Cataract surgery for me
 

Next Thursday I get my eye operated on. :eek:

I have been lucky with my eyesight all my life. As a kid in boy scouts we had to do a full physical before summer camp. During the eye test they asked what was the smallest line I could read, and I said something like "Copyright 1965 eye test company".

I have had 20-20 vision most all my life. Around age 50 I started getting some astigmatism, but mostly when I read a lot of analogue books. I wore glasses only to read to help with the astigmatism.

Now that I am on a computer most of the day, I don't wear glasses at all, except sun glasses while driving, or doing yard work.

My right eye is still great, but the left eye has a worsening cataract. I get my new bionic eye next week. It is a multi-focal lens. So I will be able to see close up, and distance with it again. Right now it is like I have a plastic bag in front of that eye.

The same ophthalmologist that did both of my wife's eyes will do my eye. If I chose a basic lens Medicare pays 100%, if I step up to a better lens, $1,500 or the top of the line, version 3 multi focal is 3 grand. I am going for the expensive one of course. My supplemental insurance does not cover cataract surgery. Medicare pays nothing, as I chose the expensive lens.

The equipment they have at his office to photograph eyes is amazing. One is ultra sound, and another has cameras that can show the shape of my eye, and another for the back of my eye. The doc showed me the images, and said he would do the incision in a certain spot he pointed out, and showed me how cloudy that eye was compared to the right eye. It will be nice to have good vision again in that eye.

My dad wore glasses from age 5 until age 70 or so when he got lens implants. It took years for us to get used to him not wearing glasses. It took him about 18 seconds to get used to seeing again without glasses. In his eyes it was a miracle.

The surgery is pretty fast and painless. The results are amazing. I had both eyes done at the same time. Next day was like looking through high definition eyes. Good luck!

Good luck! This is usually a slam dunk, but I won't say that because I don't want to jinx you. My mom and aunt were very happy with their surgery. My wife had one eye done years ago, and had the other done about a month ago with a super fancy lens that is malleable and can be "tuned" after the surgery, and then "fixed" once the tuning is complete with the application of UV light. She's been wearing special UV blocking glasses any time she's awake for the last month. Her first "tuning" visit is today. We'll see how this goes. Yes, insurance is not covering this fancy lens.

No big deal at all. It is a quick, easy process and recovery is essentially wear a patch over the eye that night when you sleep and then eye drops thereafter as prescribed.

Glad you are getting this done, also glad we live in a time when medical research has produced such treatments.

I'd have been abandoned in the woods as a young child, in the old days BG (Before Glasses).

Excellent.

Both my eyes have been done and the results brilliant...I did each separately. Distance is perfect, I use drug store cheaters for close up work...I also bought a cheap lighted magnifying glass for my desk that has been great.

One pro tip for showers, get a cheap pair of scuba goggles/mask (under $10)...I had two weeks of no water during showers in the repaired eye. Your folks may not require that but the one I used did.

Oh, eye drops after the prescription stuff: They recommended "Systima" and I have been happy...I can get individual doses. I mentioned "Clear Eyes" and I got the look from both the Dr. and her Assistant..not the good look:)

Have fun!

My wife had both eyes done a few weeks apart about 5 years ago. She says follow the post op eye drop regimen religiously. Do it by the book and healing should be fast. The only down side has been a sensitivity to light scatter when driving at night. She too uses readers for close up work.

Had bothy mine done last April with just the standard lenses. I followed the eye drop regimen reliigiously without a problem. It didn't improve my distance vision, I suppose because of age related eye degradation, but did eliminate my need for glasses for up close vision, except for needing them to correct for my astigmatism.

Ima scared to do it.

The image in the bathroom mirra is bad enough with the lights dimmed, the glass fogged and cataraks.

My wife had both eyes done a few years ago.
It's like her irises have stopped working, or don't work as well as they should. In the daylight, she has to wear sunglasses. Even if it is cloudy. At night, she is blind. If I don't leave the porch light on, she has occasionally tripped on the step because she says she can't see it. Out at the barn they have a few lights on at night, but my wife can't see the path back to the horse's pasture. I have no issues in either situation.

We were coming home one evening and I hit the brakes. She asked my why, I said "there's a deer in the road". She never saw it. This worries me.

Be sure and chant "Candyman" three times ...

Good luck with your procedure, Glen. Sounds like we'll be Pelican brothers on this journey - I'm getting my left eye done this Wednesday (1/14) with the right eye to follow +1 week. Doing monofocals set to distance for both which will mean at least readers for computer stuff but I've worn glasses for 60 years so I'll already be trained up.

I did the exact thing you are doing GH85, 3 or 4 years ago. After having worn glasses since I was about 17, I now have 20/20, reading and distance. My wife had it done by the same guy I did (same multifocal lens) and her vision is also 20/20 but she sees halos around lights at night. For me, I feel like it was money well spent.

Well, yesterday I had my Phacoemulsificstion with intraoculsr lens implant. That is the medical term assuming I spelled that right.

It is weird, the gave me some happy juice in the IV, and then about 8 eye drops over 5 minutes. Zero pain, and there were two lights I was supposed to watch carefully. and look in between them. The initial orders had a mistake and they said they were going to do the right eye. I said NOPE, I will not submit to that. They double checked, and they found they had written it down wrong, and the wrote yes over my left eye, and taped a clear plastic cover over my right eye.

So almost 24 hours later, my vision in the left eye is much better than my OEM eye was. It is still not yet as good as my OEM right eye, but he said it will take some time for my brain to adjust.

The biggest different I notice is the left eye shows color about 15 CC (color correction units) less yellow or things appear more blue. As a life long photographer, precise color has always been important. When we shot 4x5 or 8x10 sheet film transparencies often the emulsion batch from Kodak would vary some from box to box. We had to color correct that with small color correction filters in front of the lens that they came in 5 CC units. So in my mind, the difference is left and right eye is 15 CC. It is much the same when making color prints. The enlargers had filters that we used to make a color print the proper color.

I have an appointment to see the eye doc in a couple of hours. And again next week.

It will be nice to have the increased sharpness of the new lens. I have yet to drive at night and see the flairs of light on oncoming headlights.

That's a major bummer. There are things in the eye that can fog back up after surgeries. Has she seen a Doc about this issue? Maybe it's something different/new unrelated to the surgery?

Excellent, it sounds like it is nicely successful so far!

It's amazing what they can do with eye surgery. In about 1993 I took my girlfriend to Canada for Lasik surgery because they weren't doing it here. It cost $5500 each eye. Twenty years ago my new girlfriend needed Lasik. There were a dozen places doing it within 40 miles of us. It took about 10 minutes to do it, and it cost less than $1000. It always looked scary to me - cutting on my eyes!! But I haven't heard any first-hand stories of any bad outcomes.

From what I've heard, some folks end up with halos around bright lights at night.

My wife got it probably 12-15 years ago, and later was not sure that she was glad that she did. It wasn't the life changing update that most folks get. Her vision deteriorated fairly quickly, and I think we paid closer to 3000-3500 for each eye (or maybe it was 2500 ea).

Whoops, slight misspelling on my last post, It was a:

Phacoemulsification with interocular lens implant, to be precise. I don't know what the geek in me want to know the exact medical definition. It makes zero real work difference.