OT: Replacent lens for cataract surgery

[Bill D]

This has been discussed before but medical things are often improving. My wife has cataracts and will get the surgery and new lenses soon. She is 68 in good health. Reads some, hard to do now,, watch tv, drive, nothing real precision vision needing. What do folks recommend for the lens? She will get both eyes done in a month or so of each other.
I do not think one for long and one for short would be good for driving. Seems like depth perception would be bad. She is already a timid driver
Bill D.

 

[farmersamm]

You must have two different focal lengths, or you won't be able to see anything close without glasses............which won't help with far vision. You can get a prescription for such glasses, but my surgeon said it was unadvisable. He strongly suggested near, and far, lenses.

I've only gotten one eye fixed, which leaves me with near vision on the one left un tended. It's a life saver. It's strange at first, but your brain rewires to compensate for it(your surgeon will verify this).

I was functionally blind in the bad eye. The eye that hasn't been fixed yet, is marginal for anything over 3 feet, but close up vision is good. The eye with the new lens doesn't begin to focus any closer than around 3 1/2 feet.

My eye doc has no problem waiting for the next eye to be corrected. As a matter of fact, he's on board with leaving it alone until it's so bad I can't see.

Cataracts are serious. Choose your doctor wisely. Some surgeries are botched, resulting in infections, or scarring on the surface of the eye.

I can drive at night again, can weld again(although I never quit), and live a very normal life with two different focal lengths.

 

[garyhlucas]

The doctors say Cataract surgery is 95% successful. My informal survey among patients was about 60% being happy. Scared hell out me, and was lucky to find a younger doctor that teachs at Wills Eye. I now have perfect distance vision with no glasses and wear progressives. I saw no point in needing the carry a pair of glasses around when I've worn glasses since 3rd grade, and they protect my eyes. I do however really miss my 20/1000 vision, built-in 10 power magnifying glass! Give me that little drill bit.

 

[L Vanice]

I was very near-sighted in both eyes and wearing trifocals. I could take off my glasses if I wanted more magnification to read the size on a tap or something. Ten years ago, a very good doctor installed Abbott model ZCB00 +12.5 diopter intraocular lenses in each eye, with two weeks between eyes. I then had near perfect distant vision, so I can drive without glasses. I bought +3 progressive safety glasses that let me read and do the close stuff. Works fine, but I need my microscope for really little stuff.

First thing I did when I took the patch off the first eye with the new intraocular lens was remove the trifocal lens from that side of my glasses. I thought I would then have good distant vision with both eyes. Well, I did, sort of, if I closed one or the other eye. Trying to see with my new 20-20 left eye and my 20-20 glasses correction in front of my right eye left me with two different size images superimposed on each other. It just did not work. So that two weeks between surgeries was mostly spent looking through one eye at a time. I think my very experienced doctor knew what he was doing when he inserted the same correction in both eyes. As Gary said, after wearing prescription safety glasses for 60 years, I do not mind wearing the new glasses with just near correction. I do sometimes take them off in a movie theater.

Larry

 

[ezduzit]

At 80-years old, I have just had the surgery in one eye, so far. And I can't imagine the screwed up vision I would have if one eye was focused in a different plane than the other.

 

[Scruffy887]

Very timely request. Right eye done 1 week ago. Medicare paid for the basics, I ponied in extra for Laser surgery and top shelf lens. That lens "can" remove the need for any glasses at all in the future as my eye gets used to it. To be blunt, can't wait to get the left eye done. Over 3k in extras per eye. Drawbacks of this lens are listed but not experienced so far. Wifey went for basic lens and scalpel surgery. She is happy too. But I was cleared for short drives the day after surgery and went home without a bandage on my eye. Doc was hesitant about race track driving 2 days after.
There is quite a light show during surgery and your face is completely covered except for that eye. I started singing "White Rabbit" from Jefferson Airplane. Doc, who is singing? Stop singing, your eye is moving.

 

[TGTool]

I've had cataract surgery on the right eye, but it also gets treatment for wet macular degeneration so it's compounded. The doctor recommended waiting to do the other eye until I really needed it, and also to hedge against a problem with surgery on that side that might leave me worse off. As it is, the left can focus better but I have to close each eye in turn to discern that. With both eyes I can read just fine even though technically only one is contributing to that. The brain picks out what it needs.

An unexpected side effect is that the lens in the treated eye fluoresces under ultraviolet light. Going into the black light room with the son and grandkid, makes things really light up.

 

[Scruffy887]

Update. Going over emails at breakfast, PC on kitchen island. I read about half of them before noticing my reading glasses hanging from my neck. Hell yeah!
Driving so much easier and today drove about 10 miles home in traffic and highway at night. Yup, small halo around headlights with new lens. No big deal compared to left eye that has a large cataract "blossom" from the lens.

 

[ezduzit]

Had my stitches out today. OW!

 

[farmersamm]

At 80-years old, I have just had the surgery in one eye, so far. And I can't imagine the screwed up vision I would have if one eye was focused in a different plane than the other.

If you've had one eye done, you probably have one eye that's in a different focal plane. That "bad" eye is still bad.

 

[ezduzit]

If you've had one eye done, you probably have one eye that's in a different focal plane. That "bad" eye is still bad.

Of course one eye remains to be done. That is not to say that one eye is focused very close and the other very far.

 

[Bill D]

Thanks for all the good replies. I think it reinforces our decision to go for distance lens in both eyes. At our age wearing reading glasses is not something to be embarrassed about. If she was a teen the decision might be different.
DMV Information she failed the eye test. She thought she might. They did not pull her license. She has a 60 day extension to see a doctor. Then with a note saying surgery is scheduled she can get another 60 day extension. If she gets the surgery and passes the doctors eye test, with a note, she does not have to take the behind the wheel test.
Bill D

 

[ezduzit]

...I think it reinforces our decision to go for distance lens in both eyes. At our age wearing reading glasses is not something to be embarrassed about. If she was a teen the decision might be different...
.

As I usually wear sunglasses all the time I spend outdoors, it is convenient to have them be prescription. At night, particularly while driving, I don't mind switching to corrective clear glasses. However most of my day-to-day work is up close and, though I virtually always don safety glasses while running any machines, I really appreciate being able to see clearly, more or less up close, throughout my normal workday, which is after all how I spend most of my waking hours (working up close).

 

[Yan Wo]

... I saw no point in needing the carry a pair of glasses around when I've worn glasses since 3rd grade, and they protect my eyes. I do however really miss my 20/1000 vision, built-in 10 power magnifying glass! Give me that little drill bit.

Almost the same here. Probably 20/800 and 8x. Surgery soon.

 

[Conrad Hoffman]

Didn't like the idea of two different focus points so a few years ago I went with plain distance lenses in both eyes. I've always worn glasses, so figured the final correction and protection was no problem. It was absolutely the right decision for me. I have glasses for "normal", and glasses for computer work. Both have strong bifocal sections for doing electronic assembly and close up work in the shop. My corrected vision is about 20/20 and 20/15. Unfortunately I have glaucoma and use eye drops for that, but it can only be slowed, not stopped. Nobody gets out alive.