4pwr: My Dad had cataracts removed from both eyes while I observed the procedure as he is an old guy. The procedure seemed to take only about 5 minutes. The local eye anesthetic was topical (drops) and overall relaxant, the main anesthetic was very short lived and without after-effect. Now my Dad is a retired Anesthesiologist, who never stops talkin' yet he didn't even know that either anesthetic had been administered. Honest 4pwr, it was almost the funniest thing I have ever seen.
Here he was, on the cart in the hospital - it is an outpatient procedure and he was in the hospital for less than an hour or so - chatting away with his old friends (Drs. and Nurses) and the doctor tells him to not talk for a minute, so Dad shuts up - and then when he woke up about 5-10 minutes later he picks up on the conversation right where he left off without even knowing that he had been 'out' for a few minutes and that the cataracts in his eye had been removed. That was the funniest part, especially for a guy who never shuts up. Needless to say, Dad was mightily impressed. They gave him a perforated eye patch to wear for a couple of hours and told him to go home and take it easy. End of story.
They pulled the same thing on him for the next eye and it was just as funny.
I know some medical procedures can seem daunting and very anxiety producing but I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it goes and how quickly your vision returns. HTH. Mikey.