High anisometropic amblyopia IOL surgery, double vision post operation

[Otilia]

I am 31 old female and I had a IOL implant for correcting a high anisometropic amblyopia in my right eye, about two weeks ago. My eyes have: right eye (the one that has the implant now)  - 8 (high miopia with astigmatism); left eye has -1 (miopia with astigmatism). The IOL was an Artisan iris-claw with a refractive power of - 8. Now I still wear glasses, with 0 diopter for the operated eye and a -75 diopter for the left eye. Before surgery I weared glasses all my life, and in the last period I had right eye: -2.5 ; left eye: -0.75 diopters.
I read a lot about amblyopia before surgery and I thought a lot before deciding to have this surgery. My doctor convinced me that I will be able to recover the binocular vision even my brain was used to see only with one eye (monocular vision), but he didn't tel me how long it will take this to happen. After 2 weeks after operation, I have a very pronounced double vision all the time, it's like I see everything in two separate images, not one. My vision in the eye with the implant is great compared with before surgery. But the vision with both eyes open it's a disaster right now and it seems isn't improving from one day to another.. I have to go to a post-op consult after one month and till than, the doctor told me to be patience and to wait, because it's normal that the recovery to take a while. My question is: how long it will take me to see normal with both eyes, when this double vision will disappear? When I'll be able to realize if I'll ever see normal with this IOL (I have the option to take out the IOL  from my eye if there are problems)? I don't think that I'm capable to live with this double vision too long, because it was allready a challange in these past two weeks in my daily activities  (I'm a graphic designer).  Thank you very much to anyone who can help me with sharing a similar experience or with profesional medical advice.

[cathy63146]

A related discussion, amblyopia was started.

[Otilia]

Dear Dr. Feldman,

thank you for your advice. My double vision is in both eyes, when I look with both eyes. When I look separately with each eye, the vision isn't double at all, it's normal, only when I look with both eyes together it's double. I know that I should follow my doctor's advice and to just be patience and wait, but my concern is that my vision is almost the same after two weeks after surgery and the progress is so small day after day, that I hardly notice it. And my doctor didn't tell me that this problem will take so long so I wasn't prepared not to see well enough so many days after op.
And I'm also concerned that so many doctors and people are sayng over internet that amblyopia can't be reversed by refractive surgery.. The explanation for this double vision (which is normal for a period of time after an IOL in an amblyopic eye) was that the brain was used to see only one image (monofocal vision), and now I have two images and it will take a while that these two images to fusion in one single image .
Is there a chance that this single image not to form , now or later? How can I be sure that I'm not waiting for nothing? When I should expect to see mostly one image instead of two, after 4 weeks, two months, 6 months?
In my first post I meant -0.75 instead -75 diopter.

Thank you very much!

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear Otilia,

I would recommend discussing your concerns and symptoms to your eyeMD to determine the cause of the double vision.  Is the double vision there in both eyes or just the right eye that had surgery?

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California