near vision poor after getting Symfony...seeking others' experience

Thanks Harry. Yes it feels like something is in my eye. I have tearing as expected but I don't know what I was to expect. Having kidney surgery and many others I'm fairly tolerent to pain but blindness in my right eye has thrown me way of.

I hope this improves before tomorrow.

Thanks for all the replies.

Not sure why a doctor would do cataract surgery on someone who has 20/20 vision unless greed is a factor that is.

Can you describe in more detail what you refer to as biiger and more defined halos?

What types of lights do they appear on and do they look like thin circles/rings around lights? Are there several circles around a light?

How about indoor lights like blue LEDs on cable modems and LED displays like on a digital clock or device, any halos/circles seen on those?

Both of my eyes implanted smyfony. Multifocal non toric. After a couple of days, my distance vision is excellent with usual glares and halos.

The only thing bothers me is reading vision. Upto this point, almost 4 weeks after op, I can not properly read anything within 20 inches.

Just had a followup visit this afternoon with the surgeon, he said take more time and schedule. Another appointment. 6 weeks later.

He said he can easily do Lasik on me to improve the result.

What does "improve the result" mean?

LASIK can change the effective prescription, but it cannot change seeing the halos.

If your desire is to have a better reading vision, make sure that the surgeon uses the LASIK to modify the prescription in only one eye (preferably the non-dominant one or the one with the poorer distance vision). If you end up with about -1.0D prescription in one eye with the other eye being plano, you should have good day vision from 16 inches and beyond, but unfortunately the night vision issues will stay.

Of course, the question is why he did not suggest having the 2 lenses set that way in the first place, if you had told him that you want to be able to see well at near, intermediate, as well as far distances (which is what most people want any way).

LASIK does not deal with halo and glare which should subside in a few months and have the brain to adapt it.

Better result means on the reading side. I guess the surgeon also means to alter one of the eye's prescription for reading.

But at the first place, I want both eyes with multifocal lenses in order to get rid of glasses at all.

If ending up one eye for reading and one for distance, it is against the wills to use multifocal which provides better depth of view.

I will wait and see for a while before jumping to have Lasik.

Ok, actually halos is probably not the best term. Starburst is a better description. It is a headlight with radiating lines that are very well defined (versus if you look at a headlight coming at you without lenses you will see a starburst with varying length streaks and out of focus).   Anyway, another thing to describe another feature of the Symfony lense is it looks like a spiderweb if you are looking at say the red, rear taillights (at night only) of the car in front of you. If you look at the Design of the lense you will see the technology is giving you focal correction through the use of concentric circles of lens. 

If you look directly at a light source, even LED, you will see the starburst. 

I would rate the lens 98%  positive, 2% negative; the 2% being the starburst at night. 

As my buddy who had it done before me says, you just don’t look directly at the headlights. 

As an aside, the technician in the ophthalmology Office said that over time, this will go away. She said our brains will begin to minimize the halo or starburst. She said it is the same reason I can see 20/20 with only one eye being done, our brain shuts down our non-dominant eye and essentially “turns off” our other eye.  Personally I don’t see how it could, just saying what I was told. 

Alan, interesting, you mentioned the same thing about our brains adapting to what we are seeing, or what we are used to seeing!

One other comment, if I had it to do over again, I would do PRK versus LASIK.   LASIK creates some irregularities and scarring of the cornea. It is great for dramatic correction and fast healing and less discomfort, but long-term I have learned that PRK May be the best long-term way to go for correction. 

Starbursts and glare is more a function of the imperfect vision and can happen with any lens. Seeing about 10 lighted circles (or halos) around lights happen only with the Symfony lens. If the starburst and/or the glare is bad, those often dominate the lighted circles and thus, the lighted circles become less noticable.

Based on my experience over the last year (and similar experience of others), the multiple circles remain as vivid as ever. One just gets used to the annoyance and one learns to live with those.

I know quite a few people who had PRK either on its own or after cataract surgery who have horrific permanent complications. PRK is no safer than LASIK.

Hi Jaye

At 6wks i was told wait 3months.

At 3months it was wait 6months.

Now at 8months I'm told that my vision will carry on changing and corrective surgery is not reccomended.

I feel very sad to have sucked up the symfony vision optimism. Wish i could reverse the process.

Can you describe a bit more the reasons why you aren't satisfied with the Symfony lens? I'm contemplating choosing Symfony vs monofocal...

For my cataract surgery**** also wanted to ask you how your range of vision is holding up....

Was wondering if you can describe why you are also unsatisfied with the Symfony. Is the result of your vision due to any after complications which would hinder the quality of the Symfony IOL lens?

Hi Miguel.

My dissatisfaction is down to unresolved astigmatism even though i had toric lenses.

I was led to believe i could have laser top up to refine my vision if necessary.

I am now told my corneas are too thin.

I think if your vision isnt too bad, stick with glasses.

If it is bad then you will probably feel positive with the vision you have after symfony implants.

Glare and halos will remain a problem but will diminish with time

IOLs are not a perfect solution. The technology has a long way to go.

Sounds as though the issue you have is more to do with the astigmatism than the Symfony lenses.  I have Symfony in both eyes and couldn’t be more pleased.  I have not worn glasses since surgery 2 months ago now.  I read newsprint, phone book and see distance 20/20.  I do see concentric circles around certain light sources at night but I knew that was the trade off.  I do drive at night and find I am becoming more accustomed to them with time.  Certaly doesn’t stop me from driving at night. 

Implanted Symfony in both eyes almost 5 weeks now.  Since 4th day after op, distance vision is great, intermediate is good; near is worst and disappointed.  2 weeks before went to see the surgeon for 2nd regular follow-up. He told me to give some more time and see him 6 weeks later. He said he can do some Lasik and I guess he implies to improve the near vision.

I went to see my regular optometrist to check where I am standing and what options I do have for improvements.  My distance vision is 20/20, but near vision is 20/50 which is very bad.  She also said that time is not a big factor on lens adaptation which means it won't improve much 3 or 6 months later.

As such, I need to wear reading glasses.  Moisturizing liquid may help a little for the implanted lens.

She also said that it is not much can be done to improve near vision without compromising distance vision.

In the meantime, I am trying hard to practise reading in different angles and near distances before any further decisions on my eyes.  I do not want to make another wrong decision which can not be reversed.

My regular optometrist also said that the surgeon should give me try-on multi-focal contact lens before making decision which types of lens best suits me.  I wish I had visit here before the surgery.

Suggest that you should try multi-focal and mono contact lens and see whether you can adapt and provide you the best result.

Good luck.