Cataract Post-Surgery Results

Glad to hear that your surgery worked out well.

Please let us know how your new glasses work vis à vis different lighting conditions.

Best wishes for the Holidays & New Year!

Cheers!

Glad to hear the result. Mine is on 12 th of December. My left eye was done in 2016 for far distance Zcb00, +23 D (don't understand the calculation). I haven't decided yet whether to have mini micro mono or the same distance as the left one. And I need to decide..soon. Lens is going to be the same tecnis. 

Thanks for posting the update!  You must have read my mind; I'm posting a "results-only" thread so feel free to repost a copy or condensed version.  How is intermediate (computer) and near (reading/phone)?  Do you plan to get progressive lenses?  When the time comes, are you still thinking of setting the other eye around -1.25 as you mentioned earlier, or a Symfony? I also noticed my surgical eye was dimmer in low light initially, but think it's improved.  I'll have to pay more attention. 

Interested in knowing your near and intermediate range results. Please post to this or the other ‘results only’ thread. 

Very happy for you Hawk.  Nice to see your vision turn a corner and stabilize.  Your post should give others hope when things aren’t clear right away.  I think doctors are often misleading patients into thinking all will be great within 25 hours.  I recall I was told I could go back to work within 48 hours and even though my vision was pretty good within 24 hours - eye tired throughout the day and vision varied.  I recall reading that it takes uncomplicated cataract surgery 6 weeks for complete healing .

Congrats - what a nice Christmas gift!

So far my right eye is getting what I expected for intermediate (2-3 feet) and near (<24" vision.

Since my right eye ended up spot on for good distance vision at Plano, I need about +1D for clear text computer monitor viewing (2-3feet) and +1.25D or more for smartphone and +2D for near fine print reading.

Thats what I've used before the cataract surgery when I wore contact lenses for distance vision, so its pretty much the same so far.

I ordered a new pair of progressive eyeglasses with the new Rx I got a couple weeks ago and they are scheduled to be delivered by this weekend, so I will find out how well they work hopefully then.  I have a +2D add on that pair for the near/reading part.  I also ordered a separate computer vision pair that is a single vision (not progressive) set with +1D added to the new Rx values of both eyes.  The most interesting thing will be if the astigmatism correction for the right eye works well or if its changed too much in the past couple weeks - it might not matter for bright light conditions in the morning, but I hope it will improve my right eye vision in the evening especially driving at night.

The new pairs of eyeglasses that I ordered 2 weeks ago based on the new optometrist eye exam Rx taken 4 weeks after cataract surgery on my right eye arrived today. I had ordered 3 pairs, a progressive pair, a computer vision (2-3feet distance) pair, and a reading (near) pair.

The Rx for my right eye after cataract surgery with a toric monofocal IOL was:

 0D sph  -1.0D cyl  x115

The left eye lens of course worked fine for all 3 pairs. But the right lens correction was way off as I kinda expected since I had noticed my right eye's uncorrected vision had improved over the past 2 weeks. Rotating the right eyeglasses lens >45degrees did help but not completely, so probably the astigmatism axis has changed and the cylinder requires is probably smaller now. 

So it ended up no better or slightly worse for the right eye than uncorrected, so I will be returning the pairs for credit for a future order.  I'll probably wait a few weeks to see if my right eye remains stable before having to get another eye exam Rx, maybe early next month.

Though other than for night driving, the vision in my right eye has been good uncorrected for distance during the day and inside, so I could just use zero Rx and then use simple adds for correction for intermediate and reading. Thats another alternative.  If as I believe that the right eye Rx is getting an even smaller cylinder value, I doubt even if it gets stable where I could correct it with eyeglasses that it would make a significant difference for the night vision - thats probably just due to some other issue with that eye or it may improve on its own after months more healing.

So I'll have to stick with my old eyeglasses with the right lens popped out for awhile longer it seems...

I did an internet search with "astigmatism test" and found some online websites with some free astigmatism test patterns that can be viewed from the computer screen.  They are basically lines at various angles from horizontal to vertical and diagonals in between like spokes on a wheel.  Also a test pattern that is just a bunch of horizontal and vertical lines.

With significant astigmatism, some of the lines at different angles will appear darker/thicker/sharper than others.  Without astigmatism, all the lines look the same.

With my left eye (no IOL) that has about 2D cylinder astigmatism near axis 180 without eyeglasses, the vertical lines look dark and clear while the horizontal lines on the computer test pattern look gray and less clear. At other angles the lines appearances varies.  But with my eyeglasses correcting the astigmatism in the left eye, all the lines look about the same clear and dark at all angles.

With my right eye (with the toric IOL) uncorrected all the astigmatism test patterns lines at different angles look dark and similar, close to how they look with my left eye with they eyeglasses correcting the astigmatism.  So I would conclude from these tests, that my right eye must now have a very low amount of residual astigmatism now.  I would think with 1D or more cylinder the test patterns would not look this good, so I suspect the cylinder is probably down to 0.5D or less now, which probably isn't worth trying to correct that small amount, if it stays there!

I was able to get a RA to return my order of eyeglasses and they are shipped back now for a 100% credit for a future order that I will probably do next month when I'm certain my right eye's Rx is stable.

My right eye has had fairly stable vision for the past two weeks each day since then in the morning I'm getting  20/25 or better (at times as good as 2015).  So I believe the refraction is pretty close to -0.25D with very little residual astigmatism now (most likely 0.50D cylinder or less).

The only issues I still notice is only outside at night.  When my pupil is at its maximum dilated size, outside I can sometimes see a thin jagged half-circle of light above some light bright light sources.  But if my pupil size reduces just slightly from max the half-circle halos disappear.  Also only in dim light like driving at night, I notice my right eye's vision is more blurry than during the day while my left eye stays sharp with ~20/15 vision.  Comparing the right eye (with the IOL) against my good corrected left eye driving at night I'd estimate I have to get at least half the distance to a sign on the freeway to read it clearly with the right eye compared to the left eye.  So the right eye is only getting effectively 20/30-20/40 I'd estimate at night with dim light, compared to near 20/20 with good light during the day inside or outside.

This reduction in vision at night or dim light only with my right eye may not be related to the cataract surgery however, might be due to a different cause in that eye such as my early stage glaucoma in that eye, or perhaps a retina issue?  I'll have to ask the eye doctor to look closely for that at my next eye exam in a month or two.