Catarac surgey coming up

[Pete0629]

I am gathering information on catarac sugery. I have an astigmatism and cataracs. My vision is getting blurry more and more each week. I am 57 years old and scheduled to get the replacement surgery done in the next few weeks. I would like to talk to anyone about what to expect and how my vision will be afterward,. I am planning on getting the multifocal lens so I can see far and near.
I would appreciate any response.
Thanks
Pete

[Pete0629]

I will read your journals as well. I am still looking into all of this but I am hearing there have been quite a few good turnouts also.
I spoke to a person that had it done by my doctor yesterday. He's a pilot and said he flew his plane the day after having it done. He loves it, he's the same age I am 57 and still works, I am going to talk to another person today I think.
I am having that relaxing procedure done on my left eye for astigmatism, I know I said right in my last entry but it's my left.
Cywatt1, I see you live in Illinois, so do I. I am in Decatur Illinois and will have the surgery in Bloomington. My doctor has done thousands of these procedures and his nurse is working with me to make me feel comfortable.
Anyway, I'm still researching so if you have anything to add please do.
Thanks
Pete

[cwatt1]

Yes, there was about a three-month period between the two eyes.  As you no doubt read from my journal, I waited until my intermediate vision was reasonably good before having he other eye done, as I use a computer extensively at work..  I had quite a bit of astigmatism in my left eye, and I ended up having three separate LRI (limbal relaxing procedures) before it was eliminated..I presume LRI is what your eye surgeon contemplates for you?  This is the most common method of correcting corneal astigmatism, assuming your eye surgeon is experienced and comfortable with the procedure.

As I mentioned, night driving is not an issue for me, but starbursting, haloing, and sometimes less contrast (see my comments above about dual focal points) tend to make it more difficult for some multifocal users.  I doubt if this would eliminate all night driving for you, but I mention it again here because it can be a problem for people who drive extensively at night as part of their profession.

You can visit the archives here by clicking the button at the top of the forum (this and the community forum), or you can type "cataracts", "ReSTOR", "multifocal IOL", or any other terms into the search box at the top middle of your screen.  As disappointed66 stated, you can also view posts by a specific user.

Best of luck!

[disappointed66]

Pete

There is nothing more for me to say except check out the archives and click on Londonbridge and my name  on the forum for a lot more information. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have gone for the multi.

Do not make a hasty decision.  Good luck to you.  I wish you the best of outcomes.

[Pete0629]

I did finallt figure out how to get to your journal, quite interesting. Did I understand it correctly that you waited quite a long time to get the second eye corrected? I have my surgeries 1 week apart. I don't know if I mentioned it but I do have astigmatism, mainly in my right eye, which he says he will correct.
Pete

[Pete0629]

The less light thing does make me a little hesitant. What does that mean!? Will I be in dim light all the time now. You see right now my right eye is getting pretty bad. It's blurry all the time, even with glasses. My guess is my right eye is probably 20/70 or so.But if I hold things kindof close I can read with my right eye without glasses. My left eye is really close to 20/20 with glasses I can see things at a distance really well with my left eye It's definately my dominant eye at the moment. I have compensated enough over time that my left eye carries the load so to speak.I can drive at night, I do it all the time now. So I'm worried now if I get this I'll have decent vision during the day but have to stay home at night and that would suck. When I get this surgery I would like to have both eyes back. I , like you have not tolerated contacts well. That's why I never wore them. But my glasses have been something I suppose I have had to adjust to. For me to even think I could be , for the most part, without them, I have to admit, makes me pretty happy.
I don't know how to find the archives in this place. I would like to read all the stories you all have talked about.
Pete

[cwatt1]

Excellent points made by all.  If you are dubious about multifocals and wish to consider monovision or mini-monovision as suggested by JodieJ and londonbridge, it would be wise to try this with contact lenses first to make sure you can tolerate the imbalance -- a few patients are not able to adapt well.  JodieJ is a fan of mini-monovision and has written many posts regarding this option.  In this case the imbalance between the two eyes is less, you should have good distance and intermediate vision, and your near vision should be reasonably acceptable as well, although you would probably still need glasses for fine print.  As for me, I didn't want to bother with reading glasses, and have never tolerated contact lenses well, so the multifocals made sense to me and my eye surgeon considering my pupil size was acceptably small.

Although I have had a much better experience with multifocals than either disappointed66 or londonbridge, I have found that I have experienced some degradation in visual sharpness as a tradeoff for better vision at all distances.

I hope all of us have not confused you too much.  I do agree that in your case a second opinion is probably warranted.