Post cataract operation

I had it done 2 years ago and I had my eye tested the back of eye is fine I might have to sea my eye doctor 

I had a second opinion after you suggested this to me,the Ophthalmologist who check my eyes ,told me the lens was fine and I definatly should proceed with the YAG treatment.I told him ,what if the lens needs to be replaced,is question to me was why would you wanted it replaced,it looks centered and the cloudiness should be removed.Like I mentioned in a previous post ,I went ahead with the treatment,still have issue with blurriness and double vision.

I am scheduled to see him for the first time tomorrow,audacious to see what he as to say since the treatment,because I don't feel, I will be able to read the eye chart any better, if not worst than I did prior to the YAG treatment.I will let you know the results of my visit.      

Yea freeman please keep us informed. I have been told the same thing and not trusting the dr at this point. 3 different oil surgeries and still less than 20/40 results. I have to wait until end of July for second opinion/ yag surgery then lasik 

Yes will be interested in doctor’s feedback to you.   

Just curious did you ever have clear crisp vision in that eye following cataract surgery?  If not then I think do tor’s should not jump to conclusion a YAG is needed.   Due to the lens exchange issue I believe onus is on the doctor to explore all other possible explanations for blurred vision.   Supposedly they should be able to tell upon examination but due to experiences of people like Dealbreaker where it is fault lens that clouded vs capsule the YAG is pretty much sentencing the patient to ongoing blurred vision for life unless there are surgeons skilled enough to do s lens exchange after YAG.

Best wishes Freeman.  Write down your questions- helps when you are there.  I sometimes draw a blank and can’t recall everything I want to ask.

When did you have your original cataract surgery? How soon after your original surgery did the blurriness begin? And when did you have the YAG treatment? Sorry for all these questions I'm throwing at you but your situation seems very close to what I've experienced in trying to ascertain if the timing is close similar. You did say you got a second opinion regarding the reasons for the blurriness or am I mistaken? Do you or did you suffer from dry eyes immediately after both procedures, (cataract removal and YAG)? I appreciate any information you can share with me.

My Doctors /opthalmologists determined my cloudiness to be PCO, something quite common with intraocular lenses. The Consultant didn't hesitate in using yag and here I am still no improvement. I think it's important to spread awareness about this - being forewarned is forearmed. Apparently, yag further complicates future surgery to replace the lens. Please let me know how you get on with your latest appointment.

Hi sorry this might be a duplicate as I seemed to have lost my original post.

I'm dealing with this issue as well, can you please tell me when you had your original cataract surgery and how soon after that did your surgeon determine that you had PCO and also when did you have the YAG procedure done?

Did you have double vision as well as blurriness? Has anything gotten better?

I was told yesterday at my appointment that I had mild cloudiness PCO, nothing mild about this situation. I told my doctors that this condition wasn't getting better in fact it was getting worse and it's been 4 months since my first surgery and 3 months since my second surgery. I have been referred to a retina specialist by my doctors to rule out some other unmentioned conditions. The appointment is for tomorrow so that very quick. Whike i was at the doctor office I went through more test taking two different types of pictures of both eyes , the doctors seem to agree that the results looked good but the retina specialist appt has me a bit worried.

Salty0 - I am sure dealbreaker will respond but although his surgeon who examined his eye diagnosed it as PCO and performed a YAG it was not PCO but faulty lens that clouded.  If you google Oculentis MUs lenses and lawsuit you’ll read that the company has a class action lawsuit against them.  In many cases these lenses clouded years after they were implanted.  Very tough on the patients - especially since YAG performed and left wondering what their options are.

Take away for me is to hold off on any YAG treatment unless I have to and confirmation that it is the capsule that clouded.   

Hi again, I think if you click on my username you might find my original posts. If you can't I will write again tomorrow from my laptop, it's just a bit more challenging to type so much on my phone. Long story short, I got Refractive Lens Exchange done in 2011, I was delighted with the result until last September (2017) when I developed this fog in my left eye. The Doctors mistook it for PCO and one of them performed yag which complicates things even further. I was in the dark about until after coming on here and connecting with Sue Ann I soon realised that it was a possible faulty lens. I have the oculentis mf30 implanted in both eyes. Also, I don't have any other symptoms apart from this fog in my left eye, it affects me terribly in certain light situations. I now tend to close it a lot as it distorts the vision in my other naturally weaker eye. Hope this helps, but as I say, click on my username and you should be able to read my full story.

I think I might have read his original post because that was one of the questions I put my doctor yesterday. Was this condition with my eyes definitely PCO or could it be defective lenses or something growing on the lenses not the membrane. They looked at me as if I was coming from a different planet. Their response was this was a " mild" cloudy membranes but then again it off to the retina specialist tomorrow so I'm not sure really what's up yet!

