Double Vision after cataract surgery

Thanks for asking, I'm going to see my surgeon again today because contrary to the doctor's conclusion that this condition should clear up with time, my vision is not getting better it's getting worse. My vision is blurry and when I attempt to read my eyes become less focused and the double vision more prominent. Additionally, after reading even for a short period of time when I try to focus on anything else my vision is blurry to the extent it's dangerous for me to drive. My vision at this moment is 100% worse than it was before I had this surgery to the extent that I recently applied to The National Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired I truly miss reading. While I hope this is a temporary and fixable condition it is also the most frightening issue I've faced, more so because these doctors seem to not take it as seriously as I would expect. Their attitude has made me distrust their opinions but at this point in time I have no recouse but to continue to see them until I can get them to refer me to a specialist and release my records. It seems like they're pinning their hope and mine on the healing process which is now in it's 4th month for one eye and 3rd month for the other eye. However, I would expect to see some improvement but this is going the other way.

hi salty well time passes and i still have my double vision . driving remains the most difficult for me although reading is now becoming a challenge my specialist referred me to a retinal specialist who reported it's not my retina. my optometrist told me to go back to my surgeon and see if he would refer me to a neuro opthamalogist. Prism glasses are not possible because I have intermittent diplopia. It depends on the distance i am viewing Very frustrating

Sheila

Do any of the experts suggest exchanging the lenses?

Hi Sue.An

No one has suggested that at all. I have had the YAG surgery and I've read that it is difficult to exchange the lenses when that has been done. I don't think I am brave enough to redo this surgery in case the results are even worse!

I am going to make another appointment with the original surgeon and this time take my husband with me to try to get some sort of answer of what he thinks happened and maybe get a referral to a neuro opthamalogist.

SALTYO- so sorry you are going through this. Not only is it a scary situation, but to brush it off, is a worse feeling that you dont get satisfaction from your doctor or his staff. I spend some time & go see surrounding doctors, or even ask neighbors and friends if they know any other people who had eye surgery & if they would recommend their doctor .

I went on a neighborhood site called "next door neighbor" and asked for candid answers before I proceeded with my first surgery. I am glad I did that because even though I went to 3 surgeons & got their input, I made my decision on some of the neighbors experiences & my gut feeling of who I felt more comfortable with. The initial surgeon office I was referred to by my eye dr, was nice but didnt really take time to answer my questions. He seemed very confident but I personally felt like a number. (nothing worse then that) Another surgeon I went to (my third~ who I was told dealt with all of the surgeons mistakes) was nice, but again, I felt like a number & he seemed too busy to personally answer my questions but directed me to his staff. I decided on my 2nd one because when I saw him, he took his time to answer my questions AND told me if I had any more not to hesitate to call and ask. He also had staff that had the surgery done by him & they were delighted with the results. He had good bedside manner which I put alot of my opinion in because I could tell he enjoyed what he did. (and~ he told me he did, which the others did not) I felt that was important. He also dealt with me (as I was a true basket case) with utmost respect. My husband said I should not decide on personality, but I'm sorry, I feel, thats half the battle of a good doctor.

hi Salty! just reading your posts from.20months ago. wondering how you are doing now. hows your vision? I'm due for first eye cataract surgery in 10 days. then next one in the following week. am so nervous. dont want it but my near sightness got worse. I wear progressive glasses for 20 years!. I'm considering alcon acysoft IQ toric to correct my astigmatism. with pan optix im.worried about worse night trade offs (and especially the 3 000 cost per eye for that, which I cant afford..

what io l. did u have and what were your previous vision issues before surgery. hope to hear from.u

Interesting point the double vision doesn't effect my reading (that's all about the blurriness) but I see double when looking at captions on the TV and when I am looking at signs while driving, I am also relying on Google maps voice navigation when driving rather than the visuals. What's really p*****g me iff is I can't read a nautical chart even with a magnifying glass and tide books foget about it. Serious crimp in my lifestyle as I liveaboard and sail my boat and I've been doing that for years thus the "Saltyone" choice as a screen name. Hope to get answers today and will keep the forum posted, I am so grateful that I found this place the people here have been extraordinary kind and helpful with alk their information and support. Regards, Catherine

*off, guess the moderator didn't like the terms I used for urinating.😞 As a former New Yorker it's a term we use often but I will adher to the rule.

