Cataract surgery

[southernhybrid]

I need to get cataract surgery according to my optamologist. The last time I saw him, a year and a half ago, he said it wasn't worth it to give me a new prescription, and whenever I got tired of squinting I should contact him for my surgery. But I am squeamish about my eyes, and I'm used to my vision being what it is. I still drive at night with no problem. My wife had the surgery a couple of years ago, and she's kind of "meh," but I do notice that she can read signs in the distance easier than I. A couple that are good friends both had the surgery. He is really enthusiastic about his, but she is like my wife - "meh." So I guess I'll get it done one day, but not immediately.

I can certainly relate to what you said. I've been told for at least 3 or 4 years that I'm on the verge of needing the surgery, but at the same time, the doctors have said that they can tweak my eye glass Rx. a bit to give me more time. The most recent one told me to look into surgery when my vision becomes blurry. It's not there yet. Unlike others, I'm fine with wearing glasses. I only buy the light weight plastic ones and I usually choose something that almost makes them seem like a fashion accessory. I don't even feel them on my face and sometimes I forget I'm wearing them.

And while I realize cataract surgery is one of the simplest ones, I did have a patient who had some complications and needed to have more procedures done. I don't remember the details, other than it was a lot of trouble for her and the staff. I'm squeamish about eyes, ears and throat too, and I hate administering eye drops. But, Mr. Sohy is really good at it, so I suppose he would help me with the eye drops when the time comes. Maybe if I wait long enough, I'll be ecstatic about having had the surgery done.

 

[Copernicus]

I had mine done a few weeks ago, and I'm not looking back. My vision is clear again and colors restored. I mostly don't wear glasses around the house, but my vision is now 20/20 when I do and even better for reading. Before the surgery, I found it hard to drive at night because of glare from oncoming headlights. Signs were difficult to read during the day even with glasses. I was using larger fonts and boldface when reading a computer or cell screen. All of that is unnecessary now. I see things more clearly now. And the lenses provide UV protection, too.

 

[southernhybrid]

I had mine done a few weeks ago, and I'm not looking back. My vision is clear again and colors restored. I mostly don't wear glasses around the house, but my vision is now 20/20 when I do and even better for reading. Before the surgery, I found it hard to drive at night because of glare from oncoming headlights. Signs were difficult to read during the day even with glasses. I was using larger fonts and boldface when reading a computer or cell screen. All of that is unnecessary now. I see things more clearly now. And the lenses provide UV protection, too.

Based on your experience, I still have more time. I haven't been able to drive at night for over a decade, due to glare, but I can still see signs and I don't use a large font when I'm reading. Maybe by next year, it will be time for me to have it done.

 

[Copernicus]

I had mine done a few weeks ago, and I'm not looking back. My vision is clear again and colors restored. I mostly don't wear glasses around the house, but my vision is now 20/20 when I do and even better for reading. Before the surgery, I found it hard to drive at night because of glare from oncoming headlights. Signs were difficult to read during the day even with glasses. I was using larger fonts and boldface when reading a computer or cell screen. All of that is unnecessary now. I see things more clearly now. And the lenses provide UV protection, too.

Based on your experience, I still have more time. I haven't been able to drive at night for over a decade, due to glare, but I can still see signs and I don't use a large font when I'm reading. Maybe by next year, it will be time for me to have it done.

The surgery itself is much less difficult than people imagine. It doesn't take more than 15-30 minutes in an ambulatory clinic, and there is about a 2 week wait between surgery for the first and second eye. Mostly you have to use a lot of antibiotic and steroid drops just before the surgery and then for a few weeks afterward. The difference in sight before and after the surgery is remarkable.

 

[southernhybrid]

I had mine done a few weeks ago, and I'm not looking back. My vision is clear again and colors restored. I mostly don't wear glasses around the house, but my vision is now 20/20 when I do and even better for reading. Before the surgery, I found it hard to drive at night because of glare from oncoming headlights. Signs were difficult to read during the day even with glasses. I was using larger fonts and boldface when reading a computer or cell screen. All of that is unnecessary now. I see things more clearly now. And the lenses provide UV protection, too.

Based on your experience, I still have more time. I haven't been able to drive at night for over a decade, due to glare, but I can still see signs and I don't use a large font when I'm reading. Maybe by next year, it will be time for me to have it done.

The surgery itself is much less difficult than people imagine. It doesn't take more than 15-30 minutes in an ambulatory clinic, and there is about a 2 week wait between surgery for the first and second eye. Mostly you have to use a lot of antibiotic and steroid drops just before the surgery and then for a few weeks afterward. The difference in sight before and after the surgery is remarkable.

