Eyes and the needle

After cancer surgery, Lucy Deedes thought she was tough as old boots – and then she faced the agony of a cataract op

- Lucy Deedes

I’ve been in and out of hospital pretty regularly over the last few years.

I was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. So there was surgery, chemo, radiotherapy and the rest. Most of it was far easier to cope with than I expected and, strangely perhaps, it’s been a wholly positive experience. Some people fear hospitals, but I find them a safe place.

So, in spite of an unforgettable operation two years earlier for a detached retina, I breezed fearlessly into hospital for the cataract surgery that inevitably follows eye trauma. I’m as tough as old boots, I thought, and this one won’t hurt at all. Everyone has it! It’s over in a flash! What can possibly go wrong?

Cataract surgery is quick and effective and the most commonly performed operation in the UK. Some 30 per cent of people of 65 years and over have cataracts in one or both eyes, and in England alone 330,000 operations are performed each year: 95 per cent of those will be on those over the age of 40.

There are inevitably long waiting lists. I waited for about a year but, on the day, the operation took only 20 minutes and I was in and out of hospital in just over three hours.

At 63, I was much the youngest patient on the morning list, which featured one man and six other women, one in a wheelchair.