HI Chester, I see its been a few months since youve been on this site, but wondering if your sight has gotten any better

i posted above a few days ago. As i mentioned Ive seen a retinal specialist but nothing he could do . I will now be contacting my surgeon for a follow up since nothing has improved. I need to know what happened and that i have tried all avenues. Seeing out of one eye is no problem. Seeing out of both it doesn't work. I've had glasses since i was 7 and was excited at the prospect of seeing like a normal person.

Thanks for your concern.

Sheila

chester are things any better? I had rt. eye done 8 weeks ago and getting intermittent ghosting onhigh contrast images like tv and LED LIT signs. It comes and goes. My left eye is not ready for surgery yet so thinking it is due to am imbalance between eyes. maybe you have too much difference between eyes and brain cannot meld images? I am now -4.50 in left eye and -50 in right wearing contact lenses. I noticehe image in my rt. eye looks slightly larger than image in left eye. Do image sizes look same to you. I feel badly the docs are not helping you.

chester I am so sorry. did you ever get an answer on what is causing it? each eye separately is good vision, but together double? Is it imbalance, eye rivalry? what do they tell you?

yes each eye sees well on its own . The eyes don't seem to be able to work together. I've not had any diagnosis by any of the four different doctors I've seen over the past year. After having to wear glasses/contact lenses all my life this has been devastating to me.

i totally get it. i have worn glasses for 54 years and contactd for 49. Now my surgical right eye is an undercorreted disappointment with the intermittent double vision issue. i am afraid to have my left eye touched.

i'll post what my doc says friday...this is not my surgeon. He already dismissed me.

so sorry..how are you doing now?.I'm scheduled in 2 weeks for first eye, then one week.later for other eye. I've decided on toric monoficals because of the compromises of night issues with pan.optix. I'm so scared. I had gone to opthamologist even a year ago and never followed thru. cataracttm in one eye and 2 cataracts in other eye. one eye got so much worse cant be corrected with glasses. im.very nervous reading all.this.....

hi chester...I had tears reading your posts...so sorry what's been happening to your eyes. were you very near sighted before surgery? did you have astigmatism too?. im.very near sighted..I so dont want surgery but 2 cacataracts in one eye got so bad in one year. other eye cataract but the high pressure eruption is still good in that eye..but because my script is so high dr said I have to get both eyes done because brain wont adapt to tremendous difference..I'm so besides myself too.

im.thinking toric monoficals as pan optix trade off of more glares sunburst and haloes scares the hell out of me. I wont be able to adapt to that!! my first eye surgery due in 2 was. second eye one week later.

how are things now with your eyes?? I so hope they resolved.

yes i was very near sighted having worn glasses since I was 8 years old. my eyes are basically the same with small improvement. my biggest complaint is inability to read very well and having to wear glasses for so many things such as shopping, cooking, reading, sewing. Night driving is quite hard so I only do it in my neighbourhood.

ayeaye, I am 6 months away from my first cataract surgery. When I went for my pre-op appointment I was prepared to go with the Acrysof toric lens, and had also discounted using the PanOptix because of the night vision and other issues. My surgeon basically agreed that going with a monofocal lens was the better choice for me. After my eyes were measured, despite having glasses with astigmatism correction for 30 years or so, he said my astigmatism was too low to correct with a toric lens. So now for my first eye, I will go with the AcrySof IQ Aspherical monofocal lens corrected for distance. My second eye is not bad enough to do now, so it will be deferred for months if not years. When it is done, I will consider under correcting (Mini Monovision) so I can at least read a computer screen without glasses. But, for me that decision is way down the road.

One thing that caught my attention with your post is that you are having the second eye done one week after the first. I believe that is fairly unusual. Is there some specific reason for doing that? I believe most wait 4-6 weeks until the vision in the first eye settles down. The other benefit, if you were possibly considering a monovision solution is that you will know what your vision is in the first eye, before you make the decision about the second eye.

