One eye at a time
Posted , 12 users are following.
I've only just been diagnosed so it will be a while till my vision is bad enough to have an operation. But a question: I am very very short-sighted; so if they do one eye first, how will I be able to see? If I wear my normal glasses I won't be able to see through the corrected eye (indeed, it would be very uncomfortable/instant headache), but if I wear no glasses my eyes would be so out of synch I'd probably fall over. I'm reluctant to buy new temporary glasses as the last ones cost around £700 and they're only six months old. Could I have the lens taken out of one side? How do people cope in the interim??
0 likes, 14 replies
stephenl38235 sue73
Posted
I wore contact lenses. So when one eye was done, I simply did not put a lens in that eye but still wore the lens in the other eye.
They have your persecription. Perhaps your doctor could give you a soft lens to wear in the eye not being operated on? They have your perscription they should be able to sell you a lens or two at a cheap price to wear until both eyes are done?
But maybe learning to wear contacts is not the best answer. I'd bet they could take the one lens out and replace it with a fake glass one or not replact it all just leave it out as you say.
sue73 stephenl38235
Posted
That's a very good idea, thank you. I wore contacts for 35 years but had to give them up because my eyes dried out when I hit menopause, but I expect the modern gas permeable ones are easier to tolerate. I'll keep that in mind!
Macjazz sue73
Posted
Personally, I just removed the lens in my glasses for the "new" eye, left the lens in for the other "old" eye which had not yet been repaired. (The second eye was done two weeks later, so it was a short term issue). However ... this didn't work great, as my two eyes didn't seem to want to work "together" in quite the way they had before. It just felt disorienting. So I just went without glasses, using my "new" eye and closing or ignoring my blurry (without the glasses) "old" eye. This worked ok - well enough that I did a 150 mile drive after two weeks (it just turned out to be necessary to do the drive, long story). Not ideal, but workable. My vision was very bad all my life, so I was pretty near a worst case scenario for vision imbalance post-surgery on the first eye. So yeah, it's an issue, just have to do the best you can with it (and hopefully it's short term, as mine was).
sue73 Macjazz
Posted
Okay, that's a few more ideas, thank you! I hadn't realised the interval between eyes might be so short, with any luck... and as you say, "you just have to do the best you can"!
Hatim Macjazz
Posted
Valuable information thanks. I've been at least -12 dioptres in both eyes since birth. After 53 years of the world through 15 mm lenses the inevitable cataract developed, asymmetrically in the right eye, one in the left will follow just as inevitably.
Living in England the NHS offered two hospitals both in Dorchester one private the other state run, I went private because it offered an earlier date, the environment is also a little more calm.
The operation was successful. I have on the other hand been left having to drive with the right eye screwed shut. The operation was a month yesterday, the follow up two weeks last Friday. Since nothing has formed there yet the State is very reluctant to do the left eye, you'll probably agree; a very difficult place for a TIR driver.
Cart4950 sue73
Posted
mrsmop sue73
Posted
I have just had to have new specs because my 'good' eye has developed more astigmatism [cataract was done in 1992] my other eye now needs doing urgently. I was going to ask if they could find a compatible implant, so that I don't need to change my specs immediately. I'm sure they can.
acc925 sue73
Posted
I was extraordinarily farsighted before I had my surgery, so the surgeon did my left eye first then a week later did the right eye. He felt I would be too handicapped to go any longer between the two surgeries. You are right, you won't be able to wear your glasses, unless you wear a patch over your new, improved eye. You probably also won't be able wear your glasses with one lens popped out either. I tried that - it doesn't work. It has to do with the distance of the eyeglass lens from your unoperated eye. I made the mistake of trying to do my 5 mile power walk 3 days after my left eye was operated on and before my right eye had the procedure. My depth perception was so off, that I misstepped and broke my ankle. I didn't realize how handicapped I was. I had to have my right eye done with a broken ankle - Ugh! So my advice to you is to get the two eyes done as close to together as your surgeon feels is safe and don't go for a walk or a run until both eyes are working together. Good luck.
