Posted , 14 users are following.
I am 62 years with a more dense cataract in my right eye than the left. I am managing all activities with glasses. No blurriness with prescription glasses. I have had mono vision all my life with very small numbers in both eyes. Since 3 years I have started seeing starbursts while driving at night without glasses and my vision got blurry gradually. My right eye is near sighted and left eye seems to be the dominant eye. I work on computer for 5-6 hours a day. I can read the screen but I am more comfortable with glasses.
I saw many eye doctors and they suggested mono focal or Symfony lens. Recently I found a very good eye surgeon in my area that says he can give me whatever type of lenses I want. He offers mono vision or mini-mono vision as well as all types of multi focal options. He said I have very little astigmatism and do not need correction at this time.
I have blocked a date with him 3 weeks later for mono focal IOLs in both eyes. He will use a technology to measure my power during surgery and can give precise number. However he said with mini mono vision my right eye will read cell phone screen but I will need readers for very small print.
First he is doing my right eye for near vision with mono focal. I am thinking of asking him to do a mix and match for me. Do a perfect near vision for my right eye first. My left eye has distance vision with less dense cataract. Not enough to watch TV or drive without prescription glasses. I may use glasses until my right eye surgery is done. I am wondering if I should stick to mini mono vision with a mono focal in both eyes or get a Symfony lens for my left eye (or right eye?) and mono focal for the other eye. My objective is to get all three zones by combining the abilities of two types of lenses. I believe Symfony lens does not provide very good near vision. Therefore, considering mono focal in one eye. Which eye should I do first?
I read this forum posts and have educated myself on all terminologies but I am not able to communicate that to my doctor or here very well. I am afraid he will think I am trying to tell him how to do his work. Any advice? Thoughts?
1 like, 47 replies
Sue.An anu1942
Posted
Comments from others are all great so won’t be able to add much else. I will say that like you the cataract was worse in my right eye than left and thought my left eye was dominant. After both surgeries turns out it is my right eye that is dominant. Often the eye that sees best at certain distances takes over and becomes the dominant eye. All to say that given you see distance better with your left and cataract isn’t as bad in that eye it may be taking over as your dominant eye right now.
I wish you all the best for your surgery. I had both eyes done just over a year ago with Symfony lenses.
Night-Hawk anu1942
Posted
Your example of a monofocal IOL for near in one eye and a Symfony IOL in the other eye for distance+intermediate focus, is a decent option. However you would have monovision for all focus distances, though you could wear glasses to correct the near focus eye in some circumstances like for driving to get good distance stereovision when needed. Indoors that combo might work well glasses free.
That assumes both your eyes end up close to the target, but its possible you might end up with some residual astigmatism or the power a little off due to variabiliities involved that can't be predicted. Ending up glasses free is never guaranteed with cataract surgery unfortunately.
I myself had a cataract in my right eye that got bad enough that could not correct my distance vision to better than 20/50 or so, though my left eye has only an early stage cataract that does not affect its vision yet. So I did cataract surgery 10 months ago only for my right eye and went with a toric monofocal since that eye had significant astigmatism (too high for even the Symfony toric version) and it was targeted for distance focus. The result was very close for the power (near plano) but I have residual astigmatism of about 1D probably just due to how the incision healed which is unpredictable. I get about 20/25-20/30 uncorrected in that eye which is pretty good but not as good as can be if I correct with glasses. My plan for my left eye when it needs surgery in a few years, is either a Symfony toric IOL to get good distance and intermediate - I don't mind reading glasses for fine print since the Symfony should be good enough to read a computer screen and smartphone which is most of my reading. An alternative would be another toric monofocal IOL for the left eye for a mini-monovision to get intermedate focus in that eye, but Symfony would offer a better alternative.
Of course, the Symfony IOLs have issues with night vision artifacts - so its best if you don't do very much night driving. Though mixing a Symfony in one eye with a monofocal in the other eye may reduce the night artifacts (circles around some lights, etc) somewhat. I do very little night driving nowadays, so I would accept that tradeoff personally for a wider focus range daytime and indoors. But that choice would vary individually.
phyllis31515 anu1942
Posted
i had cataract surgery on my right eye on August 13, and my left eye (yesterday) September 13. My right eye has a Symfony Lens and my left eye a Symfony Toric Lens. I can tell you that I have not put on a pair of glasses since the morning of August 13. I could see at all three distances without glasses after my right eye was done. I am super happy with the Symfony Lens. I can read the newspaper, my phone, my computer and see the beautiful mountains and read the road signs. I am typing this message just a few hours after the patch was removed from my left eye. I do not do a lot of night time driving. Maybe only a couple of nights a week. Before my first surgery, I saw blurry circles around the oncoming headlights. Now I see well defined lines going away from the lights (similar to a simple drawing of the sun). They have not bothered me. I am very thankful for what I now consider crystal clear vision at all distances without glasses.
