Thank you so much for all of your efforts. I'm keeping these suggestions as they will help me through this muddle. I really appreciate it.
J
As for your question regarding adverse side effects with the toric IOL, it does need to be placed in the right position to correct astigmatism. There is a slight possibility that this IOL can shift post-operatively, thus compromising the astigmastism correction. This used to be an issue with earlier toric IOL's, but my understanidng is that this risk is much less with the latest generation of the toric IOL by Acrysof.
Other than that, there is really no more risk than there is with a standard non-toric monofocal.
You'll have to go with whomever you feel most comfortable with on this one, or get a third opinion if you're really torn. However, let me throw out a couple of other possibilties.
A small amount of astigmatism would probably not cause your vision to be impaired much with a monofocal lens -- it would be just like a pair of eyeglasses that have been adjusted for your refraction correction, but not your astigmatism. Before your surgery, you might ask your surgeon to let you try a contact lens for the eye with the small amount of astigmatism. If you have the lens correct only your refraction and not your astigmatism, you should get an idea of what your correction would be like with the non-toric monofocal.
I'm not sure whether either of your prospective surgeons mentioned this to you, but nother possibility might be limbal relaxing incisions, assuming your surgeon is experienced with and comfortable with doing them, They could be done either during your cataract surgery or afterwards. LRI's are quite safe, and are usually pretty effective in correcting small to moderate amounts of astigmatism.