I have been reading many of the posts on here and decided to add my experience with my cataract surgery that has recently been done. The info I read pre-procedure was very helpful so I want to share my specifics too. First, some basic background. I am 55. I noticed my vision getting gradually worse for the last 5-6 years. Most of it has been everything looking smokey and foggy/cloudy, especially inside when looking up towards the ceilings and the lights. No glasses but for readers for books and computer work. Night driving was getting really bad with the glare from the scattering of the light due to the lens clouding up. It was almost light driving in a white out snowstorm at times, especially with these ultra-bright headlights people seem to think they need, but only blind everyone else. Anyway, to each their own... I got my eyes examined and they confirmed the cataracts in both eyes. Right was worse than left, but both were bad. In the glare test, it looking like I was looking through dense cobwebs and everything got washed out such that I could not hardly even see the chart on the wall. It was definitely time to get something done. I decided to go with the Panoptix Toriq IOLs for both eyes. I am still "relatively" young and wanted to be as free from needing glasses as possible. I only used readers, so didn't like the option of requiring glasses all the time, and the trifocals seemed to offer a lot of benefits. I scheduled the surgeries 1 week apart, starting with the left eye. I won't go in to the pre-op stuff, as I am a big whimp when it comes to people messing with my eyes. I will say that I should NOT have watched all of the Youtube video showing the procedure as all it did was freaked me out, and I am a pretty level headed guy... Procedures went well. I had the laser assisted procedure, and the Versed did it's job well so I remember very little. Healing has been non-problematic. I have followed all of the instructions for using the eye shield for 1 week after each eye procedure, and application of the eye drops per orders. I am now 2 weeks out from the right eye and 1 week out from the left eye. Vision in both eyes is INCREDIBLE at all distances from about 10" to infinity. I do have moments of blurryness, but the doctor told me that is to be expected. The biggest thing for me was colors, and more specifically WHITE. Before the surgery, all whites looked off-white. When I opened my right eye after remioing the dressing from the first surgery, even though everything was milky and cloudy the whites really popped. I had to do the cover one then the other to take in the difference. I thought that was really interested. Both eyes are now mostly clear. 95% non-blurry with short little stints of slight blurriness, mostly right after waking up and just for just a few minutes. All colors are much more vivid now across the board. I can see perfectly at all distances. I work A LOT on the computer all day, and no longer need any glasses at all. Now for the down side. The concentric circles of light around each light source is currently TERRIBLE. It is the Christmas season, and every little light on the Christmas tree is surrounds by 3-5 concentric circles. Go outside at night, bright stars, street lamps, overhead airplanes; anything with a defined central light source has the rings. Now, picture that in your mind, now put yourself behind the wheel of a car with a string of opposing rush hour traffic vehicles and all of the headlights, with each headlight with those concentric rings of lights. For me, it is terrible. There is no better way for me to describe it. I knew from my pre-op research and lens selection that there was chance for this, but read that the halos were minimal; but wholly buckets... I brought this up to my surgeon and he confirmed that it was not uncommon, but that it should progresssively improve. Like I said before, I am only 1 & 2 weeks out from the implantation of the lenses, so I am hoping for the best. Bottom line : Vision is now great, as I can see pretty much at all distances. The rings of light stink. If I were asked the marketing question "Would you do these Panoptix lenses again?", with the assumption that the rings of light will not go away, I would have to say definitely not as it is that bad. Ask me again in 1/3/6/12/24 months, and if things have improved as my surgeon says that they may, my answer may change. Definitely take my comments of regret with a grain of salt given the short time that has elapsed. I am hoping for better results longterm, but I just do not understand how the brain can "adjust" for this... Someone explained it to me like the frames of glasses. After you wear glasses for awhile, your brain tunes out the frames and you do not notice them. That I totally understand as they are always in the same place. But with the circles, they are always moving in relationship to the light sources, so not sure ow the brain can adapt to that, when the rings are being introduced by the edges present on the trifocal IOLs. Hopefully I am missing something and things will improve in this area, as I really want to love these things. I hope that this helps others. I will try and update as I have more time with the lenses and report on if things are improving for the rings of light.
Joe - here’s my weird eye experience. I wasn’t a good candidate for trifocals, so I had monofocals implanted in both eyes. One is a Tecnis 1 piece and the other is a Acrysoft 3 piece (which i had to get as it was implanted in front of my capsular bag due to a tear in my bag).
I got the Acrysoft in first and my main negative was big lens flares from lights at night (different lens design, the glare presents as a flare, not concentric rings). I got my LE done a month after my RE and during that month the glares were pretty bad - i had the lens flares in my RE and the smeary haziness around lights in my LE with my cataract.
And then I had my LE done and got the Tecnis implanted. And know what, the lens flares in my RE have basically gone away. They’re still there, but minimized and since I have no lens flares from my LE (different lens design), my brain basically cancels them out.
So I’d say give it time. If you’re only 2 weeks post-op, wait for 4 weeks, maybe longer.
Give it long enough and Danish and the others with multifocals will chime in with their experience
Hi
Sorry you are dealing with these problems.
I have a mix, with edof and trifocal, in my case the trifocal is by far the lens with fewest side effects.
