Patient Stories

The whole team were very kind and I felt very safe in their hands

Duration 03:36

Roberta had worn glasses for a long time but was concerned when she developed cataracts because of the impact on her life. She was treated by Professor Andrew Luff at Sapphire Eye Care and was offered the chance to have both eyes treated at the same time. She describes the post-operative recovery and the support she received, and shares that being independant of glasses has been ‘liberating’.

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Roberta had worn glasses for a long time but was concerned when she developed cataracts because of the impact on her life. She was treated by Professor Andrew Luff at Sapphire Eye Care and was offered the chance to have both eyes treated at the same time. She describes the post-operative recovery and the support she received, and shares that being independant of glasses has been ‘liberating’.

• Transcript

  I’ve worn glasses for a very long time and have had regular eye tests for a very long time. But my optometrist began to notice I was developing cataracts. This became a problem with night driving, because oncoming headlights were really glaring a lot or breaking up, pixelating. The optometrist recommended cataract surgery. I asked around, and the name, Professor Luff Sapphire Eye Care, came up all the time. He was most reassuring at his consultation, offered me choices of what lens I could choose. I went back after two weeks having decided to have a similar lens to the one I was wearing in my spectacles, which is very focal. But he also offered me the chance to have them done, both eyes done at the same time, which I took. The whole team were very kind, very thorough. I felt very safe in their hands. There was an anaesthetist present in theatre who did administer some sedation, but not enough to knock me out. I was fully aware of Professor Luff telling me exactly what he was doing. When he’d finished one eye, the whole team left the table, re-scrubbed, re-draped, so it was treated as a separate operation. I went down to theatre at 10:30 in the morning, at 11 o’clock, I was back in my room. Both eyes were covered with an eye shield, so I felt very much like an insect, but I was eating my sandwich and having a cup of coffee. I was home by 2:00, and I was watching television at six o’clock in the evening. There is a postoperative drop regime, which is complicated, but the Sapphire team give you a spreadsheet of which drug, which drops to take when. They give you enough, so you have a separate drop for each eye, you don’t mix them. You tick off when you put your drops in, it makes it so much easier. I had regular contact with them. At no point did I ever feel abandoned. There was always a phone number that I could phone day or night, weekends, weekdays. If I had a worry, an anxiety, a problem, there would be somebody there to help with me and deal with it. I had a six-week follow up. Preceding that six-week follow up, I went back to the optometrist as arranged with Sapphire Eye Care. He did all the detailed eye examination and confirmed that I have fantastic vision. I no longer need to wear glasses, even for reading, for distance, or anything. And having worn them since I was 14, it is liberating. And I can buy a pair of sunglasses off the shelf. I would recommend it thoroughly for anybody needing cataract surgery, and I would always recommend Professor Luff. He has such a good reputation amongst his colleagues and peer group. He’s a very, very good surgeon with a very good team supporting him.