Opinions on Cataract Surgeon Experience

Hello, I am new here and in fact stumbled across this website when I was googling about my cataract surgery results. I'd like to share my experience to get some feedback from you. I will try to be as objective as possible.

1.) I am 52 and highly myopic. About -10 dipoters in the right eye and about -10 in the left with -3 astigmatism in the left eye as well.

2.) I had retinal detachments in both eyes in my early 20s but have had scleral buckles in both eyes and haven't had any retinal troubles since. Every retinal surgeon I've had has mentioned how well the original surgeon had attached the buckles and how unlikely I will ever have trouble with retinal detachments in my life.

4.) I had a posterior vitreous detachment in my left eye about 3 years ago that resulted in a huge Weiss ring in my central vision. My retinal surgeon performed a vitrectomy and cleared that all up nicely.

5.) I also had a posterior vitreous detachment in my right eye which didn't require a vitrectomy.

6.) I have always worn glasses and soft contact lenses both throughout my life.

7.) I found it harder and harder to see out of my left eye and my retinal surgeon determined that I had a big cataract forming probably due to my high myopia and all of the surgeries I had to it.

8.) According to the retinal surgeon I also have a small cataract forming in my right eye as well although it doesn't bother me.

9.) The retinal surgeon referred me to a cataract surgeon to have my cataracts removed.

10.) After going through extensive tests at the cataract surgeon's office the assistant doctor (not the surgeon) and I thought it might be best to set my left eye for intermediate vision and my right eye to distance vision. She also thought it made more sense to get a toric lens for both eyes even though I only had a little bit of astigmatism in the right eye. But she said she wouldn't recommend the multifocals due to the halo/glare issues nor would she recommend the Crystallens/Trulign family as they were twice the price and I the modified monovision I was going to get would have similar results.

11.)So I paid for the cheaper Toric lens and not the Crystallens/Trulign.

12.) When the doctor examined me he was very brusque and kind of rude actually. Out of the blue he made a comment how my scleral buckles could break any time and that my eyes were a real challenge for him to get the prescription right, etc. I didn't know what to say especially about the buckle comment but it bothered me.

13.) The plan was to do the left eye first and then the right eye a week later.

14.) In surgery as he was cutting in my eye, he started yelling at his nurse about how she is not keeping up with inventory or something and made her apologize to him as she was irrigating me. This also bothered me.

15.) In recovery they gave me the box for the lens they implanted and it was in fact the Trulign lens (even though I picked and paid for the normal Toric lens).

16.) I did research and found out that the Trulign lens is made of silicone which is not recommended for patients with retinal history due to a contraindication with silicone oil used in some retinal detachment surgeries. This is the same guy who out of the blue shared how my buckles might just break someday.

17.) I then started to have edge glare issue coming in from the left side of my face.

18.) Now here is me getting paranoid. But I started to wonder if the inventory issue that he was yelling at the nurse about had to do with my Toric lens not being available so he sacrificed one of his more expensive lenses to get me out the door. I also wonder if the Toric lens diameter was not correct for my pupil size since I've heard this can cause edge glare. However, the resulting acuity of the prescription is perfect!!!

19.) The box did have my name on it with prescription so it does look like it was purposely ordered and not just thrown in at the last second.

20.) Today I went back for my post-op follow up. Everything looked fine and I'm healing well. My visual acuity is right where it should be.

21.) I asked the doctor about the edge glare and he gave an "ahh crap" look on his face and just said "can you live with it?" He said that we don't want to do any more work in that eye and that the bag is loose and the sky is falling kind of negativity that he seems to have. I didn't get a straight answer whether the edge glare will go away or what other risks he was talking about. Especially since he never told me of any such risks before he did the surgery. He just made it sound like the scleral buckles are doomed to fail at some point and all the structures in the front are loose and I guess just plain awful.

22.) I then asked the doctor about why he used the Trulign lens when I had picked and paid for the cheaper one. He made it sound like he did me a favor and that he felt I could use the accommodation especially since I'm only in my 50s and not 70s. He now said that "I gotta live life" and I can't wear an inferior lens because of the possibility someday of having a retinal detachment that required silicone oil. WHAT?? Mr. YourScleralBucklesMayBreak is suddenly optimistic.

23.) I then asked what we should put in the right eye and he said Crystallens since I don't need a Toric but but then went on to say that he will give me a good deal on it so I won't have to pay full price. But that I should have these accommodating lenses because they are better for my situation.

24.) After talking about how my eye structures were really loose and I may have problems in the future (I guess along with my scleral buckles snapping), I asked if it's wise to even do the cataract surgery in my right eye since I can see with them very clearly (with contacts).

25.) He agreed and immediately canceled my surgery and honestly I was kind of relieved.

26.) I won't be able to wear glasses now that 1 eye is -10 diopters and the other eye sees 20/20 intermediate (magnification differential is huge). So I will always have to put a contact lens in my right eye to function.

27.) The doctor did do a good job getting the prescription correct and it is healing fine however....

Questions:

1.) Is it realistic for me to not have the other cataract surgery so that I will have to wear a contact but cannot wear glasses. It's kind of awkward but I do see good with the contact lens in.

2.) I read that the Trulign silicone lenses are not known for having edge glare issues. Do you think the doctor put a lens in with the wrong pupil size?

3.) He made me feel like my eye is going to fall apart either from the back or the front. Do you think he is right?

4.) Did he pull a bait and switch on me?

5.) The Trulign lenses have other unique risks like the accommodation getting stuck in a certain position. Shouldn't I have known these risks and agreed to them before he just decided to put one in for me?

6.) Do you think that he did have my interest in mind when he put the Trulign accommodating lens in or do you think it was a mistake that he didn't want to own up to?

Well anyway that was my experience today and honestly I feel pretty horrible. I'm not sure if he was actually acting in my best interest but just had a really terrible bedside manner or if he was a bit lazy and didn't want to address my edge glare issues cautioning me to not have anything else done to my eye. Or worse that he was kind of a shyster con-man as well.I'm curious what you guys think.

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