Coming Back Afrer Cataract Surgery

[walldaja]

What have been your experiences after cataract surgery. Any issues?

Thanks

[ghmerrill]

Some minor irritation and light sensitivity for a few days, maybe up to a week. My wife had the same experience. The result was that I haven't seen this well since I was 12 years old (now 76). Had it done about six years ago. Use cheap Amazon reading glasses for reading and music. Otherwise, no glasses. I did pay additional out of pocket ($1,500 per lens?) for toric lenses since Medicare has this really nutty approach to corrective surgery for astigmatism.

[Doug Elliott]

My second eye was done a week ago. The first was in September.
And thanks for the reminder to use my drops today...

I had a few days of fogginess both times. And light sensitivity. And the difference in color sensitivity is amazing, blue really pops.

I intend to continue wearing progressive lenses, to correct the remaining astigmatism and with a large midrange area and smaller close up area of correction. I may be able to read music with those and not need single vision music reading glasses. Although for now that's what I'm using until things settle down in the new one.

My next gigs are the 30th and New Year's Eve, I'm not playing until then.

And btw, if you're getting both eyes done there's no need to buy the bottles of drops twice. One set is plenty to get though both eyes.

[walldaja]

I was really wanting to try some easy warm-ups, One eye done on 19th. No issues with eye playing but reading music is a bit challenging--one eye good one eye challenged. Think I'll do with my music glasses what I did to my normal glasses. Remove rhe lens from side operated on.

[BGuttman]

...

And btw, if you're getting both eyes done there's no need to buy the bottles of drops twice. One set is plenty to get though both eyes.

I actually used up one bottle of one of the drops for each eye. The second bottle of drops, not so much. Had a bunch left. I used the empty bottle of eyedrops to fill with slide lube to put in my case.

I had my eyes corrected for computer/music (about 1 diopter less correction) and I have a pair of correcting distance glasses. I also have mild reads (+1) and strong reads (+2.5). I use the latter when I'm doing close work like fixing computers.

We figured that wearing glasses for 70 years I would feel naked without glasses. Well, I've never needed the distance glasses, and I'm getting used to going "naked".

[ghmerrill]

I also have mild reads (+1) and strong reads (+2.5). I use the latter when I'm doing close work like fixing computers.

Yeah, I use +1.75 for reading and +1.50 for music and desktop computer screen. That may not seem like much of a difference, but particularly for stuff on the music stand, +1.75 is just too much.

Still ... In a number of ways, much better than my 3 sets of glasses prior to the implants: bifocals (normal wear), computer/music glasses, and "sports" glasses. And of course the astigmatism is all gone.

Most of the time, I don't have glasses on my face at all.

[tbdana]

My only issue after cataract surgery is a weird one, and has only affected my playing oncee.

Usually, they'll give you distance vision in one eye and close-up vision in the other. But I paid extra for multi-focal lens replacements, which I love, but it had the strangest unanticipated side-effect: I can see into the near ultraviolet now. So anytime there is a black light, my vision goes crazy. I discovered it when I went to Disneyland and in the Haunted Mansion I could see everything, how all the tricks were done, and the whole ride was lit up (rather than dark for most folks). I've had one gig where there was black light illumination, and it was a pretty big distraction.

If you get multi-focal lenses, you might have the same issue. Otherwise, after a week it was completely normal.

[AtomicClock]

it had the strangest unanticipated side-effect: I can see into the near ultraviolet now.

https://www.cartalk.com/radio/puzzler/i ... ws-mystery

[Doug Elliott]

My opthamologist told me the new lenses are larger than what came out, and cast light onto areas of the retina that didn't previously see light, and it takes a while for the retina and your brain to learn to correctly process it.

He also said most current brands of lenses filter out ultraviolet. Maybe the lenses Dana got didn't filter.

[AtomicClock]

It would take infinitely tight tolerances to filter out all of the UV while filtering none of the visible. So I presume they allow some UV to leak through.

[Doug Elliott]

My original own lenses were doing a great job of filtering too much visible light. Now sometimes bright sun is too much for me. The comment about UV filtering was something like "Most new lenses are better at filtering UV than they used to be"

[ghmerrill]

I had significant "photophobia" (Yikes, it's BRIGHT!) for several weeks after the surgeries. But it diminished over time and got back to normal. I haven't noticed any "filtering," color aberration, or similar effects with my lenses. What I do notice from time to time is that under certain conditions I seem to "see" the outer edge of a lens, but that's fleeting, very infrequent, and seems to depend on the brightness of the situation and the angle of the light. Not bothersome.

Regarding seeing UV light -- it's pretty solid dogma, supported by empirical evidence, that humans can't do this. BUT some recent studies have shown that in part this is because our natural lenses filter this out -- and so when a lens needs to be removed and isn't replaced, the subject may be able to see into that part of the spectrum to some degree (at least to notice light sources in that part of the spectrum). There are clearly documented cases of this.

So it would appear to be similarly possible that if you got an implant without a degree of UV filtering similar to the natural human lens, you'd start noticing things like that. Also, some even more recent studies suggest that there are cases (of "young adult" subjects) where people can see in the UV spectrum. This is worrisome because it represents a risk to the retina -- and for the use of various therapies (dermatology and "mental health") in patients with this "ability"/condition.