Sorry, I've read so many pist on this site over the months that I been chasing down information that some of it gets confabulated . I do remember after Sue posted that yours was the information that I made note of and specifically asked my doctors if I could be experiencing this issue they seemed adamant that it's PCO with the referral to the retina specialist to rule out some unknown issues. Tomorrow i see the specialist. Thanks for all your help.

Hi Salty

I had the Right eye done approx.10 weeks ago,it was 3 weeks after that when he scheduled me for the left eye.I had my follow up the day after surgery,which at that times I could read all of the eye chart right down to the second last line,at that time the surgeon said I was one line away from 20/20 vision,it was only 3 days after surgery when the cloudiness appeared,with double vision at times.I thought it was because of the drops I was taking and thought it would go away.

Three weeks later I go to him for the scheduling of my left.The following Friday I had surgery,low and behold come Saturday when I woke up I saw this dark shadow/rim in the corner of my eye.I called the emergency number they gave me if for any reason I had complications.I contacted the number and was told to drop by the Hospital (eye section) to have it checked out.They didn't find any problem with the retina etc,but did acknowledge the back of the lens being cloudy like my right eye.which I became very upset and disappointed on have this surgery from the beginning,not knowing I was going to have those issues.(a simple procedure I was told).

My follow up to see the surgeon was the following Tuesday,I arrived at the clinic,we through the eye chart procedure and the best I could read with both eyes was just two lines.Once my eyes were dilated for 20 minutes ,the surgeon called me in.His first question me was how are you doing?I responded not very good,my left eye has this black shadow/rim,in the corner of my eye.He responded by saying this can happen after Cataract surgery and should go away after four months ,once the brain adjust to the lens.

At that time he told me it should go away in 4 months.and set up an appointment to have YAG performed on my Right eye ,which would be 2 weeks come Friday.The first two days it burned /singed a bet,bit I though that would be the case after bouncing lazier shots of my eye.Afther that settled down I couldn't see any better than before the YAG treatment ,only now words were double at times while watching TV. etc.

Today I saw the surgeon for the first time since YAG.Again he ask how I was doing,which I responded not good.He check my eyes and said they look find ,I said fine,I can only read two lines on the chart and they are still cloudy.His response was to see my regular eye specialists and get my reading glasses upgraded to glass to be wearing all the time.I ask him about my left regarding the cloudiness in and he said if it's driving you nuts you should have it done.(I was not to impressed by this remark). Like I told him the left eye is worst than the right eye and you tell me it's fine,after he told me 4 weeks ago it was cloudy.

I have lost faith in this guy,now I have to live with the consequences.I next appointment will be with my regular eye specialists to see what he as to say.

Sorry about the long drawn out explanation,but it was the only way to explain to you what has taken place from the beginning to present.

I hope you had better news on your visit to the eye doctor.     

Your circumstances are a carbon copy of mine, I could have written your post except for the YAG treatment. I too had surgeries one month apart and I too was pleased with the results of the first surgery (toric lense) on my left dominant eye which had significant astigmatism. I couldn't believe the results, I was able to read without glasses and see distance well. Eye (2) a month later standard lense was implanted then a different story emerged. My eyes started to burn three week after the second surgery both eyes. Then I started to feel like I was looking through binoculars, which you refer to as a shadow in the corner of your eyes, it's the same thing and other have mentioned this issue. It has to do with the size of the replacement lense which is half the size of our natural lense 12mm vs 6mm. Like you I've been told my brain will adapt. I can live with this issue if my brain doesn't adapt but this PCO and double vision is life changing and needs to be fixed. Like you none of these issues were made clear to me and like you I've lost all confidence in these bozos with illustrious degrees from all sorts of Ivy league Universities. I'm hoping for some clarification from the Retina Specialist that I've been referred to, I see them tomorrow for more tests, I guess. I sure hope things get better for you. Did you have your surgery in the US or elsewhere? It seems to me that alot of people on this forum who are very well informed are from Europe and Canada. I think personally that physicians in the US have put this type of surgery on par with a doctor's office visit to remove mole or pull a splinter very, very ordinary. Good luck with your search for help. I will continue to post here about the results of my own search for help.

Salty0 can’t speak for Europe but canada’s Medicare is slow as molasses!!!  Loads of time to research online.  I need to see an ENT for an issue and was told in March 18 month wait.

