Flickering light after cataract surgery

Andrew, I should add, that what I' experience isn't really flickering. The light appears to be flickering because my eye or the light source moves a bit. If I concentrate on keeping perfectly still, focus on a single point, don't blink and the light source doesn't move, the weird light spot/glare will no longer appear to flicker or move, it's just sitting there off to the edge of my peripheral vision.

I observe it as a flicker because this is a rare situation in practice and the slightest movement makes the light come, go, and move, hence the description as a flickering. 

Derek I wonder if that has to do with pupil size as well.  I don’t experience what you described often but I have a table lamp next to my sofa that I had to move to a different spot when I watched TV.  It would cause a peripheral glare (not sure what it was) was exactly but doesn’t happen unless a light is on next to me.  Ok if lamp

is behind or in front  but it bothers me when right beside me.  Had thought maybe it was due to left eye having slightly more astigmatism .50 vs right eye .25

The 2 places I notice it the most are at work under low overhead fluorescent lighting and at home in front of my computer with a window to my left.  I hardly notice it at all when I am outside. Also, while the window to my left bothers me, lamps do not seem to have the same effect which I think is odd (but nice).

I just had Left Eye done 6/12, so 6th day out now. I first noticed the light shimmer on the 3rd day while shopping in a large store with fluorescent lights. At first I was concerned about retinal detachment, but remembered reading something about it on this forum. It's only in the 2 situations you mention, Andrew, that I see it - fluorescent lights and bright sunlight to the left while I work at the computer. It is pretty strong, so asking my brain/body to adjust quickly.

 

Seeherenow. What lens did you use?

For me, it was the worst the first 3 days after surgery. It got tolerable after that, but still frustrating. I went into one store 2 days after and had to walk out it was so bad. I have not been back to that store, but need to test it out to see how much better it actually is now. It was an Apple Store for comparison.There has not really been much improvement since that first week that I can tell though (I am just short of 5 weeks right now). 

Hi Soks,

It's a monofocal Bausch & Lomb M160L. Which I think means it's an Akreos lens. I know my doc did micro incision. Actually the shimmer was better today, less noticeable.

Sorry to hear it still gives you that much trouble, Andrew. When I first experienced it, I immediately put on dark sunglasses and that made it tolerable. A few days later I wore some very pale lavender sunglasses in a different store and it was fine.

Today I tried moving my head slightly and/or keeping it very still to check the shimmer while working at the computer. It was actually much improved. For me, it's actually a glass door that I usually keep open during the day. If I close it partially, the shimmer goes away. I think I was quite light sensitive the first few days, as my cataract had been causing much more dimming them I realized. Today I was less light snesitive.

I tend to view this experience as an adventure, an awesome biofeedback mechanism. The variations in sight seem to relate to thoughts and emotions. If I notice diminishing sight or notice that I'm straining  to see (unnecessarily out of habit from many years of extreme myopia), then I just take a deep breath and close my eyes for a second. When I open them again, everything is clearer. It's as if my straining was connected to stressful thoughts or emotion in the past, a form of shutting out the world by not being able to see. Now when I relax, I feel as if I'm actually inviting the world back into my life.

I know that might sound strange, but it's really a beautiful, exhilarating experience. My renewed sight feels quite miraculous now, even tho it's still settling in.

Doesn’t sound strange at all - beautiful.

I am 11 months out from surgery.  I recall how bright everything was (and I still wear sunglasses out or when driving).  I think in my youth I was sensitive to the bright sunshine or light - blue eyes vs brown tend to be that way.   But when cataracts develop even if one is unaware as I was it gives everything a yellowish brown tint so once that lens is removed/replaces everything is so bright again.  First weeks I wore sunglasses in my home as well as outside.

Something else that still plays a factor is dry eye.  If I am focus too long on a screen or book vision blurs or eyes get scratchy feeling.  Still use artificial tears and blink more often.  The cataract surgery itself brings on dry eye.  It is better than it was those early weeks but I think it is something that one has to always contend with.

I take a flaxseed oil capsule every day which helps.  I know omega 3 fishpil capsules do the same. 

I confess to not knowing much about the piggyback lens except think I read it is done to correct refraction error vs lens exchange.  Was this something surgeon suggested?   Living with night vision issues seems equally difficult.   Was this a recent procedure?   I found after cataract surgery the glare and starbursts were strong but diminished over time (6 or 7 months).  Hoping they diminish for you too.

2nd opinion doc suggested it. He thought it more likely to help with the nighttime aberrations than with the flickering. So... it greatly improved the flickering (now not really a problem), but made the nighttime bs worse... go figure. Seems when things go wrong, it becomes more an art form than science.

Had the piggyback done about a year and half after the original surgery, about 2 years ago now. It's been so long now I don't expect anything to change (improve) any more. in fact if anything the vision in that eye has gotten worse..

Had I to do it over would have opted for lens exchange. Now I've had the YAG procedure so lens exchange is too risky.

Given that the vision in the operated eye is (still) not all that good, neither close up nor far away and has all the nighttime problems, have held off getting the 2nd eye (with slowly worsening cataract) done, since I still see better with it than than the operated eye .

What type of lenses did they implant?  Was it a monofocal with another monofocal overtop?   

What type of lens are you leaning towards for the 2nd eye?

The original lens was a Trulign (the toric version of the Crystalens), which was supposed to give me far and intermediate vision with a good chance at near too. I only got fairly good vision at computer distance, plus the flickering and all the night stuff. The piggyback was a monofocal.

I'm reluctantly leaning toward toward a mono lens for the 2nd eye. 

Hello Peter, could I ask you more about your eye? Did you have corneal disease? Keratoconus or middle-high astigmatism? Or lasik, prk or other surgery in the past?

I had mild astigmatism, none of the other conditions or other surgeries.

Thanks! Do you see arcs or circle at night or in general, when the light hits the eye from the side?

I see the arcs, rays, halos, starbursts around bright lights (car streetlights, headlights, taillights, traffic lights etc) in a dark environment only. The flickering I had (and now rarely do) is from a bright light source coming in from the side.

I can cope with halos and starburst, they are just around the light, they don't "move" like this debilitating flickering that causes truly disco strobe-effect light in your eye. Probably during the day your dysphotopsias are not that visible, true? Do you see less glare and halos using pupil reducing drops?