It's mostly the eye drops that will drive me crazy, plus I hate having to deal with even the easiest medical procedure. It's just me.I'm glad that the rest of you have had your cataracts removed and are pleased with the results.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It's mostly the eye drops that will drive me crazy, plus I hate having to deal with even the easiest medical procedure. It's just me.I'm glad that the rest of you have had your cataracts removed and are pleased with the results.

My wife only had the one done that was seriously degrading her vision. The doc absolutely couldn't believe she wasn't going to do the other one (there's a cataract there that must be messing with colors a bit but it's not degrading her vision) and couldn't believe she could function with the difference between the two eyes. (Reality: She ended up going to a different eye doctor and actually got a script--a bit of double vision but everything was fine within 15 minutes.)

 

[laughing dog]

Cataract surgery is amazing. My patch came off in 24 hours and my eyesight was spectacular. I had my eyes done about 8 years ago, and I love feeling the rain and wind on all of my face.

I had no problems with either eye. I kept to the drop regimen.

I'd heartily recommend the surgery if it is called for.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

They should give you choices. You can get one eye tuned for distance and the other for closeup if you so desire.
The main thing is the CLARITY. I had no idea how blind I was. It was apparent that driving at night was becoming a no-go, but the loss of vision was so gradual that it was a total shock when it all cleared up.
Also - totally painless, rapid recovery (eyepatch at night, no heavy lifting for a few days...). All in all it's amazing.

One for each would bother me too much. I'd much rather be able to be able to focus for a second and see the subpixels than watch a fly lick their crotch from across the room, but that's also because I do a bit of work that requires good close-up vision, including the occasional surface-mount component replacement, soldering shit in the .5-3mm range, which I do freehand like a dummy.

Honestly, keeping my hand steady enough is the bigger challenge.

I absolutely HATE wearing glasses for anything, and losing my reading range would piss me off to no end.

For those looking for more information, the actual procedure is IOL, "Intraocular lens replacement".

It took me a fair bit of Google foo to find this amid all the other lasic and implantable contact bullshit.

It's cheaper than implantable contacts, and honestly probably much better.

You also don't actually NEED to have cataracts to yeet your meat lenses.

I had mine done about 7 years ago.

No cataracts, my eyes were OK, but I had hated wearing glasses for more than 40 years and decided to do something about it.

I set the surgeon the impossible task, saying I wanted to both read and drive without glasses. He found me an experimental lens and I am very happy with the results. I would have been OK with the "different eyes" option (it has worked for friends) but he didn't suggest it.

 

[Jarhyn]

They should give you choices. You can get one eye tuned for distance and the other for closeup if you so desire.
The main thing is the CLARITY. I had no idea how blind I was. It was apparent that driving at night was becoming a no-go, but the loss of vision was so gradual that it was a total shock when it all cleared up.
Also - totally painless, rapid recovery (eyepatch at night, no heavy lifting for a few days...). All in all it's amazing.

One for each would bother me too much. I'd much rather be able to be able to focus for a second and see the subpixels than watch a fly lick their crotch from across the room, but that's also because I do a bit of work that requires good close-up vision, including the occasional surface-mount component replacement, soldering shit in the .5-3mm range, which I do freehand like a dummy.

Honestly, keeping my hand steady enough is the bigger challenge.

I absolutely HATE wearing glasses for anything, and losing my reading range would piss me off to no end.

For those looking for more information, the actual procedure is IOL, "Intraocular lens replacement".

It took me a fair bit of Google foo to find this amid all the other lasic and implantable contact bullshit.

It's cheaper than implantable contacts, and honestly probably much better.

You also don't actually NEED to have cataracts to yeet your meat lenses.

I had mine done about 7 years ago.

No cataracts, my eyes were OK, but I had hated wearing glasses for more than 40 years and decided to do something about it.

I set the surgeon the impossible task, saying I wanted to both read and drive without glasses. He found me an experimental lens and I am very happy with the results. I would have been OK with the "different eyes" option (it has worked for friends) but he didn't suggest it.

You'll need to DM me the details about the lens option you went with so I can sniff out where to get a pair, when I get mine done.

As it is, I'm not even sure whether I would want my astigmatism corrected. I would want to be able to select my preferred area densities. I don't like having what I'm looking at "fish-eyed".

I prefer to have the center of my vision look more like the inverse of a fisheye lens, so I see more densely on the edges, and my glasses, when they correct, give more "fish eye" effect, crowding out the periphery. I might even reduce my center field even more, were that an option I could get glasses to test.

 

[southernhybrid]

Cataract surgery is amazing. My patch came off in 24 hours and my eyesight was spectacular. I had my eyes done about 8 years ago, and I love feeling the rain and wind on all of my face.

