Posted by:
summer
(
)
Date: October 19, 2019 11:21AM
I was diagnosed this summer with the family "gift" of cataracts, and referred to an ophthalmologist who is widely considered to be the best in my locale. She operated on my brother's eyes and also my optometrist's eyes. After an hours-long exam, she declared that surgery was medically justified, meaning that insurance would pay for the basic surgery for a mono-focal (distance only) lens. Upgrades to laser surgery and possibly a multi-focal lens would run many thousands of dollars, probably well beyond my ability to pay.
However I was accepted into an investigational study testing out a new multi-focal lens. I would get the laser surgery regardless, and either the mono-focal or the new multi-focal lens (50/50 chance of getting either.) I was hoping for the multi-focal, but understood that it was a coin flip. The multi-focal had already been through phase one of testing, and my doc assured me that it was a very good lens.
Surgery was on Monday. I thought the surgery would be the hard part, and recovery easy, but it was the complete opposite. Recovery has been very difficult.
There are positives. My vision at all distances is greatly improved, although I am still using reading glasses for computer work and close in work. If I had to guess, I got the mono-focal lens, but I'm really not sure (I was told that you still might need glasses even if you got the multi-focals.) The world is a lot brighter now, and the most amazing thing to me is the color clarity. The vision out of my other eye looks quite muddy and brownish by comparison (which I understand happens with cataracts.) I expected the starbursts and halos and am mostly not troubled by them. I was told they would likely resolve in time. The biggest issue with them is when I look in my car's rear view mirrors, where the headlamps from other cars put on quite a light show.
There is still a small bit of residual cloudiness, although it has gradually gotten better over the week. The thing that is really worrying me is that I can see the edge of the lens on the outer side of my eye when I look straight ahead. can see up to 40% of the edge, although it varies. My doctor says for most people this resolves within six months. I am desperately hoping that I am "most people." It is very similar to when I had daily wear contacts years ago (I switched from the larger, long-wear contacts due to safety concerns at the time.) I saw the edge of the lens then as well, and never did get used to them.
Has anyone else had this issue? How long did your recovery take? I'd like to hear different perspectives. My second surgery is scheduled for a week from Monday, and I'm hoping that my left eye is fully up and running by that time. It's okay now, but not great.