Regrets - synergy lens
Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I had clear lens exchange performed a few weeks ago - Synergy toric both eyes.
They unfortunately missed the mark and I'm nearsighted, off by approx. 0.5
It's very bothersome as faces, signs, buildings are very blurry outside.
Near vision is great, although not worth it considering the halos day and night without the benefit of clear distance vision.
For those of you in a similar position, did you opt for lens exchange? I'm seeing the surgeon in a few weeks. So far the optometrist said he'd likely offer LASIK or a smile procedure. It doesn't sit well with me knowing that the lens is off. I also have PCO on both sides and have noticed haziness over the last week or so. I understand some posters on here do not support clear lens exchange but I'm in too deep at this point and would love to hear similar experiences to give me some hope and direction. I'm considering going to Austin to see Dr. Shannon Wong as I've researched (albeit too late) more about Synergy vs. Panoptix. Thanks for reading!
0 likes, 7 replies
007Bond michelle1219
Edited
Sorry to hear this I wish you the best.
But wow if you have only had this done a few weeks ago I think it is way to early to consider anything yet.
Do agree no matter what get the best Dr possible and as for Dr Shannon Wong I have watched many of his videos he seems really good.
Myself I went with the Panoptix and I can tell you vision more so distance did not dial in until a few weeks after I stopped the drops so about 6-7 weeks. If you are really at just 2 weeks, I would be leery of any Dr offing any procedure until some time has passed.
But if after some time and a consult with a good Dr you are still off Lasik is an option that all the paperwork I signed said may be needed to have 20/20 if the mark is missed. But agree I would not want to have to do that unless there was no other good options.
My advice is wait till your eye is fully healed and that takes way more than a few weeks like months.
Oh and you have to give the halos some time to see if you adjust took months for me. I think you have to wait at the very least 6 months before doing anything like exchange or lasik.
avidpsychlist 007Bond
Posted
I think most of this makes sense, though if one is in a situation where an exchange is needed, it seems like most surgeons recommend doing that sooner than later. I have an appointment around the 5 week mark to discuss options for a hyperopic miss and that timeline was recommended by my surgeon as it is as soon as possible but after the lens has hopefully stabilized.
michelle1219
Edited
Thanks for your response! I'm still using the drops over the next week. My concern was finding out about the residual refractive error on my eye exam earlier today. I thought that meant they were off on the calculations. Did your eye exams show improvement over the first few months? Prior to surgery I was farsighted with presbyopia. It's really bothering me that I'm now nearsighted and even large signs look blurry. I'd rather not have further surgery but understand that after YAG an exchange would be near impossible and feel pressured to decide if these lenses are acceptable in the long term. I read about PCO and am so disappointed it developed within 3 weeks of my surgery. Thanks for your reply. I thought that exchange should be done 4-6 weeks post-op, so this takes the pressure off a little!
007Bond michelle1219
Edited
Me personally I saw improvements all the way up to the six month mark where I tested out at 20/20. So yes my test results continuously improved over the course of time. Initially for the first few months I was concerned about the clarity of road signs at a distance.
Yes I read that after you have the YAG procedure exchange becomes more difficult. It seems whenever you have problems there's pros and cons just like there is when you pick your IOL and it's never easy to make a decision. I still think since you're only at a few weeks you gotta give it some more time.
I think Ron is right and after some time if you decide to get Lasik maybe do one eye to see how things go. I did one Panoptix over six months ago and then the second one after I was satisfied in six months. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with putting some time between these big decisions.
As for exchanging your Synergy to PanOptix after watching many videos I'm not convinced that that will help you much. The two lenses are very similar I do know there's that one video where that doctor in Texas exchanged it for his nurse and she had remarkable improvements however I think that's not the norm. Also she had some very unusual problems that I don't think I've ever read about before. In reference to the Halos or I really call them spider webs for most people including myself they just go away in time. So I definitely wouldn't recommend switching the Synergy to PanOptix to eliminate Halos.
One of the things that I learned to more quickly ignore the starburst halos is to simply look at what's clear. You really only see starbursts and halos when you are looking directly at lights. Normally before I had any operations on my eyes I never looked directly into lights I looked at the surroundings that the lights were illuminating. But for some reason once we get a multifocal lens everyone seems to look directly at the lights and focus on the starburst and halos. So simply going back to what you did before and looking at the surrounding area and not looking directly at the lights solves probably 80 plus percent of the problem.
I still think you have a few to several weeks to wait before you can really make an informed decision as your eyes heal and your vision settles in to what it will really be when everything is healed.
RonAKA michelle1219
Edited
You were fortunate that the refractive surprise left you myopic. Lasik is quite effective in making small corrections to bring you to plano. If you were left far sighted then it would be much more difficult to do Lasik that would last.
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One thing you might want to consider is to only correct the dominant eye to plano with Lasik. You will likely lose a bit of near vision with the correction, so if you leave the other eye as is, then it will allow you to retain nearer combined vision.
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Not much you can do about the halos other than hope you can adapt to having them and over time ignore it.
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I would not recommend an exchange from Synergy to PanOptix. The PanOptix has all the same issues as the Synergy. If anything it has poorer near vision, but still with the same halos and spider web issues. An exchange would be a last resort option. In that case I would suggest the lowest risk option would be to do mini-monovision with monofocal lenses.
michelle1219
Posted
Thanks for your responses. I also hope my vision improves and would prefer to avoid further surgery.
I'm having a hard time interpreting my eyeglass prescription.
Pre-op
OD +1.75, near add +1.25
OS +1.75, near add +1.25, cylinder -0.5, axis 085
Post-op
OD -0.75 DS
OS -0.50 +0.25 x142
Can anyone tell if the astigmatism is now worse in my left eye? Also, does it seem unusual that a toric was placed on my right side if my eyeglass prescription didn't require astigmatism correction? Before I became contact lens intolerant, I did not wear toric lenses.
Thanks again. Great source of info in this group!
jimluck michelle1219
Posted
Off by 0.5 ain't much. Do you mean your refraction is -0.5? That would not account for blurriness reading large signs in the distance, in my opinion. I intentionally have my everyday glasses done with -0.75 under-correction, so that I have intermediate and distance in one monofocal set of lenses. Signs in the distance are no problem for me. I have fully-correcting glasses also, but I leave them by the TV and in the car and almost never use them, not even for driving and TV watching, because 0.75 d of myopia is no big deal to me.
I think it's the drops and other immediate post-surgery issues. I suggest just giving it some time.
If possible, get -0.5 lenses and look through them, just to see if compensating for that half diopter would give you the sharpness you are looking for. I think you'll find the difference is minor. Amazon sells cheap distance glasses at -0.5d power. (Fullwosing myopia glasses - $23.99) Not suggesting this as a solution, but rather as an experiment to gather information.