It is time for surgery!
Posted , 9 users are following.
Date: 9.26.2018
Age: 42
Diagnosed: 7.31.2017
Presbyopia Onset: 12/2015
Pre-cataract glasses: -2 both eyes. Slight astigmatism in the right eye. Just remove glasses for near. +1 actually makes near blurry.
Vision: Cataracts in both eyes. Nuclear and posterior sub capsular. Vision in left eye severely impacted with blurred triple vision @ 20/60 or worse. Right eye had been holding up until now but now it is at 20/30 and creating weird artifacts when light is involved even during daytime. Initially only green colored light were impacted. Night time light source looks like a snow flake with both eyes open. Looks like a comet with the right eye. Looks like a circle of light with the left eye. The circle gets smaller as I get closer to the light. Left eye practically unusable. Earlier I could use it to read by getting close to the monitor.
IOL choice: Symfony (Non-Toric) 16.5D which should leave me myopic around -0.3D.
All evaluations (4): indicate early stage cataracts but unfortunately in the visual axis.
Surgery in left eye: 10/2018
Contemplating surgery in right eye: 11/2018. Bu the eye is usable. Can be corrected to 20/20 but the weird light distortions cannot be correct. Would love to move surgery on this eye to 2020.
Worried about:
a) Symfony night time halos. Currently see every light source at night like a snow flake.
b) PCO/YAG
d) Retina detachment. (Age and Hereditary)
e) Long eye. I have a long eye which can be challenge to calculate the IOL power. Barrett method is recommended for such eyes.
1 like, 22 replies
derek40125 soks
Posted
Best of luck on your upcoming surgery. I know from the many posts you've written on here that you've certainly done your homework and you're better prepared than 99%+ of cataract patients. Hopefully, you'll get the outcome you are hoping for and the side effects won't seem too bad to you. Reading about the "snowflakes" you're seeing around lighting at night now, leads me to believe that you'll end up pretty satisfied.
Despite the elevated risks of retinal damage due to you age/sex/other, the risk is still really low, so just make sure to contact the doctors ASAP if you notice any flashes or other symptoms after surgery. Chances are it's fine but a call will be reassuring (it helped me).
Since you are going with Symfony, does your surgery come with other ADD cost items like laser or ORA?
Do you get to choose between IV sedation or drops-only or is that not a concern for you?
soks derek40125
Posted
Thanks Derek. You are right, post cataract halos hopefully will be bearable than the night time artifacts I am experiencing currently. A doctor friend of mine had told me that most doctors tell to wait on cataract surgery as they want your vision to worsen so that surgery after effects are better than the worsened vision. The righty eye turned for the worse only few days back (4-5). As vision worsens it is a shock. It is depressing then I get used to it until further noticeable worsening and the cycle repeats. I would have loved to wait on better technology lens but the eyes are getting unusable and my life is pretty much getting in hold.
The surgery comes with ORA and femtolaser. I believe they use IV but I think in Dennis' case they decided to just go with the drops. I do not have a preference. I would like to stay awake and be conscious. In fact I am going to ask him if the ORA agree with 16.5 and what aberometer reading is the ORA telling.
I am going to make a visit to the retina surgeon before the surgeon and probably 2 times a year after the surgery.
A colleague who had RD without cataract said it feels like police cars flash lights behind you and a grey curtain over half the vision.
My mother who had RD after YaG, 7 years after. Attract surgery said she would get a red curtain on the vision when she bent down. She left it untreated and lost the vision in that eye.
The colleague got the RD repaired on both eyes with the gas bubble and 30 days of lying face down. He said one eye which as detected early did not restore to 20/20.
BobDob soks
Posted
Hope all goes well, soks. I won't be far behind you. The cataract in my left eye is pretty bad, and the one in my right eye is not so good either. I have my first appointment with an eye surgeon in a couple of days. I'm planning to go with monofocals because, for me, the limited depth of field advantage of the Symfony isn't worth the increased possibility of night vision issues. It's an individual choice though, and I wish you the best.
soks BobDob
Posted
BobDob soks
Posted
That would be great to be able to simulate post implant vision. For myself, I would like to see if there is a noticeable difference between the Bausch & Lomb and Tecnis monofocals. The B&L theoretically should have a somewhat better depth of field and the Tecnis marginally better acuity, That might be one reason why nina234 (also posting as Lin 59 and Andi77), who had B&Ls implanted, had good field of vision after her surgery. She went for distant vision though, whereas I'm planning on near/intermediate.
soks BobDob
Posted
I had researched your option about getting monofocals for near. The consensus on that option was that it would make me need about -1D for distance. That is probably what I was at age 12 when I started wearing glasses.
BobDob soks
Posted
I was 8 or 9 when I started wearing glasses and am 66 now. I'm used to wearing them and don't mind continuing. I'd rather carry glasses on my nose than readers in my pocket. If I were younger and still doing competitive sports, it would be different.
I expect the outcome for distance is influenced by a combination of factors, but we only have control over our choice in IOLs.