FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

I was no stranger to cataract.  It runs in our family for more than four generations.

Everyone from my grandmother, mother, father… had undergone cataract surgery at one time or the other. The cataract surgery used to be a long 10mm incision below the cornea with 2 to 3 days of admission in a hospital.  This has reformed into a 2 mm incision with no stitches.  And so when it was my turn to lie on the operation table for a cataract surgery, I was not at all frightened.  I had full confidence of Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai .

When the D day came, I got up well before my usual time and by 5.30 a.m. I had a simple breakfast of two idlies immersed in a small pool of delicious sambar, and a cup of strong tea.  At 6.30, the attendants came to take me to the ‘preparation room’ where I found that I was not a lone patient looking at the world with faulty vision.  There were ten others in different beds waiting for their turn.  They looked up as I came in, and I could see a strange sense of fear in their already declared defective eyes.

Near my bed, there was a case sheet with two red stickers on it.  As I lay down, I studied the sheet.  On the stickers, it was written: “paid for Acrylic lens.  RE.”  What does RE mean?  Then it struck me: it could be Right Eye.  I looked at my co-sufferers.  They made no movement.  Strangely, all of them had their hands on their chest, as if praying.  Indeed, their case sheets were decorated with many stickers: hypertensive, cardiac, diabetic, one eyed… I was thankful that I had none of those stickers. 

I had read all about cataract and knew that this commonest disease is a degenerative process leading to opacity of lens fibres known as cataract.  I had also learnt that there are many causes of cataract.  It could be caused by infection, chemical imbalance or developmental abnormality.  It could also be inherited.  I found that eye injury, prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, malnutrition, certain ocular diseases as well as medications such as steroids might contribute to the development of cataract.  It can occur in older people as part of the normal ageing process.

Presently, a nurse strode in and cleaned our eyes, made all of us wear a cap on the head and socks on legs.  We were indeed a strange sight to behold.  A few minutes later the doctor appeared and without any preamble, he began to fill a syringe with some medicine.  He was going to give an injection in the eye! I heard cries from some of the patients.  It nearly scared me to death.  I was always afraid of injection on any part of my body. This was right in the eye!  Cold spiders ran down my spine. 

The doctor was a young man with pleasant appearance.  He looked at me curiously and smiled.  He asked my name, the place where I came from, and about my family and I suspected that the injection would be very painful.  He was trying to put me at ease. Then he announced,  “I’m going to give you two small injections.  One in the eye, and the other on your lower jaw.  Nothing to be afraid of.”  I nodded my head meekly, and closed my eyes tightly.  I didn’t wish to see the needle coming to my eyes.  But he insisted that I keep my eyes open.  As the needle went through my lower eyelid,  stars and asterisks flew around my head.  I tell you, that was the only painful experience in eye operation.  He removed the syringe and began to rub my eye for sometime, perhaps to spread the medicine around.  Then he gave me another shot at the lower jaw.  That was less painful.  He continued to rub the eyeball.  After five minutes or so, he asked me to look at his fingers with my right eye.  He moved his fingers and asked “look here, look there …” .  I could not tell exactly how many fingers he showed.  I was confused. My right eye was totally numb.  I touched my nose.  Its left side was okay, but there was a void at the right side.  I could feel nothing at that side.  The doctor appeared strangely pleased.  “Take him to the theatre.  He is ready!”  To tell you the truth, I was not ready at all!

I was wheeled to the number one operation theatre.  There were four tables inside the room. Already three patients were being operated.  As soon as I lay down on the first table, someone clamped stainless steel guard around my wrists to restrict my movements, and my head was placed between two pillow like thing.  I could not make any  movement.  Good god, are they going to gorge out my eye and do the repair work leisurely?  But before I could utter anything, they covered my face with a transparent blue plastic cover.  It had a hole of about two inches above my right eye.    That was the only portion exposed and I wondered whether the operating doctor could say just by seeing the eye, whether it was a male or a female, old or young. 

Then, there were some movements near me.  Some green capped heads came and peered at me.  I could see some hands  and some equipment similar to the one we see at a dental clinic, with large magnifying lens and an ultrasound instrument.  I had read that cataract lens is removed by ultrasound, and a new acrylic lens is implanted.  In fact, this lens was given to me before I went to the theatre and I was carrying it all along.  On the cover it was written that it was made in USA.  I expected someone to make an incision on the white part of my eye, take out the defective lens, and implant this made in USA thing.  Interestingly, there would be a “foreign object” in my eye as long as I live.  That was a wonderful feeling.

I saw more movements around my exposed eye, but I never felt anything piercing it.  I head the doctor saying, “give me that sharp chopper”, and I tell you I missed a heartbeat.  Chopper?  For my poor eye?  Good God!   I lay there immobile wondering what was happening to me. I never felt anything touching my eyes, though I could see his hands moving above my right eye.  To while away the time, I began to count one, two, three… Fifteen minutes must have passed before I  heard the doctor saying, “give a saline wash.. Put bandage, Record in the case sheet, temporal incision, PC fibrosis +…”  The doctor has gone.  Someone bandaged my eye.  At last the steel guards and the cover were removed and I was free.  They asked me to get up and walk slowly to the post operative ward. Everything was over.  It was 9.30 am.

I managed a few hours sleep.  At 3 p.m. the doctor came to my bed, removed the bandage and examined my eye.  “Very good”, he declared.  But I didn’t see anything so good.  The light was so strong, as if a 1000w bulb was lit.  Everything looked double: the nurse, the doctor… Could it be two nurses, two doctors?  I was not sure.  I complained to the doctor, and he laughed and said that it would take two days to adjust to the changes they had made.

The next day morning, he came again, and removed the bandage and asked me to read .  Every line was clear. I could read even the tiny imprint of the printer: “Printed at…”.  The coloured objects were brighter and gorgeous.  The double vision had also vanished.  The doctor patted on my back and beamed.  “Superb!” he said.  “You may go home today”, he added.  I was surprised and relieved.  I had in fact stayed at the hospital just for a day!  I looked around with my new eye sight:  everything looked bright and beautiful. .  Even the hitherto plain looking nurse appeared extremely stunning!

  I thanked the doctors and staff of Aravind Eye Hospital,Madurai and  medical science for such a wonderful experience.