Lens implants (cataract removal)

WOW. The world is so freakin' sharp I could cut myself on the edges. This is freaking AWESOME. An hour of prep, 10 minutes (MAYBE) under a bright light, and I sat up and my left eye is now 20/20. THIS is a triumph of science and medicine.

There are a couple minor issues; my right eye is still terrible, because they don't do both at the same time, but rather 2 weeks apart. With my astigmatism, I could get a toric lens but not a "bullseye" lens which would have been like bifocal, so my left eye is perfect from about 42" out to infinity, but is no good for reading inside about arm's length. And my right eye is perfect out to about 10", and useless after that. So everything from 10" to 42" is bad, which is my computer monitor and just about everything on my desk. I snagged a pair of my dad's reading glasses, and that gets my left eye focused on the near stuff.

Driving is excellent during the day, but a little rough at night, because of the blurriness in the right eye. I tried removing one of the lenses from my glasses, and that helps except that the lens makes things smaller, so the apparent sizes of things in each eye is different. That is pretty strange, kind of like seeing drunk (but without the confusion and lack of judgment). Eh. I'll restrict my night driving.

But those are minor, minor issues. The distance thing may change as the swelling goes down, the doctor says he was shooting for about 20" and out, at the expense of some stuff farther away; the close in stuff might be a first-day phenomenon.

The surgery itself is a snap; it is the most common surgery in the world, in fact. Anyone who has any queasiness about eye surgery, you shouldn't. It just isn't like you imagine. Your eye is all numbed up, and you can't feel anything. You get intravenous valium, so you are pretty relaxed. You see a lot of bright colored lights moving around, and it's over, and your glasses are history. So if this is on your list of things you need done someday, look forward to it.

Big question is how long the benefits will last. The guys selling the surgery probably didn't address that issue.

Quote: dm

Big question is how long the benefits will last. The guys selling the surgery probably didn't address that issue.

Fair enough question,

First, there wasn't a choice; I was going blind. With my glasses on, I was 20/120 in my left eye, and 20/60 in my right.

Second, it is the most common surgery in the world. The lens implants will last longer than I will live; they're polycarbonate. There is a wealth of information, on respected internet sites (ie, not Wiki, not "alternative medicine" or "The See Clearly Method"). It's as established a procedure as there is in the world today. Which almost makes it more remarkable, to me.

Note that the lens implant procedure is different than "LASIK" and other related corneal reshaping procedures. I'm glad it worked out for your Mosca. I would love to be able to wake up and see the time on the clock, or go swimming and still be able to see without wearing glasses or googles.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Note that the lens implant procedure is different than "LASIK" and other related corneal reshaping procedures.

Right. The cornea is the eye's natural lens. Many eyesight problems, like astigmatism and near-sightedness (myopia) are actually defects in the shape of the lens, ergo the laser-based surgeries to reshape it.

These can have side efects, including a sort of lens-flare effect or seeing halos around light sources at night (night vision is different from day vision), but as far as I know they last a very long time.

My brother had LASIK or something similar before it was a fad. To this day he doesn't need glasses.

I've considered it, but my eye defects are so mild I see well enough without glasses (in fact I lost them a year ago and haven't replaced them). So it's really unnecessary. I notice it most when I see a 3D movie (I have myopia and astigmatism in the left eye, but only astigmatism in the right one).

Cataracts, now, are something different. The only correction is surgery.

Quote: Mosca

so my left eye is perfect from about 42" out to infinity, but is no good for reading inside about arm's length. And my right eye is perfect out to about 10", and useless after that. So everything from 10" to 42" is bad, which is my computer monitor and just about everything on my desk. I snagged a pair of my dad's reading glasses, and that gets my left eye focused on the near stuff.

The new Alcon Restor lens covers reading, distance and intermediate. But it may not be good for all, and many insurance plans will most likely not cover it.

BTW, the cornea is not the lens. The cornea covers the pupil, iris, lens and anterior chamber. The lens needs the two muscles on either side to function. And that is from someone who was partially conscious during a vitrectomy.

Quote: SanchoPanza

The new Alcon Restor lens covers reading, distance and intermediate. But it may not be good for all, and many insurance plans will most likely not cover it.

BTW, the cornea is not the lens. The cornea covers the pupil, iris, lens and anterior chamber. The lens needs the two muscles on either side to function. And that is from someone who was partially conscious during a vitrectomy.

I would have sprung for the Restor, but my astigmatism wouldn't have allowed it; my surgeon said it would not have stayed in place. I went with the Aspheric Toric, which corrects the astigmatism but cannot be manufactured in the "bullseye" shape that the Restor comes in.

Quote: SanchoPanza

BTW, the cornea is not the lens.

How about that. Alas, I can't sue my old biology teacher. He died some years ago.... Maybe if I'd elected to take anatomy in my senior highschool year, but who the hell wants to?

BTW thumbing through an old Popular Science c. late 2008, there was a blurb about an experimental eye-drop treatment for cataracts. Of course, Pop-Sci is not noted for being rigorous.

The cornea is not THE lens, but it is a lens. It has more magnifying power than the eye's lens, but unlike the lens, it has no muscles to adjust its focus.