It is about 5 month since I had surgeries, and side effects do change, actually it started to change rather suddenly for about one month ago.
I feel I have good night vision, I still think about how well I see every time I drive at night, but that said, I am probably easy to please, I have had cataracts first 45 years of my life.
Neuroadaptation and the brain “getting used to” is very real, and it is not that strange when it comes down to it.
It is similar to all new things we need to learn, just as when we learned to ride a bicycle, this is not an ability we are born with even that it looks very simple, it takes time for the brain to adapt and to learn to stay upright on the bike.
With new lenses in the eyes, the brain needs to learn how to use the new lenses and process the images that gets displayed onto the retinas, and it takes time, for some it can take quite long time.
Hang in there, you are right now in a phase, where you question your choice, and thinking what you might could have had instead, I think most of us have been there, I was in that phase right after surgery too, it is a phase you need to get through.
I have heard from others, that the change/adaptation came, when they stopped thinking about it, and maybe that have some truth to it.
Well i can only hope and pray that my little brain can have the same kind of long-term adaptation. i know it is early in the process and i need to let things heal and get used to the new normal, but it has been disappointing given the level of just how bad the rings are, yet how good the “normal” vision is. Thanks for your insight and experience. i appreciate it for sure.
Thanks Danish for your reply. Yes, i hope things progress well over time I know it isn’t fair to judge the outcome when the game of healing and adaptation is just starting. It is just the level of how bad this is that has me down. vision is great, and dont want to lose that, but cant wrap my technically focused logical mind around how my brain will be able to adapt so as to not notice the rings anymore. I guess time will tell. Thanks again! Merry Christmas!!
Hi Joe - I have EDOF symfony lenses both eyes for little over 2 years. It will take several months for some of those visual disturbances to subside. I thought the trifocals would have less than the EDOF lenses but it really caries person to person. I do not see those concentric circles with inside lights as the light sources needs to be about 50 yards away and they appear at dusk and night. IE red traffic lights have these but as car gets closer they disappear.
Give it some time as it may improve. Don’t have a yag if you develop pco as lens exchange not possible or very difficult to do. But I encourage you to hang in there as the brain does adapt and these subside with time.
I totally feel your pain and frustration. I had/have it too, from a Tecnis multifocal lens. First eye was so bad with halos and ghost images that I held off on second eye, and months later got a monofocal in the second eye.
The monofocal cancels out a lot of the effects, but not all. I am still deciding whether to exchange the first eye to another monofocal. That said, this setup does give me excellent detail, as you describe, and bilateral summation that gives a richness to thw depth of field.
I can say that just after seeing the first potential exchange surgeon – who gave me a very cautious picture of the chances for an improved outcome: so cautious that if he were the only one, I wouldnt do the exchange – well, after seeing him and crying for a day with disappointed frustration, I knew I just had to settle in and start being grateful for what I had instead of seeing the defects and saying, “See?! This is horrible!!” And whadya know, I think the darn things started to shrink.
In another week, I had an appointment with my original surgeon and we re-analyzed my case..and I felt myself craving something better again. And the defects have increased again.
So apparently attitude makes a difference, really.
I can say that even when I do see them, they don’t startle me as much as they used to. Maybe that’s just resignation but again, when I relax, the gratitude starts flowing. I can see detail at al distances (up to 17" near) better then most all of my friend without cataracts. I may choose to stay with this for the precise clarity, and put up with some halos and ghosting. And I’m hoping that once the deciding is finished, I find things shrinking from neuroadaptation.
Hey Sue -
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, everything I read pre-op with regard to the lens selection said that the Panoptix had a lower potential for the halos/rings. That was why I selected those particular ones.
As for my rings. I see them inside or outside, day or night. Take daytime driving, I will see the rings from where the sun is bouncing off chrome trim on an oncoming car. It is not difficult to handle in the daytime as there are fewer light sources that cause this to happen. At night, all bets are off. They really do not go away as things get closer, but rather the rings shrink their diameter to being closer to the light source, but I can still see them. It is when there are 20, 30, 40 or more varied colored lights in my FOV at various distances, each causing the rings of varied diameters (not a single ring, but 3-5 per light) based on the distance away, and it gets to a point that I cannot really even tell where the cars are, like the tail lights of the cars in front of me. In these cases, the scene is so muddled that my depth perception is impacted such that I am not confident where the car in front of me is any longer.
I am just hoping that it will improve over time as my brain retrains itself. Till then, I will just have to try and avoid night driving in heavy traffic so as not to be a hazard to others out on the road.
Hey Tamarinda -
I wonder if my decision to have both eyes done so close together was a wise choice, but it is too late now to second guess that part of the equation.
As for attitude, yes, I am sure that it does make a difference. The brain is an amazing thing, and always surprises me in what it can do. I just have to get out of my technical analysis of what is going on from a lens perspective and just deal with it for awhile as my brain comes to terms with it.
