My First Surgery (Cataract) Report

Hello. This is Hareruya ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ.

In May 2024, I underwent my first surgery in my life. It was a cataract surgery. A cataract is an eye disease. That's right. For my first surgery, I was having eye surgery. This was scarier than I imagined!

What is a cataract?

A cataract is a disease where the crystalline lens, which gathers light from the outside to focus, becomes cloudy, making it difficult for light to pass through properly or causing light to scatter, preventing a clear image from forming on the retina and resulting in decreased vision. (Refer to here for details)

As cataracts progress, symptoms such as cloudy vision, feeling like the field of view is dark, seeing things as blurry, decreased visual acuity, seeing things as double or triple, and sensitivity to light appear, and I had almost all of these symptoms over the past few years.

Because my vision had declined to the point where it interfered with daily life and I could no longer drive, it was decided during an ophthalmology visit that I would finally have surgery. (April 10, 2024)

Cataract surgery

It is said to be a simple surgery that is usually done as an outpatient procedure (even so, eye surgery is scary!).

It is a surgery that makes you scream just hearing about it: cutting the eyeball, crushing and removing the crystalline lens, and inserting an intraocular lens.

Furthermore, in my case, I had previously suffered from Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (please refer to this site for details), and as a sequela, a troublesome procedure was required to remove adhesions in the part of the iris that supports the crystalline lens. Therefore, my local doctor could not perform the surgery, and I ended up being admitted to the

university hospital that had treated me for Harada disease in the past to have the surgery.

Pre-operative examinations

At the consultation at the university hospital (April 12), I confirmed the referral letter from my local doctor and the surgical plan.

It was decided that I would be hospitalized for three days and two nights for each surgery (one eye at a time, twice), with a two-week interval between surgeries. Specifically, the two surgeries were scheduled for May 7 and May 21.

Pre-operative examinations (April 26), I also had blood tests and an electrocardiogram, and was cleared for surgery.

The Q&A with the doctor at that time.

• How long will it take? -> 45 minutes (usually 30 minutes).
  

• Can I see the scalpel during surgery? -> You won't see it because you'll be anesthetized, have water poured on your eye, and have light shone on it.
  

• Will I wear an eye patch? -> You will wear one after the surgery, but it will be removed when you are discharged.
  

• What will my vision be like?
  → You will have mild nearsightedness. It will feel like you need to take off your glasses to see things up close.

Hospitalization

My first hospitalization was on May 6th. Since it was a public holiday, I was admitted in the afternoon. It is a four-person room. I heard they converted what used to be a six-person room into a four-person room separated by curtains. It is a clean hospital room.

After receiving an explanation about the ward, I had two consultations (with the surgeon and assistant surgeon), a greeting from the nurse, an explanation of the surgery, and eye drops to prevent infection in quick succession, followed by a shower and then dinner.

Dinner was larger than I expected, properly seasoned, and delicious.
After eating, I spent time reading and thinking about the story for my entry for the Creative Awards (more on that later).

Surgery (right eye), discharge

May 7th, the day of the surgery. After breakfast, there was a greeting from the pharmacist, a greeting from the nurse on shift change, and eye drops. Starting one hour before surgery,
eating and drinking are prohibited. When it was time for surgery, they inserted
an IV needle (apparently to administer painkillers in case of an emergency), I changed into a surgical gown, and went to the operating room in a wheelchair.

In the operating room, once I lay down on the operating table, they applied anesthetic eye drops and gave me an anesthetic injection (this was scary, but it didn't hurt), taped my right eye to keep it from closing, and covered my face with a sheet except for my right eye.

Local anesthesia was used, so I was conscious during the surgery. Although the light was bright and I couldn't see the scalpel, I could still feel a sensation of being worked on. For some reason, anime songs were playing softly during the surgery (Watashi wa Saikyo!, Blue Bird, etc.). Was it to help relax the tension? (Whose tension?)

The surgery ended in the blink of an eye, and I returned to my hospital room with an eye patch on. They measured my body temperature, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and pulse, and there were no abnormalities. I returned exactly one hour after leaving the room.

After that, there was no particular pain, just dinner and then bedtime. My first surgery in life was completed safely.

The next morning (May 8th), I had a check-up (my intraocular pressure was high, but there was no inflammation), had breakfast, received instructions on eye drops, packed my belongings, and was discharged in the morning. When I took off the eye patch, since it was only surgery on one eye and I didn't have my glasses, I couldn't tell my exact visual acuity, but the world had definitely become brighter＼(^o^)／.

Eye drops consist of 4 types. They are for infection prevention, steroids (to prevent recurrence of Harada disease), and 2 types for lowering intraocular pressure, which I apply 1 to 4 times a day (depending on the eye drop).

On the day of the surgery, showers were prohibited, from the day of discharge showers were okay (from the neck down), and after 3 days hair washing was okay.

Check-up, surgery (left eye), check-up, and then...

May 13th, check-up for the right eye that was operated on. Vision and fundus examinations were fine, and recovery is going well.
May 20th, hospitalization. Intraocular pressure had dropped to the standard level, so the pressure-lowering eye drops were discontinued.
May 21st, surgery. Since it was my second time, I had no fear and underwent the surgery with peace of mind. That night, my eye hurt and I had a headache, so I was given painkillers. The headache subsided, and I slept soundly.
May 22nd, discharge. The examination before discharge was also fine (though the intraocular pressure was high...).
May 27th, check-up (left eye). No inflammation, no problems. I graduated from the university hospital and moved to my local primary care physician.
June 4th, check-up (primary care physician). Intraocular pressure had also dropped to a normal level. I stopped the pressure-lowering eye drops.
June 14th, July 11th, check-ups (primary care physician). No problems. Vision is also stable.
July 18th, glasses prescription.
July 19th, lens replacement for my previous glasses. And today,
July 26th,, picking up my new glasses (bifocals)!

I have finally been freed from an inconvenient life ε-(´∀｀; ). 'Eyes' are important. Please make sure not to overwork your eyes, everyone.

In conclusion

My first surgery in life went even better than I could have hoped. The recovery has been problem-free, and now I am only using mild steroid eye drops. I underwent the surgery after hearing about various worst-case scenarios, such as if the surgery failed, if the intraocular pressure didn't drop, or if Harada disease recurred, but in the end, it was the best possible result. I am grateful to all the medical staff, the people at church who prayed for me, and my family who were closest to me, worrying and praying the most! And above all, I thank God, the Healer!

Aside (Promotion)

I found out in late April that there was a 'note' creative contest and I planned to enter, so I thought it would be a shame to lose the whole month of May, so I decided on the story and characters roughly during April, and made May (during hospitalization) a period for daydreaming.

It was fun to have the characters move and talk while keeping my eyes closed. They would say lines on their own, do unexpected things, and let me imagine detailed movements; it was a meaningful time.

And then, in June, I wrote. Since the outline was already done, I spent a full month completing over 20,000 characters (8 episodes in total). I was able to publish it on July 1st.