Helping Your Elderly Loved One Through Their Cataract Surgery: Tips For You

When you have a loved one who is elderly, there are many health issues that they may experience as a result of their age. One of the most common of those issues is cataracts. Cataracts are a clouding of the lenses of the eyes that often occur as a person ages. The only cure for cataracts is to go through cataract replacement surgery in which the cloudy lenses are surgically removed and a new artificial lens is implanted. Once your elderly loved one has their surgery scheduled, there are steps that you can take to provide them with care and support through the surgery process and recovery. Get to know some of these steps so you can get started as soon as possible.

Be Sure To Plan To Be There The Day Of Surgery

Anytime that someone needs surgery, they likely feel anxious and stressed about it and do not want to go alone. Cataract surgery is almost always an outpatient procedure. This means that your loved one will be able to come home shortly after they get out of surgery (usually within an hour or two after the fact).

However, because their vision will be impaired and blurry after surgery, they cannot drive themselves home. This means that you will need to be there to drive them home and get them settled to rest after surgery. Make sure you plan to take the day off from work or other activities so that you can be there not only to drive your loved one home, but to provide emotional and physical support.

Help Them Get Their Home Ready For Recovery

After cataract surgery, your loved one will be on certain restrictions to aid in their recovery and prevent them from causing damage or injury to their eyes while they are still healing. This will include a limit on how much they can lift in the weeks or even months following surgery. They will also not be able to bend down to reach things on low shelves or on the floor.

Bending down puts a great deal of pressure on the eyes which could cause pain and discomfort or could even cause stitches to pop and could even lead to serious, permanent eye damage. As such, anything that your loved one will need to reach on a daily basis should be moved to a counter or shelf that is at waist level . This will prevent them from needing to bend down and will help keep them safe.

After surgery, you may want to go with them for their shopping or to do it for them so that they do not accidentally exceed their lifting restrictions either. This will further help to prevent injuries and undue strain that could cause their new artificial lenses to fail.

Now that you know a few of the steps that you can take to help your elderly loved one through their cataract surgery, you can be sure that you are doing everything you can to provide them with the care and support they need through the process. Click here for more info about this.


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