Lasik enhancement evaluation after cataract surgery

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Here’s my latest update. 

Had cataract surgery right eye dec 2017 (restor multifocal toric ) and left eye (restor multifocal) one week later.  The first eye “power was off” so an iol exchange occurred in April 2018. I am a previous lasik patient.  Left eye was corrected to what dr thought I was “off” ( I now believe dr should have gone up +2.0 in both eyes. Not +1.5 in right and +1.0 in left ORA was used in all surgeries)

So today, I had a lasik enhancement evaluation with the original clinic who did my lasik in 2001. Dr says only left eye is a viable candidate. As right eye measures at -.25 to -.50. And lasik may not give any improvement.  Left eye measures -.75 +.75 x095. And a slight PCO was noticed. Dr also says the right eye lens has a slight tilt to it. ( ironically the original right eye lense also had a mild tilt so we concluded that’s just how that eye wants the implanted lense to set) .  I wasn’t ready to commit to the procedure as YAG has been suggested before lasik because it could change the visual results. 

My right eye vision is 20/25 and the drs all seem happy with that. I am not. I have a shadow/ghosting in the 2o’clock position, and now some fuzziness due to pco. The distance vision is worse than before surgery. So I may have actually been 20/22.5( but we don’t measure for that inbetween stage) before surgery. Just slightly off, perhaps due to a slight astigmatism that I chose not to correct during lasik in 2001. 

Left eye is my dominate eye. And I was reading 20/30 but struggling to get 4/5 letters. 20/40 was better. 

What the lasik dr suggested was to try glasses to see if I would be happy with lasik enhancement results ( I like this idea). She wrote a script for Plano right eye and the above prescription for the left. Set for distance. The idea is to see if my reading distance would be better or worse. And if a lense exchange would be a viable option, as the cataract surgeon suggested months ago, but has now recanted that offer.  He believes lasik or PRK would be a better solution. 

So, although I did receive similar information, I’m still at a loss at what to do next. I will sit on this info for a few days then decide. In the mean time I have ordered glasses with new prescription and will try them out for a while. My goal was to be glasses free. 

The suggestion to have yag first before lasik was reinforced, as yag can change prescription. But I need to feel good about the lenses I have before yag is done, as it is very difficult to do an exchange after yag. 

Still hoping for clear vision at all ranges but I would settle for just one right now without the need of glasses. 

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  • Posted

    Julielyn, since it's so crucial for you to have excellent close up vision due to the type of work you do (highly detailed close up work, etc.), why don't you get monofocals set for close up instead of set for distance? I personally wouldn't do that since I don't need to have that type of close vision, but there are other people on here who have done that.

    • Posted

      And I don't have to thread needles for a living like you do, but I can read the tiniest fonts on apps on my iPhone without glasses after getting monofocals for distance, along with grocery store receipts, my dashboard, TV, driving, etc. all without any glasses. I can't guarantee your result will be like mine as far as your work goes though, so maybe look into getting monofocals set for close up.

    • Posted

      Same thing goes for my laptop and Windows desktop icons with their tiny print labels. I can read those fine without glasses and I can also read my browser address bar without glasses.
    • Posted

      And that's with the standard text size on the icons. I did not enlarge the icons on my laptop or the text size. The text size is very very tiny.

    • Posted

      And it's a 15 inch laptop

    • Posted

      Also, the way my particular lifestyle is, I go all day long, pretty much every single day, never putting on glasses for anything, including up close, distance or in-between. Once in a while if the lighting is bad and the print is very tiny and lighter than dark black, I might have to put on readers for a second and that's all. Anyway, I wish you good luck!

    • Posted

      Actually I just tried it again and I can see extremely tiny print in any color without glasses (not just black) as long as it's not really pale. For example, light gray maybe I would need glasses for and only the tiniest of print and not on a computer. On a computer I can see the tiniest of print in any color, even light gray.

    • Posted

      Congrats you got excellent results with monofocals.  Most people I know with them get mini monovision done to eliminate need for glasses or wear them for reading 

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