On Tuesday (28th May 2024) I attended the Macular Clinic at the Queens Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham to undergo an “Interocular Implant” into each eye, in other words an injection of steroids directly into each eyeball.

I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t relishing the idea of having this done but my eyesight was rapidly decreasing in clarity following the high of my cataracts surgery at the end of last year (2023).

From what I’ve been told the procedure is quite uncommon and they only carry out 1 or 2 of them a month as opposed to the 1000’s of other procedures they do every in the same timeframe. Not sure if this made me “special” or “unusual” of maybe both at the same time!!

Anyway, before the procedure I underwent the normal set of sight tests, scans and photographs of my eyes before going into a sort of anti-chamber of the main operating theatre. Here the nurse checked all the paperwork and then started administering a lot of different eye drops after which I was walked through to the main operating theatre room.

The procedure in its self only took minute or 2 for each eye to carry out and a few extra minutes of preparation and follow up ,so it was quite quick but I will say that the actual implant was painful. Although for the record, the nursing staff told me it was going to be “a little uncomfortable”. I’ll disagree with them on that one.

Once the procedure was done I was dropped into a taxi and off home feeling somewhat stressed and upset but happy it was done and over with. When I got home I pretty much went straight to bed as I was exhausted.

Next day when I got up the difference in my eyesight was immediately obvious. Normally my eyesight would take 3 or 4 hours to settle down to a level that I could read text on a computer screen with my reading glasses but now the clarity was immediate. Not only had clarity and sharpness been restored but depth of colour and intensity had also been restored. As the day went on my eyesight became even better and by the end of the day I’m able to read the screen on my phone without glasses!

Having the cataract surgery last year was like going from being able to see vague shapes and light/dark areas to seeing in full HD and then it dropped back to standard definition. This procedure is like going from that standard definition all the way to Ultra HD (4K) vision.

I now need to go back the the QMC in early July for a check up and I guess at that stage the doctor will decide if I need to have the procedure repeated again. I suspect that it will need repeating as they have already told me that it’s normal for have several of these implants done to complete the treatment.

While I really don’t want to have to experience the pain again I have no doubt that the results are way worth it unpleasantness.