Patient guide

What to bring

• All the glasses you use, even reading glasses
• If you wear contact lenses, the box or their details
• Your eye drops and a list of all your medicines, with doses
• Earlier eye test results and reports of past surgery
• Sunglasses for after dilating drops

What to tell the doctor

• What has changed, since when, in one eye or both
• Conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure
• Allergies and any blood thinners
• A family history of eye disease, especially glaucoma

Bring someone along

If dilating drops may be used, do not drive yourself, and it is best to have someone with you. Vision stays blurry for a few hours and light feels uncomfortable.

Vision and prescription

You read letters far and near, and each eye is measured on its own. It does not hurt.

Eye pressure

This is done with a brief puff of air or a gentle touch and takes a few seconds.

Dilating drops

These open the pupil so the doctor can see the retina and optic nerve. Vision stays blurry and light-sensitive for a few hours, so do not drive yourself and bring sunglasses.

OCT

This uses light to take cross-section pictures of the layers of the retina and the nerve fibres. The machine does not touch the eye, and you keep your head still on a rest. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes. With a heavily clouded cornea, a dense cataract or heavy bleeding in the eye, light does not pass well and the test is less useful.

Visual field

This measures side vision and is used to follow glaucoma. You look at a fixed point and press a button when you see a light beside it.

Corneal map and thickness

These show the shape and thickness of the cornea and are used for keratoconus and before laser surgery.

Before the day

• Give your doctor a full list of your medicines and allergies, and ask which ones to continue.
• Keep diabetes and your other conditions under control.
• Ask any questions you have about the method, benefits, risks and cost.
• Arrange a lift home, because you must not drive yourself.
• Ask the treatment centre about eating beforehand; the instructions depend on the type of anaesthetic.

On the day

Do not wear eye makeup, and wear comfortable clothes. The eye is numbed with drops or an injection. You stay awake but should not feel pain, and you may see light and shadow. Cataract surgery usually takes 20 to 45 minutes and most people go home the same day.

If both eyes need surgery

Each eye is done on a separate day.

What is normal?

For the first few hours vision is hazy. In the first few days the eye may ache and you may feel tired. Vision improves gradually over several days. You may need to wear a plastic shield over the eye at night.

Drops

Use your drops on schedule for as long as the doctor has said. After cataract surgery this is usually about four weeks. Wash your hands before using them.

Avoid these until your doctor says otherwise

• Rubbing your eye
• Heavy lifting and sport
• Eye makeup
• Getting water in your eye
• Swimming, even with goggles

Do not drive until your vision is back to the required level. You may still need glasses for reading or distance, and your prescription may differ from before.

Do not wait

If you get sudden floaters, flashes of light, a curtain-like shadow or sudden blurring, or if pain and redness are getting worse, contact the treatment centre or the emergency department at once.

Putting in drops properly

1. Wash your hands. Take out contact lenses unless your doctor said you can keep them in.
2. Tilt your head back slightly and look up at a fixed spot.
3. Pull the lower lid down to form a small pocket.
4. Hold the tip close to the eye without touching it, and let one drop fall.
5. Close your eye and press lightly at the inner corner, beside the nose, for one to two minutes.
6. If you have another type of drop, wait 3 to 5 minutes.

The tip must not touch your eye, lid, fingers or anything else. If your hands shake or you are anxious, lie down, close your eyes, place the drop in the corner by your nose, then open your eyes and blink. Help from a family member is fine too.

Contact lenses

• Take lenses out before showering or swimming. Water and lenses do not mix.
• Do not sleep in daily-wear lenses.
• Never wet a lens with tap water or saliva.
• Use fresh solution each time, and do not top up the old solution.
• Rinse the case with solution, let it air dry open and replace it at least every 3 months.
• Follow your doctor’s schedule for replacing lenses.

If your eye becomes very red, painful, watery, sensitive to light or blurry, or has discharge, take the lens out and call an eye doctor at once.

Get help at once

• Sudden loss or blurring of sight
• A sudden increase in floaters, flashes of light or a curtain-like shadow
• Severe eye or forehead pain with redness, nausea, vomiting or coloured halos around lights
• A hard blow to the eye, or an object stuck in it
• A chemical splash
• Blood or pus in the eye
• Pain, redness or blurring that gets worse after eye surgery

If a chemical gets in your eye

Start rinsing right now.

1. Keep the lid open and let clean water that is not hot run gently over the eye for at least 20 minutes.
2. If you wear a contact lens and it comes out easily, take it out.
3. Do not rub the eye.
4. Do not drive yourself. Ask someone to take you, or call 115.
5. Take the container with you, because its label helps treatment.

If the chemical is strong, such as bleach or oven cleaner, keep rinsing while you wait for help.

If something is stuck in the eye

Do not pull it out and do not press on the eye. Go to the emergency department.

Call the same day

• A red, painful eye in a contact lens wearer
• Severe sensitivity to light
• Straight lines that have newly become bent or wavy