment on Monday. All went well, 24 hours of face-down positioning, and am now lying on my left side for six very long days. I was a little shell-shocked, as I had no symptoms. Could you please give some general guidelines on returning to swim, bike, run, understanding that of course it will be different for each individual?
Thanks in advance,
Sharon
Sorry you are dealing with this.
For my patients, a lot of this depends on what all I had to do during surgery and if it was their first RD repair or their third RD repair. For the most part, I let people return to cycling first, but only indoors (riding the trainer two weeks after surgery but nothing intense yet). As you may already be able to tell, having the bubble inside your eye is disorienting and messes up your depth perception so it would be dangerous to ride outside (potentially life threatening with the limited field of vision).
For swimming and running, it’s different. With the face down position you assume during swimming, it’s probably not a bad activity to pursue while healing from this and I think you’d be ok to get back in a pool around two weeks after surgery (again, limit the intensity and always have goggles on to protect the eye from pool water). I would not want someone running until after the bubble was gone. Your vision and depth perception will hopefully have returned long before the bubble is gone but that bubble can be really distracting (aggravating) and I’d be scared my patient might fall down and get hurt.
To be honest, there’s really no strict guidelines telling us how long to wait to restart these activities, so it’s mostly up to each individual surgeon. You should 100% listen to your surgeon since he/she was inside your eye, but these are guidelines I’d follow if this happened to me or my wife…….and I’ve used them with my own patients for the past twenty years without difficulty
So as the title says, all about the eyes. Going in finally for cataract surgery, and they told me today not to swim for 3 weeks after, but shower after 4 days is ok. I asked why the difference, and they said because of public pools and risk of infections. I dont swim in a pool with a 1000 kids, in fact usually half dozen adults at lap swim and that is most the day for the pool.
So question is for those that had this done, how long before you went back in water, any complications? And of course for our resident eye doctors, what is your thoughts on the matter of getting back into swimming? Any problem with the goggle suck on the eye?
In the end I went with the standard lens, was a 3500 uncharge for the all 3 one. Does look like I will have to eventually do the other eye, so I suppose I could pay the extra when I get that one done, will one eye with it be enough to read well??
Listen to what your doc says. You only get 0ne set of eyes. My cataracts got so bad waiting for surgery that for almost a month I couldn’t work, drive or even watch TV. I laid on my couch and listened to podcasts. It was one of the the shittiest times in my life. I do not take my vision for granted anymore.
Thank you so much for you expert advice on this. I see my surgeon on Tuesday, and will certainly follow his specific advice, but it seems like I’ll be fishing my trainer out of the closet once I am upright!