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A diary of a Finevion IOL implant

Before deciding on this procedure I had performed a vast amount of research and searched this forum for advice and views. As many post here with problems I have decided to write this diary from day one so others may understand how the progress is made, either good or bad. It is not designed to influence anyone's decision for or against this procedure. Please feel free to comment or add to the thread.


Male, 56 years, West Country of UK. Computer repair technician.

Lens exchange was performed on left (non Dom) eye on morning of Thursday 16th at Circle Bath by consultant Mr Jonathan Luck. A +21 diopter Finevision Micro F lens was implanted  All went as planned with no complications.

Thursday evening apart from a 'bruised' feeling to the eye, there was, and had been, no pain at all all day. No vision testing was done.

Day 1, Fri 17th

Left lens removed from vari focal spectacles and specs worn all day.

First thoughts comparing eyes, the 'new' eye is noticeably lighter and brighter, with perhaps a little less colour contrast and a very slight increase in purple hues. Slight ache, but less than before and nothing really uncomfortable. Focus at 4 metres plus is clear with no ghosting. Reading a letter or newspaper (12 point) at 30cm was fairly comfortable if the overview a little small, but 30 cm is a little too close for holding a paper. At 80cm, computer distance, objects were clear enough with a very slight edge blur, but reading was not possible smaller than 18 point. Text on screen has a soft blurr edge. Night driving home in the dark presented no problems at all with halos from oncoming cars.  Traffic lights have a circular pattern around the light but nothing distracting. Television at 3metres (42" screen) comfortable, with all intros menus and credits readable, if not sharp.

Thoughts for the day

Pleased with initial ability to see objects with this amount of clarity, text will have to improve at all distances to be considered a success.

Phil
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Avatar universal
Now fourteen weeks since implantation

Vision at longer distances is still improving gradually.

No sudden surprises this month, at to be truthful I have really stopped trying to learn anything new with the vision. However my test area set up at work is there, so after another month I did the testing.

Results in daylight, good artificial and lowlight conditions:

35cm, little change, everything clear with excellent definition, objects and text are both sharp in all lighting conditions. Tiny bright screws into tiny bright thread holes are the only challenging task at work, but a task light eliminates the problem. 9.5/10

80cm to 3 metres, object vision extremely good with very sharp edge and colour definition. 42" TV at 3 metres is pin sharp. Computer use, a daily task as I run a computer repair business and therefore a vital part of my vision requirements, has again shown increases in sharpness of the text on screen. Computer screen is still the weakest area of my vision, although is in itself focus is very good, it is the slight lack of contrast that is the more challenging aspect, although not a real problem, just the one that has taken longer to adjust to fully.  9.5/10

10 metres up to 15 metres, vision is now overy good, faces are now in focus up to 15 metres, so this is certainly an area that is still improving, without necessarily noticing a change on a daily basis. Birds at 15 metres are easily recognised by breed and colour in the fruit trees in the garden. A real improvement here. 9.5/10

20metres+, very good general vision, road signs, as used at approach to roundabouts are perfectly readable and very sharp at this distance. Car number plates are a good test and I can now read them at 20+ metres. 9/10

The learning curve continues, but now it is very much a sub-conscious one. So much of daily routine is now as good as pre implantation when I used multifocal specs, that I am almost starting to take good unaided vision for granted again, as I am now (and hopefully always will be) totally glasses free for all tasks. I am extremely pleased and very fortunate to have been able to achieve this level of improvement in such a short time. My frustration of the first couple of months has now been replaced with extreme confidence in the procedure. For some reason I had assumed the lenses would just 'work' once they were implanted and the scar had healed. This procedure really is a journey and not merely an operation, and should be approached as such.

Again, I await to see if there is any improvement left to be made.

Next report in a month or so.

Overall now 9/10

Phil
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Avatar universal
"This procedure really is a journey"  
That is a valuable insight, and should be noted by anyone planning on cataract surgery, or any other vision repair.
Thanks for the continuing updates.
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Avatar universal
Thank you so much for the detailed and thoughtful commentary on your experience with this IOL.  It's great to read that you seem to be benefiting from the 'trifocal' design of this lens.  

It's also good to hear that the initial vision after the implantation can improve as your brain learns to adapt to the new information profile coming from the operated eye and the IOL.  

