So....I went for a drive tonight with my new Symfony lens
Posted , 6 users are following.
And, oh my! Now I understand what everyone warned me about! It's day 6 after surgery and the starbursts on some of the headlights were HUGE! Then other lights were not so bad. God, I hope these subdue somewhat. I am also a bit scared now about the Synergy implant in the other eye.
Another issue I am having, and maybe someone here can help me to understand what's happening - I am feeling a bit sea sick in the car. I've driven some short distances this week when in the car and each time feel slightly unwell. It does feel sometimes like cars coming up behind me may hit me, so maybe my depth perception is off?
Other than the above, I am very happy with the lens as I can see at all distances in that eye - just today, I looked at my mobile and saw everything clearly!
0 likes, 13 replies
RonAKA Jennifer_Guess
Edited
Yes, halos and starbursts are the issues with the more aggressive EDOF (Symfony) and MF (Synergy) lenses. You can expect Synergy to be worse. I am not sure there is a physical reason for them to get better over time, but your brain probably can get used to dealing with the effects, and potentially ignore them to some degree.
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What are you using for vision correction in the unoperated eye? Correcting with the IOL in one eye and an eyeglass lens in the other can make you feel dizzy, based on my experience. A contact in the non operated eye may be better.
Jennifer_Guess RonAKA
Posted
Hi @RonAKA,
Thanks for the reply - you are always so helpful 😃
Okay, then maybe I stop driving at night then. I do teach a night class that starts at 4pm, so will need to end it a bit early - which I can do. If I have to drive, then I will make sure it's short ones on streets that I know.
With regard to my non-operated eye, I am wearing a contact lens - it is multifocal though and I have a cataract, so maybe it's causing off balance issues.
RonAKA Jennifer_Guess
Posted
Wearing a contact is probably the best you can do until you get the cataract surgery.
rwbil Jennifer_Guess
Posted
I have Tecnis MF in one eye and Synergy in the other and Synergy is slightly worse for dysphotopsias and I imagine it will be the same for you. In general, the greater the near add the larger the Halos.
Everyone is different, so maybe your halos and starburst are worse than mine or just bother you more than mine. I don’t know. I do know about one thing you mentioned. After having my left eye done and before getting my right eye done, which was worse than 20/200, driving at night was horrible and I experienced the same thing you did about not being able to judge distance. In my case it was when a car in front of me hit his brake lights. I could not tell if he was 1 mile in front of me or 10 feet in front of me and I found myself hitting my brakes.
I believe this was due to depth perception of only having 1 good eye.
Now in fairness I have not done a major amount of driving at night. What I have done is mostly short < 45 minute drives coming back from work, shopping or friends house on roads I am familiar with.
Yes I see huge halos and starburst from car headlights far away, but as the car gets closer they reduce in size. I see halos around the traffic lights and other lights. They vary based on color and intensity.
But in general it does not bother me or affect my ability to drive. Maybe if I was on a winding road or something, only time will tell. Now if when the car came closer it still had huge halos and starburst that might be another issue.
Here is what I do know and it will be my real night driving test. Prior to getting my right eye done, I could not take a long road trip whereby I had to drive more than 1 hour on highway or interstate. It was too stressful. Again I think a lot of this was due to depth perception, so we will see. I remember this summer coming back from Memphis, TN and planning to stay at a hotel past Birmingham, AL and I could not make it. They were doing massive road work on the expressway in Birmingham with lights blaring and people cutting in on me and I was pulling a trailer. I had to get off at the next exit and find a place to stay. So the next time I take that drive at night it will be my test to know if my night vision is better with 2 eyes.
Jennifer_Guess rwbil
Posted
@rwbil - that must have been so scary! I don't do well with road works in general and at night, doubly so! I am familiar with that area as I drive from South Carolina to Mississippi and go through Birmingham a few times a year - seems the road works are always going on there!
It was the same for me last night - the lights were only huge when far away - up close, no problem. I am having the perception issues with short day drives. I am driving 2.5 hours today to the city where my job is for the week and will see how it goes - hopefully ok!
john20510 Jennifer_Guess
Edited
There are glare glasses you can buy for night driving if you think they might help. l'm thinking of getting sympathy, do you only have problems with them at night? do you have any glare during the day, also how to you find the contrast and vision quality during day time, does your vision and colours and everything seem just and good and just as sharp as it was before you first developed cataracts .
Jennifer_Guess john20510
Posted
be @john20510 -
These are great questions. My husband had some night driving glasses in the car and I did try those out. They helped a bit with the road signs (even those had some sort of glow, ha ha). They kind of helped with the lights far off, but not much. Up close, the lights were not an issue though - just bright stars/halos, but nothing scary. The ones far away were huge though - like giant bursts driving down the road - I could see them a mile away!
I am a professor and spend a LOT of time on my computer and reading articles/books. The Symfony lens has changed my life in a way as before I had to blow up the text on my screen to a huge size and even then it was very blurry! And the size of my monitor is huge - so it has been a real treat to not have anything on my left eye (the one that just had the implant) and a contact in my right. The cataract in the right eye is not as severe, so I am seeing the screen now as I type this and this is just amazing to me!