jamie76421 phyllis31515
Posted
dennis39810 phyllis31515
Posted
PERFECT!... new eyes are great after all these years... the other body parts have to keep up. Glad for you & enjoy your new eyes,
jackie74804 phyllis31515
Posted
phyllis31515 jackie74804
Posted
i am still doing great. My vision at all distances is very good. I have an appointment this Friday with my ophthalmologist. I did have an issue with my second surgery/left eye that I did not experience with my first surgery. The day after my surgery when the eye covering was removed, the lower portion of the white part of my eye was bloodshot. I understand this is fairly common. Over the next couple of days the red area spread somewhat. It is slowly clearing up, and it has not affected by clear vision at all. I am very happy with the results and the clear vision I now have with the Symfony lenses.
Sue.An phyllis31515
Posted
JoanneinCA phyllis31515
Posted
phyllis31515 JoanneinCA
Posted
The redness has all cleared up. I saw my doctor/surgeon today, and he said it was caused by the anesthesia. He was very pleased with the way my eyes are healing. I continue to be amazed with the clarity I am experiencing at all distances. I am very thankful for my doctor and for the Symfony Lens.
jackie74804 phyllis31515
Posted
Thanks . May I ask you if u had a local or general anesthetic? If local were u scared when the cataract is removed is vision lost. I am scared of that and of being unable to cope. Is vision restored immediately the lens is inserted. Sorry if questions seen silly. xxo
Sue.An jackie74804
Posted
hi Jackie. I live in Canada and just had a local asesthetic (vial of numbing drips poured into eye being operated on). Was awake for procedure. I didn't feel anything except slight pressure. It was done in less than 10 min. during procedure was asked to keep looking at lights above (looked like 3 little reddish lights in triangle shape). Nothing went dark during procedure. The eye is dilated prior to the procedure so nothing is in focus. After procedure a plastic eye guard is taped over the eye and was on the eye for a couple of hours - after that instructed to wear it overnight to protect the eye for a week. My vision cleared gradually that day and by next morning it was clear. I was amazed by brightness colors and the fact I didn't have to reach for glasses to see what time it was.
Honestly going to the dentist is more painful. But I can relate as I was shaking like a leaf. normal I guess - not something one experiences and I was young for cataracts. My parents in their 70s haven't needed it dine yet. So thankful for these forums to ask questions as I had no one I could chat with that had gone through this. Good luck to you.
phyllis31515 jackie74804
Posted
HI Jackie,
First the nurse put several numbing drops in my eye. Then the anesthesiologist came in and put me to sleep for about 5 minutes, while he administered the eye numbing shot. I woke up and was groggy, and was then taken into the operating room. I was awake during the actual surgery, but there was no pain at all. My doctor inserted clamps to keep my eye open, and he was very good at explaining what he was doing during each step of the surgery. The surgery took less than 15 minutes. My doctor put an eye patch over the eye and I was to keep it on until my appointment with him the next day. when he was removed, my vision was quite clear right away, but became even clearer as my eye healed. The eye drops that you use will cause dryness so your vision can fluctuate during this time. I have the SYMPHONY lense and my vision is great and the surgery was painless.
anu1942
Posted
To refresh let me give my current prescription details here. OD: Sphere: -2.50 Cylinder: -0.75 Axis: 172 Add: +2.75 and OS: Sphere: -1.0 Cylinder: -0.75 Axis: 017 Add: +2.75.
I know that I may still have mono vision since the left eye does not have great distance and intermediate but I am okay with that until I decide about removing cataract from the left eye.
Night-Hawk anu1942
Posted
Your left eye at -1D should be pretty good for intermediate focus like a computer monitor say 3feet away. So combined with a monofocal set for good distance focus in your right eye would give nice mini-monovision.
A Symfony IOL for your right eye could be set to give you good distance as well as good intermediate and maybe enough near focus for smartphone use with your left eye helping out a bit since its right in the middle of the Symfony's focus range. So that sounds like a good option too.
Best of luck!
JoanneinCA anu1942
Posted
I’m having my left eye done around the end of Nov and have the same decision to make as you do. I had been very happy with monovision with contacts and glasses. (Now the depth perception is way off on the glasses, even with the right lenses removed. I use them for reading and take them off when not reading.) I don’t think I would be happy with a Symfony lens because the halos and glare were one of the things I hated most about having cataracts.
