cataract surgery

[nonnie122]

OK, I know I have a cataract, and I have to go into my eye doctor to get new glasses next month...I REALLY don't want to have eye surgery, but am not sure how bad your eye really has to be in order to keep getting your driver's license..as it is now, I can still see fine out of my "cataract" eye, but don't know if that will be good enough to get my license renewed...
Also, I heard that my medical plan won't even consider cataract surgery until it get pretty far along..but how far along?
Thanks for any input..as you can tell by my letter, I am VERY NERVOUS about messing with my eyes!

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

I wouldn't worry too much about the health plan situation.  That will take care of itself.   The bottom line is that is you have a significant cataract with reduced vision that is interfering with activities of daily living, and new glasses do not help, then you should strongly consider having cataract surgery.  I would find an excellent ophthalmologist, who is very experienced in cataract surgery,  with a great reputation and bedside manner, who is recommended by your physician and friends and neighbors.  Once that is done, and when your ophthalmologist recommends surgery for you then you have very little to be nervous about.  The statistics are very, very favorable for a successful outcome, and it is a brief, painless procedure with a very rapid recovery. Usually the patients are thrilled with the results.  There is about a 1% risk of some type of complication with the surgery, but usually those type of things can be helped with more surgery or treatments.  The risk of a devastating complication is very rare.

One last note, if you wait too long and your cataract becomes very dense, at some point, that will actually increase the chances of having a complication with the surgery, somewhat.

I understand, that you are quite nervous and that is understandable.  I used to have some fear of flying in airplanes, but when I looked logically at the real statistics, I realized that it is very safe, especially compared to driving my car.  So try to think that way about the cataract surgery and understand that you will be in very good hands and at some point it is something you will likely have to do if you want to have useful vision.

Oh and one last thing, an old trick that works sometimes is to have your husband or friend go first then they can tell you about it personally.

MJK MD

[FredZq]

I believe Its 20/40 in my state, but the machine they use lets you use both eyes, so even with the "cataract eye" pretty far gone, I was able to read the letters OK.

Call or write your medical plan and ask them what's the threshold visual impairment before they will pay. I'll bet its not worse than 20/40 corrected in the eye. They also do a glare test of some kind I believe

I started the process for having my bad eye fixed before I discovered this website. As a result of my ignorance, I wasn't able to ask the right questions with the first Doc I consulted. I had selected him based on results from one of my friends' surgery. I got as far as having the measurements taken but not yet the surgery scheduled, when I found this site I really started to do due diligence. The Doc I was seeing doesn't use the type of IOL that my research had sold me on. So I started looking again.

The Doc that did mine is retired military doc who has done thousands of cataract surgeries and was chief at a major military hospital ophthalmology. When I brought up the research I had done, and the type of IOL and correction I thought would suit me, he agreed and thats what has been done. So far everything is just fine.

The first place mentioned that they would prescribe Xanax for me prior to the surgery was enough to scare me off even if they had used the IOL I was sold on. Second place didn't prescribe tranquilizers; just the drops before and the (I guess) irrigation during the surgery. It was absolutely painless. They do have to set you up for the surgery to make sure your eye is immobile and infection is excluded, but its very minor discomfort for just a few minutes. So an hour or two after you walk in, you walk out being able see out of the eye again. Miraculous!