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Should I be concerned about Symfony results yet?
Thank you for your detailed notes, SoftwareDeveloper. Wish I had found this site before I had my surgery.
Anyway, After choosing Symfony (non-toric) I'm 2 weeks post-op on left eye and 1 wk post-op for the right.
At my day-after checkups, distance in each eye was measured 20-20 with 1 incorrect letter in the bottom line. So, I'm very happy with that!
Reading the card with black print on white paper was about 20-25 and 20-30 on day 2, but I suspect it may be a bit less now, especially with the halos and glare on my phone. Should I expect continued improvement with my reading acuity? Mid-range using laptop arms length away, about 24 inches, is ok.
Also, last night I drove in the dark for the first time with my "new eyes." Quite a bit of halo, starburst and spider web looking things around lights. On day 2, each eye was blurry but didn't have this much halo. Reading the road signs was not as clear as I expected. Still a bit fuzzy around letter edges, especially with backlit signage (even if it was billboard sized.)
I requested Symfony thinking there wouldn't be so much halo and reading would be good. Hoping to improve for another month or so, as I've heard it really can take that long, but beginning to wonder.
Should I be concerned yet? Thanks for any feedback, it's much appreciated!
Anyway, After choosing Symfony (non-toric) I'm 2 weeks post-op on left eye and 1 wk post-op for the right.
At my day-after checkups, distance in each eye was measured 20-20 with 1 incorrect letter in the bottom line. So, I'm very happy with that!
Reading the card with black print on white paper was about 20-25 and 20-30 on day 2, but I suspect it may be a bit less now, especially with the halos and glare on my phone. Should I expect continued improvement with my reading acuity? Mid-range using laptop arms length away, about 24 inches, is ok.
Also, last night I drove in the dark for the first time with my "new eyes." Quite a bit of halo, starburst and spider web looking things around lights. On day 2, each eye was blurry but didn't have this much halo. Reading the road signs was not as clear as I expected. Still a bit fuzzy around letter edges, especially with backlit signage (even if it was billboard sized.)
I requested Symfony thinking there wouldn't be so much halo and reading would be good. Hoping to improve for another month or so, as I've heard it really can take that long, but beginning to wonder.
Should I be concerned yet? Thanks for any feedback, it's much appreciated!
You are very early on so there is a very good chance of improvement. Most studies of IOLs don't even bother recording the incidence of night vision artifacts like halos until 3 or 6 months to let people get past the initial healing and neuroadaptation period where more people see them. The limited data I'd seen on multifocals (not the Symfony) suggest a large drop in the % of people who see halos, or consider them a problem, during that time. Since you started a new page, I'd suggest moving any followups there where I'll repost this.
Night vision artifacts can be worse due to any temporary inflammation, and also due to temporary dry eyes after surgery (it can be a side effect of surgery due to the need for nerves to heal that were cut, which tell the brain the eye needs to be lubricated). Your eyes may not feel dry even if they are due to the nerves being cut so lubricating drops may help.
Unfortunately there isn't good data on how long neuroadaptation takes to get the best near you'll get, some people seem to get it in a few days and others take some months, and I hadn't seen any data on how long it takes on average. Although I had good near the first week, one surgeon who tested the Symfony vs. the AT Lisa trifocal (not available in the US) said that neuroadaptation seems to be slower with the Symfony than with the trifocal, but unfortunately he didn't quantify what that meant, perhaps since he didn't have actual data on it.
Any residual astigmatism can also impact night vision artifacts. Do you know your refraction, your prescription you'd need for best corrected distance vision to see how much astigmatism you might have? Your refraction also shows e.g. how nearsighted or farsighted you were left, which impacts the range of vision you get. You could be left slightly farsighted and still have 20/20 distance vision, but with slightly less near vision than if the lens power was accurate. If you don't have quite as much near vision as you'd like, or have residual astigmatism, you can consider a laser correction in a few months (once vision has stabilized).
Night vision artifacts can be worse due to any temporary inflammation, and also due to temporary dry eyes after surgery (it can be a side effect of surgery due to the need for nerves to heal that were cut, which tell the brain the eye needs to be lubricated). Your eyes may not feel dry even if they are due to the nerves being cut so lubricating drops may help.
Unfortunately there isn't good data on how long neuroadaptation takes to get the best near you'll get, some people seem to get it in a few days and others take some months, and I hadn't seen any data on how long it takes on average. Although I had good near the first week, one surgeon who tested the Symfony vs. the AT Lisa trifocal (not available in the US) said that neuroadaptation seems to be slower with the Symfony than with the trifocal, but unfortunately he didn't quantify what that meant, perhaps since he didn't have actual data on it.
Any residual astigmatism can also impact night vision artifacts. Do you know your refraction, your prescription you'd need for best corrected distance vision to see how much astigmatism you might have? Your refraction also shows e.g. how nearsighted or farsighted you were left, which impacts the range of vision you get. You could be left slightly farsighted and still have 20/20 distance vision, but with slightly less near vision than if the lens power was accurate. If you don't have quite as much near vision as you'd like, or have residual astigmatism, you can consider a laser correction in a few months (once vision has stabilized).
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I'll add that your brain and visual system learn from practice, so the more you use night vision the sooner you'll adapt (though its hard to say the impact since the visual system does learn about the lenses even from other lighting conditions).
btw, the average visual results are better than 20/20, which is why I figured its possible you were left slightly farsighted (or with residual astigmatism), but it may be that you just don't have quite as good a result as average. (I guessed farsighted rather than nearsighted, figuring your near would be better if you were left nearsighted).
I should add that the laser correction I was talking about was either to get rid of hyperopia if you are farsighted, or to bring one eye to focusing in slightly nearer, micro-monovision, which gives a bit more near with perhaps not a noticeable impact on distance. (it could be tested with a contact lens trial).
btw, the average visual results are better than 20/20, which is why I figured its possible you were left slightly farsighted (or with residual astigmatism), but it may be that you just don't have quite as good a result as average. (I guessed farsighted rather than nearsighted, figuring your near would be better if you were left nearsighted).
I should add that the laser correction I was talking about was either to get rid of hyperopia if you are farsighted, or to bring one eye to focusing in slightly nearer, micro-monovision, which gives a bit more near with perhaps not a noticeable impact on distance. (it could be tested with a contact lens trial).
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