<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Thanks to all of you who have shared with me your experience that you had when you had your cataract surgery. Nine listmates have said that they had no problems and some said that they never thought about asking whether the medicine would be gluten free. One said her Dr. gave her an antibiotic drops and steroid drops. Another person had three different drops. Two said gluten is not an active ingredient in meds. Any gluten containing products would have it as in inert ingredient, added as a binder or coating in a formed pill or rarely as a flavor in a chewable or liquid. Gluten is not added to injectable or eye drops. Another one said you don't have to worry about the medication as that is not ingested, and you are only under a few minutes. One listmate informed everyone who was going to be involved from the office record to calling and speaking with the hospital prior and during preparation for the procedure. It was made clear that she could not have gluten medication coming from wheat, barley, and oats. Key here is gluten will damage her intestine. This will get their attention. You might suggest they contact the doctor that diagnosed you if they need information. Inform them that the meds should be cleared before you go in. One whose mother has severe cataracts - smoking makes them worse and boy does she smoke. She grew up in her house, and also did work for many years on the older higher radiation computer CRT screens which are known to cause cataracts. Macular degeneration is related to impaired blood flow to the retina. Apparently it is possible cataracts are similar. There are some articles on www.mercola.com medical website about cataracts They have a lot of info in their database with the journal references. You can go search for the article if you want the whole thing. One listmate had cataract surgery two years ago and her dr. gave her erythromycin and restasis drops and it never bothered her. Sadly, her surgery did not take and her eyesight was always blurry so she is back wearing bifocals. Another listmate just had knee surgery and even though that's a far cry from cataract surgery, she would recommend for you to take gluten-free crackers with you in case they want you to have some food in your stomach for medications after surgery. Eye drops may minimally get to your stomach (tear ducts to nasal passages to back of throat), but she would be very surprised if any of those medications ever contained wheat! One list mate's mom had cataract. surgery. She said they will either put you out for just a minute, or do it with you awake, your choice (at least that's how her doctor did it). They give you IV's to sedate you and relax you. She says I shouldn't have any trouble with IV's - they don't contain gluten, and they aren't going through the digestive system. After it was over she was allowed to drink - soft drinks or fruit juice were available, so that should be fine. They will give you drops for your eyes - a sulfa derivative to keep the pressure in the eye down, and then drops to keep the eye moist. She says I should go back to see the dr. the next day. As she recalls, she read the ingredients on the eye drops and they didn't have any suspicious or gluten-containing ingredients. The only thing she thinks I might have trouble with is if they give you painkillers. Lortab (brand name) is gf. Another listmate is scheduled for cataract surgery July 26th. Her pre-op appt. is July 6 where she will get all the particulars. She had cataract surgery in the other eye last July. She is type 1diabetic on an insulin pump and also has diabetic retinopathy. She has had much laser surgery in both eyes and also a vitrectomy in the left eye. She had a hole in her retina. She currently has scar tissue on that retina and the only way to remove it is to do another vitrectomy but she is holding off. With her glasses she currently see 20/70 in the eye with the cataract and 20/60 in the eye with the scar tissue. She can barely see at night and has poor peripheral vision from all the laser treatments. She had some complications in her last surgery but not due to celiac. She told me I will not be able to lift any weight greater than 10 pounds for a few weeks and not to bend forward. She was told to hold off on the exercise for about 6 weeks. She says I will need to keep the eye covered, so good if I wear glasses. At night there is a shield that is applied with adhesive tape to protect the eye during sleep. She slept with her head elevated but she thinks that was from the other surgery. With the vitrectomy she had a gas bubble in her eye. She didn't appreciate good vision when she had it until it was taken away from her. Her whole life has changed. She hopes the vision in the eye will improve with the cataract removed and hopes for no complications. One listmate had successful cataract surgery last Dec. at age 61. She was diagnosed 8 years ago and has been very careful to stay on the GF diet, including medications and cosmetics (also has an eczema-like skin reaction to wheat-based products) None of the drops or medications given to her during exams, surgery, or after surgery had any gluten. The nurses and doctors where she was treated were quite knowledgeable about CD and knew why she was worried. As flavor and texture are not important for eye drops (as opposed to oral medications), the makers basically have no reason to spend money adding gluten-ingredients to the drops, lucky for us! However, many of the drops for surgery stung badly, but they told her this is normal. The discomfort was quickly over and did not cause any real problems. Anesthesia for surgery was topical, with a mild tranquilizer-type medication intravenously, and she was not put to sleep. A mask and some sort of eyelid brace helped to hold her still during the operation.They played very nice music during surgery. The eyes were operated on two weeks apart. The worst problem she had was the drops to dilate her eyes for exams. She would be essentially blurry-eyed blind for 6-9 hours afterward and very light-sensitive. Then she found out that they give different strength of dilating drops for blue-eyed and brown-eyed people! Her husband got the milder blue-eyed drops for an eye exam and could see fine again within an hour or so. She had been getting the stronger brown-eyed drops (she has hazel eyes) all her life without knowing it. The next exam she demanded the blue-eyed drops and could see again by the time she got home. This is nothing to do with gluten, but it is good to know. The artificial lenses her surgeon implanted were made to her prescription, and she now has 20-20 vision without glasses for distance vision, for the first time in her nearsighted life. She can see the stars at night without being painfully blinded by headlights. She can see to walk downstairs without guessing. Downside, she needs reading glasses now, but they are cheap and come in lots of cute designer styles. * Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *