Re: Off Subject, (kind of) from ken (squarehead52)

[Guest guest]

Your son is such a trooper! And you must also be very strong.

I understand your situation in relationship to cataract surgery is like the

difference in a hangnail and a heart transplant. Is he now stable with this or

does it look like things could get worse? I sure hope his other eye is not

affected. How long has he been battling this problem? And I think I can

empathies how it effects you.

I too have found that when you tell a doctor as you did about the after effect

of anesthesia if it doesn't fit their thinking it just passes through the brain

without any hesitation. I have some weird allergies which must be associated

with general anesthesia as when I have the light stuff like in a cataract I have

no problem but if it is real anesthesia that is a different matter. Fortunately

it can be cleared in a few days and it does not involve my heart or breathing.

A few hours after the anesthesia I start to spike my temperature, sometimes like

104+ and I am very sick. And it takes my fuzzy brain a while to recognize it.

Typically at that point the doctor is trying to find the cause. My husband tries

to run interference for me.

Recently I had read about the surgery that requires you to be face down for

days. At the time I cringed to even think of it. The article said that most

doctors won't even attempt it if the patient is not committed to co-operate with

that. For a child it would be something special to get through it.

Betty

[ ] Re: Off Subject, (kind of) from ken (squarehead52)

,_._,___

[Guest guest]

Nah, we are not specila or any more strong than anyone else. It happened too

fast and unexpectedly for there the be time ot gte csared at first- and then the

doc said we had to think about DCFS and if thye would agree with our treatment

plan....

It has now been approx 14 months----

OK i am not special- but- my kids ALL ARE>

OL. I am very lucky my son is a great kid.

SO far the othe r eye is OK..we hope to kep it tat way------my poor son is more

than ready to move forward with his life.

I could tak aboutthis forever- bu I fear i am ulling away rom he grop here- do

el free teia me i you wat.

ACK I think I ed anew battery in my keyboard!

- In , " Betty " <bvanOmega@...> wrote:

>

> Your son is such a trooper! And you must also be very strong.

>

> I understand your situation in relationship to cataract surgery is like the

difference in a hangnail and a heart transplant. Is he now stable with this or

does it look like things could get worse? I sure hope his other eye is not

affected. How long has he been battling this problem? And I think I can

empathies how it effects you.

>

> I too have found that when you tell a doctor as you did about the after effect

of anesthesia if it doesn't fit their thinking it just passes through the brain

without any hesitation. I have some weird allergies which must be associated

with general anesthesia as when I have the light stuff like in a cataract I have

no problem but if it is real anesthesia that is a different matter. Fortunately

it can be cleared in a few days and it does not involve my heart or breathing.

A few hours after the anesthesia I start to spike my temperature, sometimes like

104+ and I am very sick. And it takes my fuzzy brain a while to recognize it.

Typically at that point the doctor is trying to find the cause. My husband tries

to run interference for me.

>

> Recently I had read about the surgery that requires you to be face down for

days. At the time I cringed to even think of it. The article said that most

doctors won't even attempt it if the patient is not committed to co-operate with

that. For a child it would be something special to get through it.

> Betty

>

> [ ] Re: Off Subject, (kind of) from ken (squarehead52)

> ,_._,___

>

>

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " dreamer_plus " <dreamer_plus@...>

> my 11 yr old son had more done than just his cataract removed

Your son sounds like a wonderful kid and a real trooper.

Darcy

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Betty " <bvanOmega@...>

> My poor little daughter was about the worst when it came to something like

> that.

>

>

> Heartbreaking story. She became diabetic. That was very difficult for me

> to take. But somehow we >manage to live with, and cope with terribly

> difficult situations.

She definitely sounds like she knows what she does and doesn't like! LOL I

wouldn't want to be diabetic, but if I did become it, having to deal with

needles would be ok for me. I'm not fond of needles, but not terrified of

them.

