Lens replacement surgery

I am very sorry to learn the issues which you are having due to the lens replacement surgeries. No. You are not expecting too much too soon. While your eyes will continue to heal and will hopefully get better than those are now, it is possible that the lens power is off.

Personally, I don't have much respect for the surgeons who are pushing the lens replacement surgeries. In spite of the sales pitches by many lens companies and the surgeons, the IOLs can cause too many issues to use them for that purpose.

And having surgeries on both eyes one day apart is never a good idea. That is not recommended even when one has to do the same surgeries due to the cataracts, because the determination of the required lens power is not exact and one can learn from the error made in the lens power for one eye to make a correction for the other eye.

The next best step for you will depend on what is found during your eye examination. I will push for having that done as soon as possible.

Julie was lens replacement pushed on you as a solution to correct vision.  I don’t think anyone should opt for this unless for cataracts where vision can no longer be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.  I live in Canada cataract surgery is covered by Medicare and no surgeon would do this without a minimum wait between surgeries.  There are so many variables - a surgeon should want to adjust 2nd eye surgery depending on where first eye settles.  Also most IOLs come in .50 diopters so the calculation of lens power you need could be off from that fact too.. That being said it takes 3 weeks before half the healing takes place (usually you are taking 2 different kinds of drops during this timeframe).  It is 6 weeks for full healing.  You are in early days.  Your vision could improve.  I hope you have follow up visits to get a fuller picture from your surgeon and ask any questions you have.

I was off work a week after each of my surgeries so don’t expect too much of this too soon.  Wishing you the best.

Ask your doctor if you have what's called PCO (posterior capsule opacification). Some people can get it right after cataract surgery, or even during it. They fix it with a YAG laser.

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. I had Lens Replacement Surgery in June 2017. I had eyes done a week apart . Everything was great until recently when I noticed things becoming hazy . I contacted the surgery who advised I need yag laser on both eyes . I’m due to have this done later this month . I’m in the UK 

How old are you? Did you have cataracts or you had refractive lens exchange (no cataracts)? What IOLs did you have implanted?

PCO during or right after cataract surgery in relatively young individuals (compared to normal cataract surgery age of someone in their late 60s to 80s) is pretty common, so that might be what's wrong.

Also, it's not that long after your surgery. Aren't you seeing your doctor around now to check your eyes again? Usually people have their eyes checked the day after surgery, a week after, 3 weeks after and then around 3 months after. You could also have corneal edema (swelling) or cystoid macular edema (swelling of the macula). I know someone who had this after RLE. Ask your doctor.

Just one more question (for now)...did you actually have the natural lenses of your eyes replaced with IOLs or did you have ICLs implanted (implantable contact lenses) where they don't remove the natural lenses of your eyes? They don't usually do RLE on younger individuals and the lenses they use for ICLs are not the same as the IOLs used in cataract surgery or RLE.

Since you are still early in the healing process, your vision could vary quite a bit for next few weeks.

My right eye had cataract surgery back in late Oct, and the vision in that eye varied very much daily for the first 4 weeks.  Some days it was blurry, probably 20/50 or worse while a few days at times it got near 20/20, but wouldn't stay there until after I was through the regimine of steroid and NSAID eyedrops for the first 4 weeks. 

Since then its been more stable, rarely worse than 20/25 and often 20/20 and even better.  Some of us need weeks of healing time, while some others get great vision the day after surgery.  Be sure you get the follow eye surgeon checkups over the next few weeks so they can check for any sign of cornea swelling, infection, etc. that could cause blurriness and cloudiness.

I see your eye surgeon did both of your eyes only 1 day apart?

Thats not a standard practice - usually they wait at least a few weeks between each eye to be sure the first eye is healing and stable vision first.

Thats a red flag to me...

I don't think it's very helpful telling julie21827 that she shouldn't have had lens replacement surgery (RLE) AFTER the fact!!!  That is a personal opinion and I haven't found any evidence to suggest that the outcomes for RLE are any worse than for cataract surgery.

Having done a lot of research into RLE because I'm planning on having it too, I think the outcomes for RLE are just as good as for cataract surgery provided you don't have it until you're close to 50 years old.  Once you reach your late 40's to early 50's your lenses have lost most of their accommodation anyway so it's not like you'd be replacing a fully functioning perfect lens.

The operation for RLE is exactly the same as the operation for cataract surgery therefore the outcomes are likely to be the same regardless of whether you have a cataract or not.  The main factor that could impact on future problems is age (ie. best not to do RLE until you are nearly 50) but some of you on this site who have had cataract surgery are only in your early 50's (I'm 49) so how is what people with cataracts have had different from what someone like me (without cataracts) will have? 

Another possible problem with RLE vs cataract surgery is expectations of RLE patients vs cataract surgery.  It seems RLE patients have higher expectations because we can generally see okay with glasses or contact lenses whereas cataract patients are usually just happy to be able to see again with their IOL's and aren't likely to be complaining as much about minor problems.  As someone about to have RLE I'm preparing myself for not having perfect sight I'm hoping that it will better than what I have now so I will be happy.  I know I will have to wear glasses for some things and I'm okay with that.

We all know that generally it's the ones who aren't happy that post on sites like these - the ones who are happy never have the need to post anything so I am sure there are many RLE success stories out there that we never get to read.

Bottom line is that it's up to us as potential RLE patients to do our research and to be sure as to what we want for our eyes.  Originally I had thought I'd go for close up/intermediate vision and wear glasses for distance but having just done a 6 week trial with monovision contact lenses I have now decided that I will set my left (dominant) eye for distance and my right eye for close up. I will wear glasses for intermediate computer use if necessary.  To me that's the best outcome as I know I am unlikely to get all three (distance, intermediate and close up).

Luckily for me I have an amazing doctor (Dr Por Yong Ming) who is willing to give me a lot of time and to answer all my questions and to give me advice.  I will be going for my eye biometry next Friday and will then set the dates for my operations.  Fingers crossed!

 

Ghee----something is not right and one question that has me really puzzled you had this surgery just one day apart?  Your first eye wasn't even healed yet and to do the other eye seems way too soon.  Most I've heard is at least a week apart.

When you mentioned it felt like a film over your eye is exactly what I was feeling---just doesn't make sense.  Get another OPINION at least.  I know I wasn't expecting all this for something that is suppose to WORK and HELP our eye sight.

Yes and with your job you need your eye sight.  I went 53 days without driving because I didn't feel safe to drive! I am so independent it was hard for me to always be asking for rides, but I had to when I had appointments.  My friends would take turns picking me up for church services. Just made life difficult for me. I am adding you on my prayer list you get some answers and your vision. Julie try to get another opinion for sure.  Hugs to you.  You sound YOUNG!