Complications after cataract surgery/YAG laser
Posted , 7 users are following.
I am 50 years old and had my cataract surgery one year ago (toric lenses were put in), since then I have been through some horrible stuff. I had Macular Edema in both eyes a short while after my cataract surgeries, but this seems to have cleared up according to my retinal scans and multiple examinations. Once my Macular Edema cleared up in both eyes I had the YAG laser to clear up my posterior capsular opacification. The next morning after my YAG laser, I woke up and I knew something was terrible wrong, In dim light (even indoors with fluorescent lighting), I could see a fuzzy halo around lights and starbursts too. At night time when I am driving, every light ranging from headlights to traffic lights….any light at night, I can see long stretched out spiky starbursts. The brighter the light (like those super bright headlights you see in newer cars), the longer and stretchy the starburst will be. Every once in a while the starburst will also have a rainbow effect to it that is inside the starburst itself. Note: I am seeing the starbursts with or without my glasses, so it wouldn't be residual astigmatism like my doctor thought it might be. I am also seeing bright oddly shaped circle lights every morning right now like when I had my macular edema, when I went to my doctor he did another retinal scan of my eyes but it showed no macular edema. My vitreous gel seems to be a mess also, I can live with floaters, but now it seems like the vitreous gel is clumping together or something, and when I look to the left and right or up and down I see like something hazy and sweeping going the opposite way that I am looking. I asked if my lenses got pitted or damaged or something during my YAG laser treatment but my doctor said no. My doctor had some "copy and paste" explanation for everything (like basically well…just live with it), so I went to see a second doctor (at my HMO hospital), and after her examination she basically said the same thing "well you're seeing 20/20 with glasses" along with her "copy and paste" explanations as well. Not happy with her responses, I asked politely to be referred to the retinal surgeon…she didn't like it that much, and after that her demeanor changed for the worse. So moving forward…I've been researching Dr. Google (doctors hate when I do this, lol), I was thinking that maybe they should widen the YAG treatment area more (maybe it will clear up the starbursts cause I have large pupils), and maybe I should get a vitrectomy (for my clumpy vitreous gel or whatever else it might be that is possibly pulling at my retina causing the circles of light in the morning right when I wake)? I see the retinal surgeon later this month, is there any suggestions you guys might give me that I might bring to the table when I see him? I feel like I am going blind or something. Thank you.
2 likes, 4 replies
steve24102 michael7777777
Posted
Sorry, sounds like no fun for you! I did have Macular Edema, and YAG and post cataract PRK. But only a guess for you is that you might have a flap from the YAG surgery that is distorting the vision. Worth a check. Also the moving up and down left and right is most likely floaters. YAG can increase that. Sometime in future there might be a laser treatment for floaters rather than replacing vitreous in eye ball. I am waiting for that.
After my YAG my starburst went away, however I still get lousy glow around all lights. Learning to "live with it."
Best,
Steve
fepitch michael7777777
Posted
In my case, I started out with an epi-retinal peel. Rather than my going into what this is and why I had it done, please see https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/condition/epiretinal-membrane for a complete explanation. I had the peel done before having cataract surgery in hope of having a better success with extended vision or multifocal IOL's.
I then had cataract surgery done with my choice of IOL's being Symfony lenses. The swelling in my eye was significant enough in the left eye that I had to change drops after five weeks and say on the more heavy duty drops (at $200 for a .5ml bottle) for another five weeks. With time I have come to wonder if a better choice would not have been a silicone lens even thought that would have meant a larger incision. It would have also meant a better chance that I would not be dealing with these starbursts that have eight foot rays at night with bright bright headlights. Thank God the problem is only at night with pinpoint sources of light like headlights, tail lights, stop lights, and street lights, but no other kind of lights that are not a pinpoint source.