Darcy

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: <NELLIESTAR@...>

> Isn't having cataracts removed in this day an age a piece of cake (as you

> suggest)?

> My 80 YO mother had laser surgery and was fine an hour afterwards.....

> What am I missing?

> Are some types worse than others?

> OR ,did all of you have it done before laser surgery?

Laser surgery??? Is that how they do cataracts now? Just aim a laser at

your eye?? The last I knew, they cut into your eye and then put tiny

stitches in it??? Am I out of date with this? A laser would not be nearly

as terrifying as them cutting on my eye, as long as I was in twilight land,

I think that would be ok.

Darcy

[Guest guest]

No, Darcy. Lasers aren't used in the removal of the lens. An incision is

still made; however, today, the incisions are so small that they often don't

need stitches.

http://www.eyemdlink.com/EyeProcedure.asp?EyeProcedureID=1

http://www.eyemdlink.com/EyeProcedure.asp?EyeProcedureID=19

Not an MD

Re: [ ] Re: Off Subject, (kind of) from ken (squarehead52)

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: <NELLIESTAR@...>

>> Isn't having cataracts removed in this day an age a piece of cake (as you

>> suggest)?

>> My 80 YO mother had laser surgery and was fine an hour afterwards.....

>> What am I missing?

>> Are some types worse than others?

>> OR ,did all of you have it done before laser surgery?

>

>

> Laser surgery??? Is that how they do cataracts now? Just aim a laser at

> your eye?? The last I knew, they cut into your eye and then put tiny

> stitches in it??? Am I out of date with this? A laser would not be

> nearly

> as terrifying as them cutting on my eye, as long as I was in twilight

> land,

> I think that would be ok.

> Darcy

[Guest guest]

LOL, wellllll, IMO, my kids are super, LOL. But really my son is not all so

much of a trooper necessarily. He hurt his eye and it did not cause pain. ER

said it was OK. A few days later a diff doc surprised us and said no, it was

not OK and sent us immediately in to city. we misunderstood and did not realize

we got sent for emergency surgery, so we did not have time to get anxious or

scared.

after the first surgery, it looked bad but my son swears there was no pain.and

he did retain vision from the injury thru the first surgery and after first

surgery.

Remember children do not always have choices, and at his age, he was still used

to having to submit to what he was told he had to submit to..and he did not have

life experience to know different yet.

And children heal great usually- I mean if they are normal healthy kids. While

my son DOES have other health concerns, they are not related to healing. (he

has mild cerebal palsy and atypical seizures- ) And children can usually

distract themself pretty well from dwelling on " bad " things, and they are also

masters at accomodation, adaptation, compensation, flexibility and resilience.

The older we get the less of those skills we seem to have. He did continue to

retain vision until after his 2nd surgery. BUT becuz of the constant eye drops

and intermittant use of patch post surgery etc, and all the dilating of his eyes

etc, he did slowly get used to not being able to use his bad eye. AND he also

had a convergance problem before his injury.....and LOL once he lost vision in

his bad eye, convergance was no longer a problem, LOL.

Being a kid, he simply had too much else in life to take his attention and he

just moves forward.

The very very very worst part about it all was NOT losing his vision in the

eye.....but instead the biggest life changing part of it all was that he already

had school problems to begin with becuz of the cause of his seizures and CP- he

has heterotopia and could not read or write. He has an amazing memory and a

high IQ but.....reading and writing were a big problem. Then when the eye

injury happened, we were gone 3 months of grade 5 to the university hospital 5

hours from home, and too busy to do tutoring and he was not supposed to USE his

eye.....and then another 8 weeks later.....and the entire time at least 3 days

a week for 14 months.....and the school refused to retain him in grade 5- (even

after a formal hearing) and then they began to get really weird. When he got to

the middle school this fall, the school began to call me daily to demand I take

him to local ER cuz they said no surgeon would leave an eye looking how his

looked. They wanted documentation that he REALLY was under care of doc, well, I

had brought a letter from doc every single week.and then they wanted

documentation about WHY we were going to doc so far away. Then they began to

suspend him for absences for when he was at eye doc. Yes, it is all illegal,

but.....even after I went thru the formal procedures, they still did not treat

him decently. So- he is now being homeschooled becuz they were actually saying

things to him like his eye was ugly, his surgeon must be a quack etc.