acc925 sue73
Posted
One more thing. I couldn't wear a contact lens in the one eye waiting to be operated on because I had to go 8 weeks without any lenses in my eyes at all before I could even have the surgery. Wearing one days before the second surgery would have set me back.
caroline33921 sue73
Posted
Sue it's difficult I wear a contact lense in
my bad eye I suffer from dry eyes so can only wear it for eight hours maximum , I have glasses with the lense taken out this is not ideal . I paid over 200 pounds for new varifocals which I can't wear as my brain just won't accept the imbalance it gives me double vision and dizziness . When I can't wear my lense to be fair my vision is fine with one blurred and one very good eye , but if I'm shopping or overusing my good eye I can feel it hurting through straining .
I've just received a formal apology from the hospital as I suffered a bleed during surgery due to an error my recovery was slower than normal , hoping I can have my other eye done at a reduced rate , I do feel none of this is straight forward and was not fully explained pre op .
softwaredev sue73
Posted
I don't know what country you are in (its an international site), but in some places they have begun to do surgery on both eyes the same day (using different operating rooms and instruments for each eye to limit the risk that if some rare problem occured due to infection or something that its unlikely it would happen to both eyes). There are benefits to getting both eyes done at the same time.
Various issues regarding insurance reimbursements apparently have held that back in the US, but it happens here also. I went abroad to get surgery and had the 2nd eye done the next day, just after the bandage came off the first eye.
If you have a gap between the two surgeries. The best option would be to wear a contact lens on the other eye if you can tolerate it. I don't know when you gave up wearing contact lenses, but they've made great progress the last several years in coming up with comfortable soft disposable lenses, including ones that correct for astigmatism. (you mentioned gas permable contacts which makes me suspect you might have worn those in the past, and the usual reason is that they correct better for astigmatism).
Unfortunately taking 1 lens out of your existing eye glasses wouldn't work well either because glasses either magnify or reduce the size of an image. When there is too much of a difference in the lens powers required between two eyes, including needing 0 power in one eye ( a condition called anisometropia), it leads to the probelm of aniseikonia. Aniseikonia is a difference in perceived size of an image between two eyes, and if the difference is two great then your brain can't merge the 2 images into 1 result.
Different people can tolerate different amounts of aneisokonia, but if you are "very very short-sighted", i.e. a prescription of over a few diopters, its unlikely you would tolerate using glasses where you took out once lens.
It may be that you could more easily tolerate not wearing glasses at all after surgery. If operated on eye has good vision, your brain might be able to tune out the blur from your very short sighted eye. Or it might not unfortunately, it may leave your brain confused which image to use unless you wore a patch over the bad eye (which most people wouldn't wish to do).
Macjazz softwaredev
Posted
Yeah ... not wearing glasses at all, and using the newly "good" eye after surgery worked fairly well for me, was able to mostly ignore the blurry image from the un-repaired eye. This may well vary from one person to another. Being very nearsighted pre-op, the blurry eye was so blurry without glasses that it was easily passed over in favor of the clear image in the newly good eye.
pamseif softwaredev
Posted
I have been told that the surgery on my second eye, they should correct it for -1.0D to possibly -1.5D to give me distance and intermediate vision and probably only need reading glasses for fine print up close. Would that be similar to my wearing a -5.0 contact lens in my L eye (before the next surgery)?
With my R eye corrected I do have very good distance vision and decent intermediate vision. Is that normal - to have intermediate vision with the dominant eye corrected for distance? Both lenses are/will be Toric.
Night-Hawk pamseif
Posted
Yes thats the usual setup for monovision: dominant eye set for good distance vision and the other eye set for good intermediate vision (-1D or so).
That setup worked for me some years ago with RGP contact lenses. I also tried it the other way around (dominant eye at -1D and the other eye at 0D) but that didn't work for me, so it was important that the dominant eye be the distance vision one I found out myself!
So I hope to get a similar setup with my eyes after cataract surgery, starting with my dominant right eye for good distance vision.
I have moderate astigmatism (left: -2.0D right: -2.75D cylinder) so I am going for monofocal Toric IOLs, preferably the Tecnis brand that offers possibly the best contrast sensitivity and low rate of rotation.