Seriously I think lasik clinics have driven market to where it is like you say removing a mole or splinter.  Cannot believe they operate in eyes same day.  Some of my colleagues had it done several years ago and now just started with needing readers - they aren’t happy with off and on with 2 sets - computer and paperwork or progressives.  So now you have these lasik clinics selling them on PresbyVision ‘we can now fix your vision for all distances.’  I have warned people in my office against it.  They don’t really understand it is cataract surgery without the cataract or the compromises one needs to make or that it isn’t always going to work out right.  Clinic gets your money and try and get them to fix it if it goes south!

You're right, we are a target market now that's where health care has gone in the 21 century. It's a multi billion dollar industry with a lot of different facets , Government, Insurance companies both private and publicly held as well as big pharma all of them will have every one us in their debt sooner or later it's like something out of a bad science fiction story, what's going on in my country and they can't seem to fix it.

Each had its pros and cons.   Our system has many flaws too.  Reason why everyone should get info and not just have blind faith in the system or any doctor.

Hi Salty

I had my eyes done here in Canada,it looks like they are not much better here than where you are.I just wish I would have done more research ,or finding this site before I went ahead and had the cataract surgery.The biggest mistake I have made in my whole,to have this done,I thought it was a simply procedure ,not knowing it was going to be a life changing ordeal for me. 

It's to late now the damage is done and I have to live with the consequences.I feel sorry for all the people that have outcomes like ours,when I was having surgery we were lined up like cattle and they push you through in 30 minutes,that's all the time that was allowed,so if they were behind on their appointments you got the short end of the stick,with with a very life changing  outcome experience.

I guess when they say blind as a Bat,that pretty much sums up my experience with having this cataract surgery performed,defiantly not what I expected.   

Hi Freeman, don't feel bad here in the states where we are supposed to be the leader in healthcare this surgery is considered by everyone to be a simple out-patient procedure and nothing to worry about it even give a second thought. Like you I found all these caveats after the fact. " Let the buyer beware" and that's what we are buyers of services. Like you too late for me to backtrack now what's done is done and I'm going to deal with it the best I can. Fortunately, I found this site before any other procedures were done and now I'm asking the right questy. Interesting to note my doctors seemed a little put off by my questions using the terms I learned here, like PCO and YAG , plus the fact that I now know doing a YAG procedure is a final solution that by it's very nature precludes changing out lenses. I think that's why they are dealing with me with an abundance of caution, a little knowledge goes a long way. Speaking of caution , I went to see the retina specialist who was a cheerleader for them , both Ivy league Universities graduates one Harvard Medical and the other who is head of the practice who's daughter operated on me is Duke. The opinion of the specialist is that a all is well with the back of my eyes , retina, optic nerve, cornea and macular. So everything has to do with the front of the eye which is the area of expertise of my surgeon's practice so it's back to square one for me. I googled side effects of the steroids I took and wouldn't you know it, it correlates exactly 2 the effects I am now feeling and started to feel within a month of the initial surgeries. Really go ahead and google side effects steroid eye drops. They say "they" being the pharmaceutical company that puts out the drops that these side effects are rare, yeah right? I know you were told something else but did they even consider your situation as possible having to do with a reaction to these steroids? I hope things work out for you and that you find a doctor who can help you solve the issues because I know exactly what it is you're going through and it's not pleasant, I would say more but moderator might not like my language.

Salty0 / Freeman

Can’t say enough how sorry I am for both your experiences and frustrations you both are going through.  Yes the moderator only allows so much - lol.

I can relate tonlined up like cattle - I am Canadian too.  Surgeon must do 25 or 30 of these procedures a day.   I just didn’t want to be first or last!  2nd eye I did go first .  Man ahead of me was having trouble with dialation drops so I was pushed to front of the line.  I made sure to ask my surgeon if he had his morning coffee!

I have started commenting on FB on those sponsored ads for PresbyVision warning people to do their research.   My comments often get taken down.

Salty0 - keep asking questions- hopefully one of them will prove an answer.

Excellent suggest about write things down, Sue.An. It's funny how we often miss things that are obvious!

Yes used that myself in my recent follow up consultation with the retina specialist

Good Morning Salty,no the surgeon who did my eyes didn't mentioned anything about side effects.The prescription indicated to take one type of antibiotic drops for one week ,four times a day,and the other steroid drop for three weeks at 4 times a day and then stop ,which I did.Mabye I should have stopped earlier than what the prescription indicated.

It's good to know that the back of your eye is fine.and hopefully they can correct the front,I will Google Steroid side effects,I assume it wasn't good when the prescription indicated ,stop once the three weeks had elapsed.

I don't think there is any more they can do for me now,I will be seeing my regular eye doctor soon to get his opinion and have my reading glasses upgraded to full-time glasses,not something I expected after paying for lens,to correct the problem.

Take care and good luck.