Just my thoughts, from someone who has not gone through it. However, I wish I was 10 days away from having my first eye done. I don't don't see much out of it now...

thank you so much for your reply. it seems he does that for any cataract surgery. one week apart. I agree it's so short to know how you are doing with your first implant. in my case my vision is so bad without glasses that it would be high imbalance between the 2...but that's not even it. he just does one eye right after the next one week.later.

they keep pushing pan optix because I need 3 fields corrected. however I'm thinking to do mono.toric because of pan optix night vision issues of haloes starburst contrast etc..all the negatives of pan optix. and read a survey where 13% of the 129 ppl were extremely bothered by that..:(((

I guess if the surgeon is going to do the same to the second eye, regardless of the outcome of the first eye, then perhaps there is no down side to doing them so close together. I think there are a range of options to consider.

1. Correct both eyes with monofocal toric lenses (assuming they both need more than 0.75 correction for astigmatism. This will require reading glasses for intermediate and close reading.
2. Correct the dominant eye with a monofocal toric lens. Then correct the second eye with about -1.25 to -1.5 residual so it can be used for reading.
3. Correct the dominant eye with a monofocal toric lens. Then correct the second eye with a multifocal lens like the PanOptix.

Not sure how old you are, and how much cost is an issue. But with cost no issue and being older than 65, I think #2 is worth considering. And if you are under 60 then perhaps #3 is worth considering. If you have no issue with using reading glasses then #1 is a good option.

I noticed that you asked about sedation for the cataract removal and IOL insertion procedure. Here are the exact instructions I got from my surgeon"

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"The anaesthetist will ask you if you want sedation medication - take it. It isn't natural to have someone put sharp things in your eye while fully awake. Some patients think they can "tough it out", but it is easier for both of us if you accept the help. I personally wouldn't have this surgery without sedation"

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Enough said! I'm in for the sedation!!!

and you got the pan.optix?

hi..did they hook you up to iv drip for sedation? do they hook.up heart monitor also during surgery?

I am in Canada, so I have a 5.5 month wait until my surgery. I have my surgery package of information, had my eye measurements done, and now am on the wait list for the actual surgery. So, other than the info I gave, you, I don't have anything more exact.

ok thanks! good luck on your upcoming surgery

@ayeaye Oral sedation, a small dissolving pill under the tongue is common now, no IV. I did not notice the effects of it, after taking the pill, during the surgery, or after. Yes, a heart monitor is used during surgery. No biggie.

Hi

Where about are you in Canada.

I have had the IOL done in Vancouver in the beginning of the year.

Originally I suffered from short sightedness and wore progressive glasses. They were great but I wanted to not wear glasses at work. I did not know but at the testing stage I was told my glasses had stigmatism correction built in.

I had the left eye done first. Immediately after the surgery they checked and tested my left eye. Before the surgery I had watched many YouTube videos on IOL and complications.

I told them I had double ghosting and blurry vision. They told me to wait for recovery, it will get better. The next week I had the right eye done. Same procedure. Still same problems. I went back after a month and told the person my problems. I have ghosting and find it hard as an example to read a monitor. I eventually bought a 32 inch monitor and increased the fonts. Also I see a blurry black mark in the outside corner of my right eye. I was hoping the ghosting and blurriness would be less. I was told to wait for healing again. I felt that they were not taking my symptoms seriously. The technician kept on telling everything is ok and he saw nothing wrong.

The first few post visits the person was dismissing my symptoms. Eventually I had to wait because of covid. Recently I was seen again. They have confirmed two issues. One is a Yag procedure in the left eye. The right eye has stigmatism and my prescription is not correct, further laser could help it. Originally my right eye was prescribed the toric lens. The day of surgery the surgeon changed it to panoptic. His reason was he thought my stigmatism was not that bad. Now they say laser will correct it. Do I regret the surgery? No, my shortsightedness is almost gone. I can now read my cell phone easily. Before , I could not see the letters/words on the screen. The radio in the car, I can now see which station I am on. Far sighted is still good, mountains and trees in the far distance is still good. Middle distance, like seeing street signs is good. The but is the double ghosting and blurry vision at the side of my vision.

Hopefully they will correct this.

Not sure if you were replying to me or the original poster. I'm in Edmonton and still waiting for a surgery date.

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On your astigmatism there are minimum increments that the correction comes in. Normally a 0.7 is the very minimum they will correct for. You may have been borderline for correction. I was told the same. If I end up with too much uncorrected astigmatism they can do laser or I can just get it corrected with eyeglasses.