He is terribly lonely being homeschooled, tho. BUT to my great shock, from Nov

to now he has advanced in his schoolwork from doing grade 2 level work to doing

grade 8 level work! (he is technically grade 6)

Most kids ARE resilient, adaptable, etc. Kids are simply incrediibly amazing

people.

Maybe a year or so ago I saw a man on TV- I think his name was Mansfield?

He was born with ? no arms or legs. He played football in HS and ?wrestled? He

drives. He made me think. What I figured out was, really to us it seems

amazing but ---he says he had to learn just like anyone has to learn, and he had

to use what he had just like anyone else does. ALL kids learn to feed

themself----dress themself etc. so- he DID.

I LIKED his mindset. So- my son learned to cope and deal with what life threw

HIS way. Thats all.

- In , " catstamp " <catstamp@...> wrote:

>

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: " dreamer_plus " <dreamer_plus@...>

> > my 11 yr old son had more done than just his cataract removed

>

> Your son sounds like a wonderful kid and a real trooper.

> Darcy

>

[Guest guest]

> No, lasers can correct a lot of things, but not cataract>>>>

>

I've heard that lasers are sometimes involved?

YAG lasers are used in a later procedure to create a clear opening in the

lens-containing membrane, if the membrane becomes cloudy in the months following

the original cataract removal.

Also, some doctors use a laser to break up the cloudy lens before removing

it.

[Guest guest]

When you have the cataract surgery, they first drape your face with a light

'curtain' so that you won't know what they're doing. Then they knock you out

for ONE minute, that's when they do the shot and freeze the eye. You will feel

nothing ! After you 'wake up', you will be in la-la land while they do what

needs to be done. There's nothing to it, really. You will have a patch over

your eye when they finish, then if your dr does as mine did, you will need to

wear a new patch at night so that you don't inadvertently rub your eye while

sleeping. Then of course you will need drops for a while. My 82 year old

mother just had her first one removed, she was just annoyed with the patch.

Patsy

El Mirage, AZ

DX 2005 Stage 1 PBC

AIH/SLE/RA/COPD

Just a woman of letters....

[Guest guest]

No, lasers can correct a lot of things, but not cataract. A new lens must be

put into the eye to replace the bad one. You even get a certificate with the

lens number on it.

Lasers aren't all that great either, I feinted when I had it !

Patsy

El Mirage, AZ

DX 2005 Stage 1 PBC

AIH/SLE/RA/COPD

Just a woman of letters....

[Guest guest]

I never did understand why they removed my sons cataract and lens.....his eye

has no vision anyway......but they did remove his lens and not put a new one in

place. If you look real carefully you can see just where the lens would be on

his eye, it is kinda weird. BUT you do hafta be really really close to see it,

it is NOT noticeable to a casual observer.

- In , " Pat Murray " <patsy56er@...> wrote:

>

> No, lasers can correct a lot of things, but not cataract. A new lens must be

put into the eye to replace the bad one. You even get a certificate with the

lens number on it.

>

> Lasers aren't all that great either, I feinted when I had it !

>

> Patsy

> El Mirage, AZ

> DX 2005 Stage 1 PBC

> AIH/SLE/RA/COPD

> Just a woman of letters....

>

>

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " " <Matsumura_Clan@...>

> No, Darcy. Lasers aren't used in the removal of the lens.

Thanks for giving me all these links, . I plan to have my husband look

them over first as if there are actual eyeball pictures, I'm not sure I

could look at them. He can at least give me whatever info he finds.

thanks

Darcy