Cataract operation makes the world look more beautiful

An eye before and after cataract operation

Monowara Begum Moni

Today a baby comes into the world with the mother fully awake and the doctors bring the baby out of the mother’s womb.

Here I am telling you, how my eye surgery for cataract in my both eyes was done in difficult surgical conditions such as HLA B27 positive iridocyclitis. 

After several examinations and checks, I went to the operating room of Katharinen hospital, Stuttgart, Germany. Cataracts are caused by degradation of the proteins in the lens of the eye.

Before the procedure, the pupil of the eye to be operated on is dilated using eye drops. The active ingredient in the drops also causes your vision to be blurred for a few hours.

The operating room was very cold - like a dead bed. The doctors explained to me how the operation would go. However, I was able to speak. They gave me several blankets to protect me from the cold. I’m certainly scared to death.

I was awake during the surgery, but could not see what the surgeon was doing. First of all, the left side of my eye got an injection. In order to make the structures around the lens of the eye more visible, a surgical microscope transfers brightly lit, enlarged images of the surgical field to a screen. I felt fine, without any pain. Then I felt that my cornea was cut.

Then, with a device, the cloudy lens capsule in my eye was cut into small pieces and removed. The part of the left capsule remaining in the eye forms a natural pocket into or in front of which a plastic lens can be implanted. The doctor uses a special tool to keep my eye open while removing the damaged part of my cornea and replacing it with healthy donor tissue. 

In adults, the hardened lens core is crushed using ultrasonic waves. I then have the residue vacuumed away. Then the surgeon put the new lens in it. Then a gel and medication were placed on it and the eye was covered with a bandage. 

The operation was carried out without complications using peribulbar anesthesia Peribulbar anaesthesia is performed by injecting the anaesthetic drug in the orbit around the equator of the eye ball (globe). It took only 25 minutes.

The bandage was removed overnight. Slowly I could see the world better. After a month, my right eye was operated upon using the same procedure.

Now I see the world very clearly. It would be better if I could see the universe?

After implanting a standard lens, patients can expect the end result to be very good distance vision, while they need reading glasses for near and medium distance vision, such as for reading, or doing computer work.

The length of recovery time after cataract surgery varies from person to person.

To prevent the sunshine shining in my eyes, a pair of sunglasses was necessary. It was amazing that I was like a guinea pig myself!

The full recovery period for cataract surgery typically lasts around 8 weeks.

(Monowara Begum Moni is a Bangladesh-born journalist living in Stuttgart, Germany.)