Thank you again for taking time to provide others with your experience and thoughts; it's very much appreciated.
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Avatar universal
Dear Phil... I'm so glad to be able to say "I told you so" without being mean :-)
I remember the enormous stress I had the first two month after my surgery when I could not see and I was really worried that something went wrong because I was told that I should be able to see well in few weeks time, while I could not. Unless the Doctor himself had the same lenses he cannot know that these require much longer.
After that period, when I started to see better I thought that no one should go through that despair and that's why I tried to encourage you as much as possible to be positive and patient and now I can see that all is going well as predicted and as it was for me as well.
What is amazing is that now after 10 months since my surgery with these lenses I still see small improvements. For instance there was a large road sign at about 200 meters from where I have to take a turn and I could not read it (it was too far at 200 meters and the letters were not sharp enough), even after 5 months from my surgery, despite I had a good vision I could not read the sign. The sign is still there but now I can read it and every week is sharper and sharper.
After 5 months I still had problem to see sharp in distance in the evening, while now I see perfectly.
Right now after 10 moths I don't see anymore the "Christmas tree balls" effects when I drive at night, but I see sharp normal lights (Hurra!!!) Just the lights over 200 meters are still showing some circles but they will go as well, I'm sure.
What about you? How do you feel playing pool now without the need of adjusting your progressive glasses? Isn't that great?
Keep up the diary for future use so that people who will get these lenses implanted may have reasonable exceptions about the time needed to heal and see properly. I think that more and more people will get these lenses once there will be long term use results available.

My vision right now is: close always perfect - I can read J1 (the smallest possible printing used in some small medicine bottles) at 35 cm. distance very sharp, even in the evening... Up to 15 - 20 meters super sharp outside, and super sharp about 5 to 10 meters inside depends on light. Between 20 and 50 meters outside sharp. Between 50 and 80 meters I see but depending on light it could be blurry. At 100 meters I am still able to read car plates with good light, otherwise is blurry and I can't.

To read at the necessary distance phone, tablet, computer, TV between 40cm. up to 5 meters SUPER SHARP - NO PROBLEM with any of them.

At the last visit to the Optician I had 14/10 in DX and 12/10 in SX (Notice: 8/10 is a little weak and 10/10 is considered perfect vision, so 12/10 and 14/10 surpasses that and is considered a vision better than average good).

I asked the optician if he thinks I might need eventually some kind of glasses in the night for the driving and he started to laugh and said: "your days with the glasses are over, except for the sunglasses if you like them. You have a vision so good that if you apply to become a airplane pilot, you will pass the vision test with no problem. Enjoy your new vision".  

So Phil, as I understand for a complete healing it takes 12 to 24 months, you (and I) will still see improvement... too bad we are old to become pilots otherwise I would have liked that :-) Nice day to all,
Roberto
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Avatar universal
Now six months since implantation, and surprisingly (for me) the journey continues.

Message to Roberto, yep, you told me so, and certainly no offence taken.  I think more reports need to be made available from all IOL patients to give prospective clients a fighting chance of making an informed decision.

As time passes, the novelty of being able to see well at all distances unaided wears off and things again, like much in life, get taken for granted.

Keeping an objective mind on the diary, I still  have the test area at work, it will always be there now I guess, but moreover, the intricacies of normal life are more relevant. With the vision already having been learned to more than satisfactory at all distances it may be better to concentrate on what could perhaps be considered less than perfect.

Very fine close up work, say at 30 cm is perfect except when a shiny object is involved. A very tiny screw in black into a screw-hole is no problem, change the screw to shiny silver and it is still possible, but with a little misalignment sometimes. Two fine wires at 20 cm sometimes ghost over each other even when they are coloured cable. For these tasks I use a 10 inch magnifying light.

Computer reading and writing is good, but some websites especially chose some difficult colour combinations. White text on black tends to ghost, yellow text can also require more concentration. The sweet spot to read a screen is increasing to the point I have two very small defocus distances where text becomes slightly fuzzy. These are at 25-29 inches for computer and 16 to 18 inches for printed text or ipad type tablet. A simple lean in or out re-focuses so doesn’t present a problem, and the defocus areas are shrinking, as they used to be 10 to 12 inches and 6 to 8 inches deep as against 2-4 inches now.

There are no real issues with any mid or long distance focus now, the edge blur on shop signs even at 200 yards has diminished to the point of being there but negligible.

Low light vision indoors and out, is as good as my sight has ever been pre spectacles, with no adverse photo effects at all. As Roberto stated, still very slight improvements are happening as the brain just gets on with the adaption.

