Need General Info. on the IOL Target Focal Point as Mine Seems to Have Landed Very Far Off!!

Did you have an ORA scan done at the time of surgery? If so, then the surgeon will choose the target from that, and decide if there is any astigmatism present (and then possibly choose a Toric lens instead). How and where the lens is placed will affect the results also. You could ask the surgeon what they hit with the RE eye like I did -- the info should be on the computer (at least that's where my surgeon checked). Ask also for a copy of the pre-scan results and post them here -- Ron can analyze them for you, lol. It looks like your surgeon hits their targets on the more myopic side. If so, I would have thought that they would have suggested a different target for the second eye, maybe -0.25D. Although I know that you were concerned about too much of a difference between both eyes, so maybe they stayed with the original target because of that. How are both eyes working together?

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"One thing I have noticed is how much clearer the RE is for distance in the morning after sleeping. It gets a lot more fuzzy as the day progresses."

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The eye is still healing, so as others have said, I'd give it more time, and from my own experience use preservative free lubricating drops regularly for at least the next month or so, with the prescription drops if you're still using those -- just time putting them in at least twenty minutes apart. They will reduce friction and scratchiness in the eye and promote healing. I also found that my eyes got tired more quickly post surgery so I made a point of not spending as much time on the computer in particular. I know they tell you that it's okay to use one, but they don't really specify for how long, and since people's eyes get strained from it to begin with, I thought I'd regiment my usage for the month post surgery.

Both eyes seem to be working well together and overall I am not unhappy with my new eyesight. I have gotten some good things like excellent close in vision for those trips to the book store when I previously could not read through the books since I never had glasses with me or used them!!I And the RE distance that I now have although not what I had wanted at least allows me to see the pavement when I walk. I had tripped and gashed my head severely about a year ago since the pavement was so vague with my old cataract laden eyesight!

I did a scan which is probably the ORA scan in early February. They said the results lasted for 6 months so my surgeries fell within that time frame. Maybe i will check into it more and post something for analysis.

Your eye could still change in the next month or two while healing continues.

I'd suggest going to an optometrist about 3 months after the cataract surgery to get a precise Rx for comparison.

The auto-refractor used may give a reading off by 0.25-0.50D too.

Get a full refraction after the full healing period and after you have stopped using the Rx eyedrops, I found they affected my vision until I could stop using them a few months after surgery.

But as has been noted, an error up to 0.50D in either direction is possible with cataract surgery using standard IOLs. Thats one of the reasons the new type of IOL that is adjustable after surgery with UV light are becoming popular since they can be adjusted after eye healing to get an exact result unlike conventional IOL cataract surgery. Only option to adjust the eye Rx for conventional IOLs is with Lasik.

The lenses are not labelled with the target and there is no way they could be. They are labelled with their power. The same lens put into two different eyes will result in hitting two different targets. So, the lens maker doesn't know and doesn't need to know what target is sought for your eye. The lens maker just sends the power your surgeon calculated would be most likely to hit your target. One person might need +10D to achieve a -0.75 target and another person might need +20D or +25D to achieve the same target. Extremely myopic people (people with very long eyes) might even need a negative power IOL.

Machine refractions are not very accurate. They just give an approximate starting point, from which an optometrist or ophthalmologist can be begin to do a subject refraction -- asking you to read an eye chart while they try different spectacle lenses in front of your eye. Only that process can really tell you where you landed. If you have only done a machine refraction, you don't know where you landed.

One thing that can change during the course of the day -- an even from minute to minute -- and really affect your vision is the quality and quantity of the tear film on the eye. That's why a few blinks sometimes clears up what was fuzzy vision. Dry eyes and overly watery eyes do not see very sharply.

Another thing is that the IOLs only come in 0.5D steps, so there is always the possibility of that much error no matter how precise the measurements and computations are. Also the healing of the eye incision is unpredictable, it can induce a small change as well. In my case it introduced about 0.75D of astigmatism cylinder.