I worried about this too. I had surgery for a congenital cataract at 27 or so. I was conscious-ish and remember hearing the surgeon talking and doing something to my eye, but they put you on some _wild_ drugs and I absolutely did not care.

Ah thank you, that alleviates my concerns a lot. Now I just hope they don't think I'm a drug-seeker when I tell them to dial the drugs up to 11 :-D.

Not to worry there, either! I think the drugs are pretty standard, are not opiates, and honestly I think that most humans understand that “if you’re gonna poke me in the eye, at least make sure I’m good and sloshed” is a pretty reasonable ask.

I swear there would be nothing but heaps of smoking machinery and mangled human limbs and entrails in the operating theatre in my wake and they'd find me cowering in some far corner of the building curled up in a foetal position.

I can't even tolerate a glaucoma test and cut the optometrist off mid-sentence when he starts to suggests it.

But that's me. I think my wife would do her own eye surgery with just a mirror and some kitchen knives. Ugh, I wish I hadn't thought of that. Excuse me while I go try to stop the panic.

Me and you think the same. For me, even just knowing they’re going to be cutting on my eye and or using lasers to burn parts of my eye, combined with the nonzero risk of permanent vision worsening has made me permanently uninterested in eye surgery (such as lasik). Even if I could be put under for it.

At least cataract surgery once done won't be likely repeated. But there's also the age-related macular degeneration that goes by... AMD acronym. The treatment method for wet form involves intraocular injections, which basically means a series of shots in the affected eye, up until a "pocket" seen during eye tomography scan sizes down and vision improves.

My mother is going to have 8th shot this year and 13th total since doctor decides to test her. She describes the injection as "potent hard pop". All patients gets the anesthetics and some moisturising-softening agent so needle could get in easier.

Seeing the queues many times I can tell this problem concerns senior women, less frequently men and people of both sexes below 60. Tho, I once saw a guy who was around mid 40.

It's surely not fun to get a needle into your eye month by month but mum and all the other people in the clinic are beyond that already.