My opinion of these lenses, and the surgeon who performed the operation is absolutely superb, and rate my vision now at 95%+

I have no regrets in having the procedure done using the Finevision lenses, but realise they are not the solution for everybody.

Phil
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Avatar universal
I have been asked two questions,

are you still really glad you did it ? and Any regrets?

A little background as to my situation, reasoning, and therefore my conclusions.

At 56 I am not ready for pipe and slippers. I work with computers as a self employed repair technician, play pool at league level, work on a wood lathe for a hobby in an unheated shed, and shoot clay targets with a shotgun. Working with monitors all day had made my eyesight bad at near and intermediate vision, and that gradually got worse to the point I wore glasses from waking in the morning to back to bed at night. From reading bottles in the shower to shooting and woodworking, I could do nothing without spectacles. I tried contact lenses, but as I was wearing vari-focals, contacts just weren't an option as a replacement. Vision was fine, the pain was the misting in a cold shed, fogging up when wearing a safety face mask at the lathe, looking over the specs playing pool. Forget shooting if it was cold or raining, the safety glasses (a range requirement) just fog up when worn in conjunction with spectacles, so vision was good, just too many hassles. I opted for Clear Lens Replacement after a friend had replacements for cataracts. She went to Optimax and had RE-Zoom bi focal lenses fitted at a cost of £8000. Research on these did not inspire much confidence, but she seemed happy most of the time, except computer work. Masses of research and I found the AT Lisa Tri and the FineVision Tri. Lots of reading and I felt that if I wanted rid of then glasses I would have at some point go for CLE with one of these. It was certainly a gamble, but I wasn't happy with what I had, my eyes were tired at night to the point of rubbing them to keep them open. The strain of watching TV at least made me fussy about what  I watched as it was a pain.

You've read the diary so you know the progress, as documented in a methodical way.

Now to the questions.

are you still really glad you did it ?

The very fact that I can do every thing, every day without visual aids is a massive improvement. I am writing this on a computer screen at normal distance, at normal size. That said the slowest vision to come good was the computer distance. With tri-focal lenses, the ring arrangement give something like thirty different images to the retina at three focal lenghts. The eye effectively sees everything with all focal ranges, so not only does it see everything in focus, it sees everything out of focus at her same time. For example a vase of flowers at three feet is seen with the long distance and close up rings plus the proper intermediate rings. The trick is ignoring the out of focus, and only 'seeing' the 'in focus' image. There is no 'art' or 'way' of doing this, it just happens, eventually. So straight from surgery the lenses don't actually work fully immediately. You do have to take this into account that you will have to adjust monitor position and text size initially for computer use and adapt as the vision improves over the months.

So am I still glad I did it, it must be an emphatic YES.

I chose the best lenses that are available now, (I'm sure in the future there may be better, but how long do you wait just to have something even better in another couple of years).

The chain clinics don't use trifocal lenses, and I still believe the extra focal point is a justified extra expense. As stated Circle Bath, Head consultant Mr Luck charges £2400 per eye for the Finevision, but moreover, I had him do all the tests and follow up not a trainee in a branch.

Regrets? NO, none at all. I don't regret having the procedure and moreover I don't regret the extra expense over Optical Express, it felt so production line there, and it was never stated that their 'multi focal' lenses were in fact Bi-Focal with limited mid range capability.

With no knowledge of anyones current visual situation or indeed the  main requirement for their lifestyle, it is impossible to advise on suitability, that is up to the specialists. They have that knowledge, but very few eye surgeons have had the lenses exchanged so cant give a first hand account, but please don't enter into this thinking you will have the eyes of a twenty year old, you won't.

With tri focal they focus perfectly at approx. 30cm, 70cm and 15 metres to infinity. The focus at in between distances is made up from other images so whilst it is good, even really good nearly all the time, it is not perfect. The natural lens accommodates by constriction to keep everything in focus, an artificial one does not (at the moment) so very occasionally there is a need to adjust your position and due to the slightly reduced contrast you may need task lighting for especially demanding work, needlework, modelling etc.

A long winded answer, but I don't believe a Yes/No would have been very helpful.

Would I recommend it? An emphatic yes IF you are not expecting perfection, you wont get it, and if you choose a well practiced surgeon and try not to treat your eyes to bargain basement treatment.

The procedure doesn't restore your sight to perfection, but it's a very acceptable balance with excellent all round vision and total spectacle independence alleviating all the old hassles.

Phil
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