The burden of choices
Posted , 4 users are following.
ive said before that only plastic surgery has as many choices that fall on the shoulders of the patient and of course, plastic surgery is a choice mostly as opposed to a necessity..
for those who are old enough in the US to have medicare and have cataracts bad enough that their doctor will sign off on it being needed, just about anything will be an improvement. and its essentially FREE.
for the rest of us, quite a few years away from that situation and with eyesight that is tolerable but annoying, things get way more complicated. as in, should one wait or proceed, how much should one budget, what doctor, what lens.
as an example, there is a surgeon in my area who charges around 1200 per eye for standard monofocal lens and he gets great reviews but there is a 1-2 year wait which makes sense as to the delay. there is another who also gets very good recommendations and can get me in by year end but is triple the cost at 3500 per eye (7000 per for LAL). thats capitalism i guess. pay more to facilitate the process
im a frugal guy with limited funds but there are some things one should not skimp on when it comes to vision: money or time . so im leaning towards sooner and pricier.
i hope people in the future will have better, less expensive choices. i realize the technology is improving but there are still so many variables. when im really frustrated, i read about what folks had to go thru a century ago and that helps with perspective.
anyway, just venting..this site is a wonderful resource
0 likes, 4 replies
phil09 Dapperdan7
Posted
"when im really frustrated, i read about what folks had to go thru a century ago and that helps with perspective."
I read about even earlier treatments 2,500 years ago.
Yikes!
RonAKA Dapperdan7
Edited
If you have vision that can be reasonably corrected with eyeglasses I don't see any harm in waiting for some time. You might have to get some updated lenses in the glasses more often during the wait. For my first eye I waited 18 months. It was no cost to me other than the $70 for eye drops, eye shield, and dark glasses. I also went about another 18 months for the second eye to be poor enough to justify surgery. However by that time the system had changed some, and I got scheduled in about 3 weeks. I paid a small premium of $300 to get a Clareon lens because the system had not approved that lens at the time, but I was happy to pay that to get in with a shorter wait. Same surgeon did both surgeries. In any point, unless your cataracts are getting bad quickly, I don't believe there is any harm in waiting.
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If you get on the surgeon's wait list then you have something certain to expect. And perhaps if the vision starts to go back quickly the surgeon may squeeze you in early. And if not then you go to one with a shorter wait time.
Dapperdan7 RonAKA
Posted
i dont see the drop of visual acuity indoors, on cloudy days, at dusk and night time being solved with new glasses but i do have 2-3 year old prescription glasses.
you are in canada. i assume the details of money and health insurance public and private are different too
RonAKA Dapperdan7
Posted
I suspect you would benefit from an up to date adjustment to your prescriptions. Money can be saved by just replacing the lenses and not the frames. And places like Zenni can be considered. They do not produce great glasses, but for temporary use they may make sense.