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And most importantly why is she having the surgery? Has she had a second opinion? Does she want the surgery?
My parents were both in their mid to late 80's when they had cataract surgery. Both were fully compliant and wanted the surgery. Both were capable of administering the eye drops on schedule.
My former MIL has cataracts, but she never had surgery. She does not drive, she has a tremor and could not administer eye drops and with brittle diabetes was not a candidate for surgery. She also was not a reader and mostly just listened to her tv.
Eye sight leads to quality of life, but cataracts do not lead to deahth.
You need to talk to the ophthalmologist doing the surgery.
BUT...and this is a biggie.
She has to be able to follow instructions during the procedure.
Yes you are sedated but it is a very light sedation.
Your arm and legs are somewhat restrained. IV in one and a BP cuff on the other.
IF she has dementia I would hesitate about having the surgery. There can be complications. There is a real lag time when recovering from the sedation. Even longer if there is dementia involved.
You do not indicate what her medical problems are but even though it is a relatively easy surgery it is still surgery and there can be complications.
The biggest question is...
Will the surgery improve her quality of life enough that the risks are worth it.
The anesthetic completely numbed any feeling; I was semi-conscious, enough that I could see beautiful star like scenes, as if I was staring into space at a collection of planets and stars. I remember thinking that I needed to figure out how to capture that image as it would make a beautiful quilt.
The issue already raised of the need for eyedrops is something to be addressed.
My regimen was 4x daily for the first week, dropping down to 3x, then 2x, then 1x over the next 3 weeks. If your mother has both eyes done, the doctor (and depending on her health) may perform the second surgery 2 weeks after the first, assuming all goes well with the first surgery. That was my situation.
I think you need to have a discussion with the long term care staff (DON if possible) to determine if they can or will give the eye drops. It's critical that they be given, so the commitment on the facility's part needs to be serious, not just if they have time.
A discussion is also appropriate with the doctor performing the surgery; I had pre-surgery discussions so I had a good idea what to expect (the starry skies were a surprise though).
I will warn you; the drops sting. My ophthalmologist told me they contain an anti-biotic or something (can't remember fore sure) that prevents infection, so the drops are critical.
Does she need to have an elective procedure ?
Does the doc understand the severity of the dementia and her ability or inability to be involved independently with her post op care?
Will her quality of life be significantly improved by having her cataract removed or will she still have a terminal disease?
Who will be liable or responsible for her care post op?
Just a few nurse questions.
Will be thinking of you, best wishes
If not then explain it to her (or get the medic who should have done so already to do so). If she is not able to understand due to dementia or cognitive decline then talk to the planned surgeon and see if they can use a light general anesthetic instead of local and a bit or sedation, and how she will cope with the after care -which is not strenuous but may cause stress to your mother if she doesn't understand.
You do not say how old your mother is or what her mental capacity is. But it is also worth considering how much this operation will improve her quality of life which can be dependent on mental capacity. I am not suggesting we should leave people to live with cataracts just because they are in long term care, or getting old, the operation makes a huge difference to standard of life for many many people, but every case has its own "differences" which need to be taken into account as well as the simply improved vision ones.
The moral of the story is that there is always the procedure which could be painful and also the follow-up care. This could take her down more. We stopped all my mother’s visits to the ophthalmologist for her macular degeneration and glaucoma, plus cataracts. More torture for her to endure and she just made-do with what little eye-sight she had left. Tough decisions that are hard on them and the care-givers.
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