I’ve been very lucky with the right eye in that the range of distance is much better than I thought it would be. It’s at least as good as the correction with a contact lens before the cataract. I xpected it to be much more fixed. I don’t know if my left eye could be corrected for close up for reading and still have some intermediate like my contact lens does. Or whether the surgery will go as well as the right eye did. If I have to wear glasses for reading anyway, then I might as well go for the distance, like the right eye. It’s hard to know until you’ve had it done I guess.
But I’m delighted with my right eye surgery. I have worn glasses since the 5th grade. I was so nearsighted I couldn’t see the largest letter on an eye chart. I couldn’t even tell it was an eye chart! Waking up in the morning to what looks like perfect vision (other than close up) is just unbelievable to me. I hope you are as happy with your results as I have been so far with mine.
Night-Hawk JoanneinCA
Posted
Sounds like your right eye surgery with a toric IOL turned out great! I had a similar toric monofocal done for my right eye last year, though I get about 20/25 distance vision since there was a little residual astigmatism. Though the vision varies, somedays I get 20/20 or better but not all the time - though glasses can correct that last little bit.
I got the Tecnics brand IOL (toric monofocal) instead of the Acrysoft you have, Tecnis also makes the Symfony IOl. One difference between the two brands is Acrysoft IOLs have a yellow tint to filter blue light some while Tecnis does not have that filter. The eye gets gradually more yellow as it ages, so Acrysoft tries to match what a 30 year old eye would be like, while Tecnis is more like a young child's clear eye. Since you got an Acrysoft with the blue filter in your right eye, you would probably want to have something similar for your left eye in the future to have similar color perception in both eyes. In my case I wanted the Tecnis without blue filter in my right eye so I could get a Symfony in the left eye if I later choose that and they would both have similar color balance.
JoanneinCA Night-Hawk
Posted
If your vision is 20/25 for distance, everything probably looks very clear to you already. It probably wouldn’t even be worth the trouble of dealing with glasses. And your left eye will probably help out when you get that done. Even my reading contact lens helped out a little with distance when I had contacts in both eyes.
A question: Is there a way with glasses, to correct the depth perception thing between my left eye and the right with the IOL? If I wanted to keep the closeup vision I have now with glasses, but lose the weird depth/double vision thing, is that possible with glasses? I have a a follow up appointment with my surgeon next week but was just wondering ahead of time.
Sue.An JoanneinCA
Posted
JoanneinCA Sue.An
Posted
Night-Hawk JoanneinCA
Posted
Yeah if the power is over about 2D difference between the two eyes with eyeglasses the apparent size thru the lens between the two eyes is too great. In my case, my left eye needs some astigmatism correction and only slight power correction so I don't have that size difference problem with eyeglasses correcting my left eye and the right eye can have almost a clear lens since it has the IOL that corrects to about 20/25. But now I have gotten eyeglasses that also corrects my right eye's slight Rx since I have to correct the left eye anyway. However for a lot of things around the house I can do ok without eyeglasses primarily getting my sight from the right eye with the IOL like for watching TV, making meals, etc. But for driving of course I want the best distance vision with both eyes for good distance depth perception. Also for reading I need glasses so I use my progressive pair for that. I also have a separate computer pair of eyeglasses thats like a weak reading glasses for my computer monitor viewing distance of a little over 2 feet.
As far as color, yes I could tell a big difference in whites especially the first months after I had cataract surgery in my right eye. I would constantly cover one or the other eye to compare. White sinks, the white of walls, the white of my cat's fur - they were all super white with the right eye with the Tecnis IOL, looked dirty white/yellowish in comparison with the old left eye's natural lens - though I didn't notice that until I could see super-white with the IOL. I also remember the first month or so sunlight outdoors had a slight violet tint in the ground with the right eye, though that disappeared soon after - I expect my retina had to get used to the new color spectrum thru a lens without a yellow filter. I also found recently with a small flashlight that can output a blue light it actually must produce some violet light - with my right eye in the dark shining it on a wall I can see a violet aura but its invisible with my left eye!
Sue.An Night-Hawk
Posted
Sue.An JoanneinCA
Posted
For sure if you can wear contact lens in unoperated eye it is easier than glasses.
Night-Hawk Sue.An
Posted
Yes I was also told here in the USA that if the difference in power between the eyes after the first cataract surgery is big enough you can get the other eye's surgery covered by insurance or Medicare as well even if it doesn't meet the usual criteria of having worse than 20/40 best corrected vision. My left eye isn't enough difference in power for that, though it sounded like they could fudge it if you just claimed you couldn't handle the difference between the eyes. However since my left eye still corrects to 20/15 or better I didn't want to risk surgery on that eye until its really needed - since the surgery results are never guaranteed - it would be similar to those who get lens replacement surgery without a cataract which I don't recommend!
Join this discussion or start a new one?
New discussion Reply