I had no problems with either eye. I kept to the drop regimen.

I'd heartily recommend the surgery if it is called for.

I agree and I'll have it done eventually, assuming I don't die before I'm ready. I just don't have any blurred vision now, so it can wait a bit longer before I have it done.

 

[Toni]

Cataract surgery is amazing. My patch came off in 24 hours and my eyesight was spectacular. I had my eyes done about 8 years ago, and I love feeling the rain and wind on all of my face.

I had no problems with either eye. I kept to the drop regimen.

I'd heartily recommend the surgery if it is called for.

I agree and I'll have it done eventually, assuming I don't die before I'm ready. I just don't have any blurred vision now, so it can wait a bit longer before I have it done.

I understand completely. One thing that you might factor in: we tend to heal better when we are younger and less well as we get older.

 

[Elixir]

I'll have it done eventually, assuming I don't die before I'm ready.

Just my $.02

You don’t know how ready you are. If you have it done this afternoon, by tomorrow afternoon you will be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.
DO IT.

 

[southernhybrid]

I'll have it done eventually, assuming I don't die before I'm ready.

Just my $.02

You don’t know how ready you are. If you have it done this afternoon, by tomorrow afternoon you will be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.
DO IT.

Nope. I'll do it when I feel like I'm ready. I'm dealing with other issues right now that need to be addressed. But, thanks for caring.

Mr. Sohy just had a retina tear sewed up this morning. It was very painful but a retina tear is far more scary than putting off cataract surgery for awhile. Why fix something that's not broken yet? I don't even know which ophthalmologist to use.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I understand completely. One thing that you might factor in: we tend to heal better when we are younger and less well as we get older.

This. If there's no question a surgery is going to be needed and it's a permanent type thing then I would want to do it as young as possible. (The permanent thing is about surgeries like joint replacement--the replacements eventually wear out and thus it's not really permanent. Thus you put that off as long as you can.)

 

[laughing dog]

I'll have it done eventually, assuming I don't die before I'm ready.

Just my $.02

You don’t know how ready you are. If you have it done this afternoon, by tomorrow afternoon you will be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.
DO IT.

Nope. I'll do it when I feel like I'm ready. I'm dealing with other issues right now that need to be addressed. But, thanks for caring.

Mr. Sohy just had a retina tear sewed up this morning. It was very painful but a retina tear is far more scary than putting off cataract surgery for awhile. Why fix something that's not broken yet? I don't even know which ophthalmologist to use.

I had a retina tear and detach - that is very scary. You and the Mr have my sympathies.

When the time is right for you, your opthalmologist can recommend a good opthalmological surgeon.

 

[Marvin Edwards]

Yes, and it worked out well. The interesting thing is when you've had one eye done and still waiting on the other. You can close one eye and then the other and really see the difference. It is very much like those yellow sunglasses that block blue rays. The eye that's been treated sees without the yellow, the one that hasn't still sees the yellow. It's really cool.

 

[steve_bank]

I had both eyes done. It is a routine high volume procedure.

I did have some side effects. Now I have X Ray vision.

 

[southernhybrid]

As soon as I figure out a couple of other possible health problems, like why am I losing so much weight, I will schedule the surgery. I'm thinking hopefully it will be less than a year away. I might have figured out the weight loss problem, as I'm finally gaining a couple of pounds back. People mostly worry about gaining weight, but losing is just as bad, if not scarier. It can be an early symptom of cancer or some awful malabsorption disease. I'm hoping in my case, it's just the IBS-D and my high metabolism due to exercise. My dog's vet has the same problem and she's been drinking Ensure to help. I'm not that desperate yet. Anyway.....I'm off topic. Sorry about that. I know I need to have my eyes done before too long. I've just had a lot of other issues to deal with lately that are more important, but I do appreciate all the positive input about other's experiences.

 

[Jarhyn]

As soon as I figure out a couple of other possible health problems, like why am I losing so much weight, I will schedule the surgery. I'm thinking hopefully it will be less than a year away. I might have figured out the weight loss problem, as I'm finally gaining a couple of pounds back. People mostly worry about gaining weight, but losing is just as bad, if not scarier. It can be an early symptom of cancer or some awful malabsorption disease. I'm hoping in my case, it's just the IBS-D and my high metabolism due to exercise. My dog's vet has the same problem and she's been drinking Ensure to help. I'm not that desperate yet. Anyway.....I'm off topic. Sorry about that. I know I need to have my eyes done before too long. I've just had a lot of other issues to deal with lately that are more important, but I do appreciate all the positive input about other's experiences.

Losing weight is terrifying. 100%