Cataract in one eye - what lens?

[Hank S]

Woohooo!!!

 

[Rushie]

Lol, anesthesia is responsible for your acid trip. Dont expect miracles for your vision on post-op day one.

It turns out you were right after all. While my vision is crystal clear out of that eye, I only this week got my new glasses, and it's going to be a major adjustment. I had a greater than 2 diopter difference between my eyes before and so my glasses gave me a smaller image in the right and so for 30 plus years my eye muscles in the right eye have not had to move as much to merge the images, not to mention my brain has started completely ignoring the right eye image in recent years. I can remember years ago my doctors warning me I might not even be able to use glasses because of the size difference. I tried contacts but couldn't tolerate them well. So apparently my brain made the glasses work.

So now I'm having a lot of double vision (looking anywhere but straight ahead) because for the first time since young childhood my two eyes are of equal power. At least I'm hoping that's the reason and not some damage from the anesthesia.

I had recently stopped wearing glasses altogether around the house. I used them only for driving. I spend the majority of my waking hours doing close work so didn't need them and for distances no longer than the length of a room, I put up with the blurriness rather than go find my glasses. So now not only are the glasses not the power I'm used to, I have grown unaccustomed to having them on my face at all. So I'm finding this a very difficult adjustment but it's only been a few days, I bet it's like hearing aids, I should wear them ALL the time so my brain will get used to them. I'm just hoping my right eye muscles can rebuild the ability to move farther distance, after so many years and I'm so old, I don't know.

I am leaving this feedback to help others who are facing cataract surgery. First of all, I am very happy I got the lens I did. Even though it is resulting in this diplopia problem, it would have been a terrible idea to get a lens equal to my prior focal length and I doubt any doctor would even have done it. And putting a lens for distance in this eye was not an option, there are no regrets in the lens choice, I'm still thrilled with that.

But what I may have done differently is have the surgery a little sooner. The past two years or so I have pretty much stopped using that eye at all. For watching a close screen, I was always aware that my eyes did not even bother to merge the images. They were double, I'd relax them and ignore the cataract blur, and just pay attention to the "in focus" left eye image. Problem is, now my brain won't let me do that anymore because it insists now that my right eye is the clear one, and wants to go back to that, but if my eyes are relaxed and there are two images, now they compete and it's all confusing. But it's actually WORK to focus to merge the images. Now I know why they call this "lazy eye" in children! So if I had had the surgery two years ago I might have not gone as far down the path of "retiring" the right eye and it might be a bit stronger now.

My biggest piece of advice for those of you considering cataract surgery is to put a lot of thought (and talk with the doctor) about what lens you are putting back in and what that will mean in terms of adjustment. And if you are like me and only need one eye done right now, what the consequences will be when you need the other eye done, or if you never need it done, and make sure you can live with all the potential scenarios. I was aware I would have these issues but not to the extent they are bothering me, but even if I had been I would have done the same. I made the right choice, any other lens I think the adjustment would have been much worse.

On the good news side, the glasses are progressives and my computer screen vision is superb at all distances, from leaning in close, to leaning way back in the chair. Prior to getting the new glasses I was hunching forward to get the 16" perfect focus or at the least couldn't lean back farther than arm's length, and having terrible back pain as a result. I expect these new glasses will result in great improvement in my back pain. For some reason the double vision problem doesn't seem as bad on the computer as looking in the far distance. I am beyond thrilled with the mid and near vision result right now. If it improves any, all the better.