The doctor who did the IOL implant surgery also did a YAG on my left eye because about three weeks after the left eye cataract surgery, things began to get cloudy along with the starbursts that were there since day one after cataract surgery. She said the YAG would end the cloudiness and starbursts. She got it partly right. The cloudiness ended, but the starbursts remained exactly as they were, no better and no worse. The neural adaptation they all talk about has not happened for me six months after surgery on the left eye and one month after surgery on the right eye. My brain is not cancelling out those starbursts one single bit.
So sick of the starbursts and this neural adaptation poop, I saw a dysphotopsia specialist ( dysphotopsia discussion here
https://www.reviewofophthalmology.com/article/dysphotopsia-not-just-black-and-white) and as a result have since had Lasik on the left eye to see if it will end the starbursts which were possibly compounded by my irregular astigmatism which I have has since childhood and resulted in a lot of eye exercises moving me from being cross eyed to having a lazy eye. See https://www.gatinel.com/en/recherche-formation/astigmatisme/astigmatisme-regulier-et-irregulier/ if you would like to have a finer idea of what irregular vs regular astigmatism is.
To date, Lasik has made starbursts thinner and more defined and removed the haze that went with starbursts. This has made it easier to see through them and not have so much vision blocked by them. However, I am only five days out into the Lasik healing process so possibly starbursts will continue to thin out as my eye heals and hopefully eventually thin into non existence. I will most certainly wait for my left eye to get fully healed to see where I am with starbursts elimination before spending money on my right eye for the same process.
What these doctors so often fail to address when talking to their patients (let me add that I have a degree in photography) is that 20/20 is a distance measurement. It does not measure how much detail you are seeing in what you are looking at. The retina is where your detail vision comes from. So, I think you are on the right track seeing a retinal specialist. I know that my detail vision improved after my epi-retinal peels (one in each eye) while my Snellen (20/whatever) numbers stayed the same.
I went to a retinal clinic, where that was all the group of doctors there did was retinal correction. That might also be something that you want to consider in making your choice of a doctor. A group of doctors who only do one thing is probably better at what they do than those who do a little bit of everything.
Last but not least, I'm totally with you about Internet research. Those doctors who do not think themselves gods welcome your questions and self research. It is the others that think themselves the only source of knowledge that you should consider the ones to stay away from.
I hope what I have had to say has been helpful.
Sue.An2 fepitch
Posted
I read your comments with much interest fepitch. It sounds like you have been through a lot but coming out on other side. Although there is misinformation on internet there is also good information and it sounds like you've found a better set of doctors interested in you seeing better.
I have Symfony lenses (18 months) - fortunately it's worked out well and I haven't had vision issues. I can tell you some night time artifacts do go away with time but it certainly dies not disappear. I am thinking by thinning you mean the concentric circles around certain lights (red stop lights, car brakes when applied etc). These are still huge around those lights but much fainter. I think it's now as good as it will ever get. Flare from headlights has diminished but not completely and to be honest mist if my friends who haven't had cataract surgery are bothered by those too - especially with the newer type blue-white headlights.
Thanks for sharing your journey.
lauren71639 michael7777777
Posted
Thank You for answering a lot of ,my questions. I had cataract surgery, almost 3 years ago, Acrysof IQ lenses. In April my eye Dr said I had a posterior retinal detachment in my left eye and that I needed YAG surgery in both eyes. 4 Days after the yag my vision got very blurry and I started seeing the sunburst. I was out of town and my eye Dr was on vacation. The surgeon is only in my area once a month. So I went back to my old surgeon from 30 years ago. He saw me immediately and, after the complete exam, he referred me to a Vitreo-Retinal surgeon who also saw me immediately. He has no idea why I'm seeing the sunbursts and wants to wait a month to see if the floaters and blurry vision clears up. I can't drive after headlights or street lights come on. That was almost 2 weeks ago. Nothing has changed and I see my eye Dr next week to follow up on the yag surgery. I'll be 60 next month and I'm very concerned. The specialist mentioned doing surgery to remove the floaters if they don't clear up.
I'm so confused right now and have a serious trust issue with my Dr and yag surgeon. Any suggestions on where to look up stuff or what questions to ask? This is all so new to me and happening fast.