I had cataract surgery on my right eye two days ago. I had a young cataract as well as what was described to me as a "smudge" on the lens. My only visual problem prior to surgery was not being able to see well while working, arms length away from my computer. I was told that this was not correctable with refraction or glasses, and that when it became bad enough, I could have cataract surgery to solve the issue. The surgery went well. However, my vision is much worse in general than before. I can see well at great distances, but my intermediate eyesight is blurry and objects appear much bigger thru the eye operated on than they do thru my glasses with my other eye. I can't read the clocks on my walls, see the tv well, or basically see anything well inside my house. My upclose vision in the right eye is completely gone. My left eye has only a young cataract but now it seems I have no choice but to let him operate on it as well, to even things out. I can't even walk well using my glasses for the left eye and the right eye without glasses. Extreme double vision!I feel I've made an incredible error in having this surgery and I'm just sick about it. Any help would be appreciated. Note: my nearsightedness without correction is in the -11 to -12 neighborhood. Thanks.
You don’t mention what type of IOL they used in your operated eye, but I assume from what you describe it is a monofocal lens with a power to give you 20/20 distance vision?
.
I have also just recently had my right eye operated on and the lens replaced with a monofocal IOL for distance. I can’t get a new eyeglass prescription for another 5 weeks or so. I have had the right lens removed from my eyeglasses, and use that to get by for some of the time. I also notice a difference in the size of the image from one eye to the other, and get kind of an odd dizzy feeling when wearing the glasses with one lens out. However, we differ in that you have a very myopic -11 D eye, and I have the equivalent of about a -2.0 D correction in my non operated eye. But, I still see a difference. You are probably seeing a much bigger difference than I do.
.
My other way of coping has been to use a contact in my non operated eye. I find that much more natural feeling without the dizzyness and I don’t really see a size difference in the image when I use a contact. This contact is only a -0.75 D lens and gives me a -1.25 under correction to allow me to read a computer screen and some print closer. Still it feels better than the eyeglasses which give me full correction and 20/20 vision in the non operated eye.
.
To answer your question I don’t think you made a big mistake. The eye surgeon perhaps should have given you some warning that what you are seeing could be an issue. My thoughts are that there are two ways out of your situation. One as you suggest is to get the second eye operated on. For sure in the long term that is a good solution, and you may want to consider monovision to get some reading ability. However, an interim solution may be to use a contact in the non operated eye. Because a contact is so much closer to where your real lens is, it causes less of an image size issue, especially with the high power lens you need. One upside of using a contact solution is that you can simulate monovision, and decide if that is what you want and can tolerate for a permanent IOL solution in the second eye.
.
I started wearing soft contacts about 1975 and I guess in some ways I am a long term user. However, I had grown tired of them, and given up wearing them except for very occasional times when I didn’t want glasses. Now I am kind of forced back to taking them seriously. If you are new to contacts, I could give you some help based on my experience with them. Just ask.