No vision

[Ladnox2003]

Is it normal to have  blurry vision after 4 weeks of cataracts and lense implant

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

You have to judge your vision with glasses not without. If it is clear with glasses not a problem usually, if glasses cannot make vision clear it is a problem and an explanation needs to be found. IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND:   Not everyone can see well without glasses after cataract surgery but almost everyone expects to in spite of what the surgeon tells them.

[Ladnox2003]

Firstly, thank you for taking time to answer me  
Secondly,whenever I wear my glasses my vision still remains blurry and  when i take them off it becomes worse .just want to know if it is a cause of concern

[xltjim]

Perhaps your prescription is the issue?  May want to get that double checked.  In any case you need an explanation or reason for this.  In my case I still have wavy/grainy vision but the reason is that I had vitrectomy for RD repair and could just be taking a long time to settle.  Thankful for what I have though.

Interesting side note - My cataract surgeon gave me a prescription.  Feeling thaey didn't take there time I wanted a more thorough exam for prescription.  I went to my optometrist and he came up with a completely different prescription -- I mean big difference.  Just something to keep in mine IMO.  Good luck.  Jim

[MrPresley]

Interesting comment about the cataract surgeon providing a corrective lens prescription. Mine did not, and in fact I was released back to my optometrist (who had referred me to the cataract surgeon) the day after the surgery.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

COMMENTS TO ALL:
1. Ladnox3    If you vision is blurry with glasses something is wrong.  Your surgeon should know what the problem is. If your surgeon cannot give you a valid reason for your reduced vision then I would suggest an independent 2nd opinion with a highly experienced cataract surgeon.
2. Xltjim   I'm pretty certain your glasses RX's were not that much different. Ophthalmologists write glasses RX in PLUS Cylinder and optometrists use MINUS cylinder. They don't look anywhere near alike even for the same prescription. Think of it as your weight in pounds and kilograms.  Very different.
3. Mr. Presley   Most optometrists want to "co-manage" with an ophthalmologist when they refer a patient to him/her.  That means they do not want the ophthalmologist to do a glasses test on the patient. They also want to see the patient back for some of the post cataract surgery care.  that way they can get some of the insurance money for post operative care especially with medicare. This used to be called "fee splitting" and was both illegal and unethical. But medicare changed the law.  There have been state bills introduced so that if an optometrist will receive "co-management" money back from the surgical fee the optom is required to tell patients this before referral. The though, a valid one, is that the optom is going to refer to an ophthalmologist that is willing to "co-manage" even if the best surgeon was one that does not 'co-manage".  

[MrPresley]

Co-management of my case was fine with me if so. The optometrist who referred me to my cataract surgeon was the same that referred me to my retinal specialist, and the outcome validated the means for me. I am not yet enrolled in Medicare.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

For medicare patients it seems only fair that patients know if the surgeon they are sending their patients to is splitting the medicare money with them. It has the potential of creating a conflict of interest. That doesn't mean the surgeon is not satisfactory, perhaps even the best but when these if a financial inducement to send to one eye surgeon that DOES co-manage over another that DOES NOT co-manage it seems only proper the patient should be told this.  Organized optometry has fought this 'fair disclosure" requirement in every state it has been introduced including here in Missouri.

[MrPresley]

I think there was an acknowledgement of co-management with our optometrist, or similar verbiage, in the paperwork from the cataract surgery facility that I used.  My wife just had cataract surgery last week at the same facility that I did.  I’ll look in her paperwork package and see if it’s in there.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

If it was disclosed good for your optometrist. In most cases its not and the optometrist funnels all their cases to 'co-managing surgeons"   Our surgeons do not co-manage with optoms outside our group thus we don't get any referrals because they don't want to lose that revenue even though for many of these cases we clearly have the outstanding surgeons in our area.

[MrPresley]

The co-management disclosure was on the cost estimate page from the surgical facility provided on their initial evaluation. The optometrist office submits their own independent claim to our health insurance provider when he prescribes the initial corrective lenses (if required) following the surgery. FWIW we can go to any specialist or surgical provider we choose without a referral, assuming they do not require a referral, but I'm still old school about getting referred by my PCP, optometrist, etc. that I've seen for many years. I remember before I had my post-vitrectomy/ERM peel cataract surgery he gave me three recommendations, one of which is one of the largest if not the largest facility in this area. I asked him which one of those three he would go to if it were him, and the rest is history.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

There are a lot of ethical optometrists. I play golf with one weekly.   However many people are not given those choices and when we tried to get 'full disclosure" laws passed in Missouri the Missouri Optometric Association when all out to defeat.