I know I am griping here about it, but I really do not sit around and think about it that much. My sole desire to write up my experience was for the benefit of others to know what may be to come in their cataract journey. Things I read said that this could happen, so I came in to this eyes wide open knowing there was a chance. I just held the thought that i would not be in the 10-15%… And I still may not be in the 10-15%. It is only 2 weeks out for my first eye and 1 week for the second, so I need to allow the time for adaptation. Let things do their thing for the next weeks/months/year and reassess then.
Thanks so much!! Have a great day!!
Hi Joe, I’m sorry your going through this , Your whole story is so similar to my story especially before the surgery . the one big difference is I see starburst not the halos.
I have a really strange question for you . Did you have any major dental work done before the surgery?
L
Hi again Joe, Sue.An2 is right please don’t have any YAG procedures done, until you know for sure it’s the right thing. My starbursts did not clear 5 years now and 53 I just found out by the 10th doctor that my condition is caused from the square edge of the toric lens they used for me has caused positive dysphotopsia , my only solution would have been a lens exchange, however after the doctor performed Yag capsulotomy, sadly it wasn’t an option .
good luck
L
Ok now I’m curious! Plee explain.
Hey Leonora -
No, I did not have any dental work other than a bi-annual cleaning back in early October. Why, do you have a potential connection between these visual issues after cataract surgery and dental work?
Hey again Leonora !
So why does the use of the YAG in performing a capsulotomy impact this? I have not had any issues so far (all 2 weeks… 
) with re-clouding due to this encapsulation. I am not understanding how the YAG procedure impacts potential lens replacement. Sorry if I am missing something obvious, but I can be a bit thick at time… ;-). Have a great day!!
Hi
When the surgeon implant the lens, he is making a small hole in the front part of the capsular bag, but he leaves the back part of the capsular intact, to keep the vitreous gel in place within the eye, he does not want the vitreous to get inside the capsular.
When treating pco with laser, the surgeon makes a small hole in the backside of the capsular as well, to let the light get through. At this point, the lens have settled in, and the tissue around the lens makes a “seal” so the vitreous stays in place.
When doing a lens replacement with the yag hole in the backside of the capsular, there is a risk of getting in trouble with the vitreous.
Ahh! Makes sense. I have not done any research on that and hope it is not an occurrence I have to deal with. Thanks for the clear explanation. Have a great day!!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I needed to read this. I am 3 weeks post-op. I have the announced halos. I also have shadows on the temporal sides of my eyes. As if I was wearing blinds. I have been told it would disappear within 6 months with brain adaptation. Nice to read that it is usually true.
Hi, I’m Kim.
I was diagnosed with ALS a few years back. As you might know, this terminal illness carries with it the potential to not have the use of anything but your eyes. Eye gaze software doesn’t work with progressive lens glasses so I elected to get both eyes done with Panoptix Toric lenses. I had very minimal cataracts at age 64 and had prior lasik surgery in 2001 that regressed. During the past year or so my eyes got worse so, therefore, I decided to have the lens implants before I could no longer walk.
The right eye was done last Monday. It still feels irritated and it also feels like the lens is moving. The doctor said it was good the following day and said some people notice the slight moving but most do not. He gave me a thorough exam and I was seeing better out of my new lens than the other eye. He said it was about 20/40 and said it would definitely improve with distance coming first, mid-range coming next and finally up close. The mid-range is definitely better and today my reading also improved.
My left eye is scheduled a week from Monday but I might wait until the right heals more and I’m done with the drops.
I didn’t take Versed because I had a reaction to it years ago. I took 10 mg. of Valium two hours before the surgery. It was not pleasant and took much longer than 10-15 minutes he said it would.
I tried popping my lens out of my glasses but it seems best to just not wear them. I am having some eye strain but nothing I can’t tolerate.
The whole process wore me out.
I’m going to follow this thread. I had it done with a laser and there’s no going back so I hope my eyes feel more comfortable as time goes on.
Hey Kim -
Yes, sounds like your first surgery was the day before my second. Many of your comments sound similar to the things that I have experienced. For the first few days, it almost felt like I had some dirt in the outer corners of my eyes, but Dr said that is where the incision was done. I got the laser assisted process too. I had Versed, and funny I can’t take Valium as it makes me get VERY mean (had it during a procedure years ago). Funny how different people can be on things they can tolerate. Dr said we had quite the conversation in the operating room, of which I remember none. All the nurses came in during the day after follow ups and were still laughing about it. I was glad I was entertaining…!!
It was hard during the week between eye 1 and eye 2, as my eyes seemed to be fighting each other. I had the same eye strain and headaches, but once the second eye was done, I have had no more headaches.
I do get the shadows on the outside of my vision. It is manageable. Also get some very sporadic flashing sensations like the lights are blinking, but nothing terrible.
On both of my eyes, the follow up on the day after surgery I had 20/25 in each eye, so was doing really well. I love the vision clarity for sure and colors are much more vivid. I didn’t realize just how bad the clouding had gotten. It is just these halos/concentric rings that I hope diminish over time. If they do, I will be completely pleased with the procedure.
Good luck with your process. I will keep good thoughts for an awesome recovery and outcome!!
Your welcome.
I also had the shadows both sides, first weeks I noticed it all the time, but now I frankly don´t see it any more. If I really look for it, I can still see it is there, but I really don´t notice it or think about it any more.