Is eye pain normal after cataract surgery?

What's normal

The National Eye Institute describes the eye as feeling a bit itchy or uncomfortable and sensitive to light and touch after surgery, and says that after 1 or 2 days the eye should feel better. The American Academy of Ophthalmology similarly describes a foreign body sensation, like sand in the eye, that should heal within a week or so. That level of discomfort, easing day by day, is the expected pattern.

Some people also feel off in other ways on day 1. The AAO notes that nausea or disorientation is typically an after-effect of IV anesthesia, with lingering nausea for a day or two, and suggests rehydrating with a lot of fluids and eating a meal. The AAO adds that nausea can also result from elevated eye pressure, which is a reason to be checked rather than to wait it out.

Mild ache and scratchiness for the first 1 to 3 days. Pain that grows after that is never the normal course.

When it stops being normal

The National Eye Institute says to contact your doctor about bad pain that will not go away even if you take medicine. Pain that is increasing rather than fading, or pain that needs more than the relief your surgeon told you to use, is a call now, not at the next appointment.

Pain with redness, light sensitivity, or a change in vision is the combination the American Academy of Ophthalmology says to see your ophthalmologist about right away. StatPearls lists decreased visual acuity, red eye, and pain as the presentation of endophthalmitis in the early weeks after surgery, and the American Society of Retina Specialists says acute endophthalmitis is an emergency that needs treatment as soon as possible.