I have been wearing progressive glasses/multifocal contacts for years, so I did not really have great sight to begin with...and I read on these forums that people who get these premium lenses and are unhappy are the ones who had 20/20 or better and then developed a cataract and then got these lenses and were unhappy. I never had 20/20 uncorrected (or at least not since I was 14 or so and I don't think I did before that either - just not tested) - so seeing leaves on trees and my computer has me quite happy at the moment!!!
I am having a couple of issues that I am going to ask about in my appoitment this week. One is that my sight, at times in the surgery eye, is still blurry!!! At others, it seems clear - so I am not sure why this is??? They also seem to get tired very easily and feel sleepy - but, I did not stop working except for the first two days and maybe this is healing? I also have somewhat of a glare in my peripheral vision at times and it comes and goes - they said this was normal, though, and that it is the lens settling in.
Overall, I am delighted. I hope the blurriness clears up. If it ends up that I cannot drive at night, to me the trade off of working seamlessly with computer, mobile phone and far makes it worth it. I hate driving anyway - I lived in Scotland for 14 years and never had to drive as Edinburgh is a pedestrian city.
All the best to you. - find a GOOD surgeon - I really think that is the best thing as you can get overwhelmed with all of the information online.
rwbil Jennifer_Guess
Posted
I see in your response your concern on night time driving, so I thought I would expand a bit on what I experience at night.
"the ones far away were huge though - like giant bursts driving down the road - I could see them a mile away!"
I too see this also. But being I have depth perception now I can tell it is a mile away. I will add the halos from the car's headlights stay on their side of the road and not cross into my side. So if the road has multiple lanes and their are several cars far away coming at me, I might not be able to clearly distinguish the cars from each other at a distance. Hopefully that imagery is clear, but it really does not make a difference in my ability to drive.
People ask does the dysphotopsias go away and I say no, but you get used to them after awhile and they become just normal part of night-time driving. At least it is for me. But if you stop and just look and think about it then you see the large halos and so forth.
Now would I prefer to drive with no dysphotopsias and be able to clearly distinguish cars driving at me from a distance, of course, but it is worth the tradeoff for me.
Also 90% of my driving is during the daytime. If a large part of ones driving is at time then they might think twice about a diffractive IOL.
If your halos and starburst are like mine I think in time as you do more night time driving it will also just become the norm and you will not think about it.
But another factor is the particular roads you drive on, as I was on this road with old timy city lights and I got big star burst off them. But again did not affect my ability to drive.
Jennifer_Guess rwbil
Posted
Hi @rwbil - thanks so much for the response. That makes me feel much better to know that I will become accustomed to seeing them. My drive over during the day yesterday to where I work for the week (2.5 hours) went well. I actually saw so much and felt safer as I was seeing so well on the way over. The sea sick issue seems to have passed so maybe I am adjusting.
On another note, I have a small studio apartment in the town where I work and therefore the kitchen is in the same big room as my bed. I therefore looked around once the lights were out as normal. What I saw was circular rings around every light - stove, tv, etc. I guess I missed this last week as we do not have any electronics in our bed room and I only am in lighted rooms the rest of the day. I would describe the rings on these regular lights as kind of cool and not a distraction. They just glow in a different way!
rwbil Jennifer_Guess
Posted
When I first got Synergy I noticed halos around indoor lights. I was a bit surprised just how big the halo was around my chandelier. I no longer do the cover 1 eye thing so I just now went and checked it again and bilaterally I don’t notice anything or very small halos, same for MF but still get a large halo with Synergy, though it is very thin slight halo. So if one had 2 Synergy IOLs the halos might be worse. Again I think halos get worse the stronger the close add gets.
One very important factor that you mentioned is people that had nearly perfect vision prior to cataract surgery. They compare their vision pre and post-surgery. I certainly understand that, but there is nothing that will give you as great vision as the natural lens and it is about getting the best vision you can over your cataract vision.
Right now I can live glass free virtually all the time. The only time I need to wear glasses is if I am doing serious up close reading and I frankly I could do it without glasses.
So does that mean I suffer from contrast loss, Yes. Does that mean I don’t see as well at night, Yes, Does that mean I get dysphotopsias, Yes. But for me it is worth it. Everyone has to make their own decision. I just wish the doctors made this clear and showed every patient simulation and not make false promises to the patient. That way the patient can make an informed decision.
Sue.An2 Jennifer_Guess
Posted
Hi - yes those huge concentric circles will always be there although I did find the glare subsided after several months. I had a bit of side glare too from light sources initially that we t away completely. Mainly I see big concentric circles - 3 years post surgery with outer rings faint and inner ones more vibrant. These get smaller as I approach light (ie red traffic lights). In the beginning weeks was very hard to drive at night. Used to drive with inside dome light on to keep my pupils from fully dilating. Believe it or not now I jump in the car at night without a 2nd thought. I guess one adapts. I still see the circles but they don't bother me like they use to. More bothersome are the new bright white headlights / they bugged me prior to surgery too.
Jennifer_Guess Sue.An2
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Thanks for sharing @Sue.An2. I hope it's the same for me. I also saw the new lights on our drive out - they were very distracting.
Sue.An2 Jennifer_Guess
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It is very odd to see these. There was little know about the concentric circles at the time -Symfony was new when I got them. My cataracts were bad though so the loss of contrast and glare I had with cataracts didn't make for great night time driving either. For some the concentric circles are so annoying they want to exchange this IOL. Reason surgeons should have full conversations and let patient decide. Also very crucial the surgeon nails the power calculation so that day time vision is worth trade off.