Hello, I just had my first eye surgery on Jan 9th. The other eye has a cataract and surgery is scheduled in 2 months. I an high myopic and using a contact lens in my undone eye.
I am feeling two eyes are not working well after first surgery despite using a contact lens. my surgical eye can see well by itself but with two eyes.
I felt disorienting and nauseated at times, my brain seems to twist and stress a lot. My depth perception is a bit off when looking down. anyone has that problem? Do you know why? Do I need sometimes to adjust to new vision?
Since you are doing the other eye, I presume you went for a full correction in the operated eye? With a contact lens in the unoperated eye, there is an image size difference now, between the two. While it is not nearly as pronounced as it would be with glasses, it is still there. The image, in terms of lighting, looks a bit different as well, because the artificial lens is letting more light in.
You likely will adjust in time to the difference(s) as your brain works towards reconciliation of it, but once you get the other eye done, they will be more nearly matched, with regards to that. We all can be a bit unique, so I don't believe a specific time that is tailored to you, can be furnished, on when you will eventually neuroadapt / adjust / reconcile.
As I understand it you are -1.75 D in your left eye and now plano with a contact in your right eye. That is a bit more than the recommended differential of 1.5 D and that may be causing you some issues. One thing you could try is a different contact that corrects you to -0.25 D or even -0.5 D, so the differential is reduced. This will help you decide what correction you want in your second eye when the time comes for surgery on it. By that time you may also adapt to the differential.
Call your doctor for advice. Didn't they give you different contacts to try?
Vision imbalance after cataract surgery in one eye in high myopia is normal. Wearing a contact will help but like pershoot said, there is probably a difference in magnification between the two eyes. Do objects appear larger with the operated eye than with the unoperated eye? Your symptoms sound exactly like what I have been told to expect. If you also have your eyes corrected to different levels of myopia, e.g. -1.5 in the left eye and plano in the right eye, then that will require neuroadaptation as well. Like Ron AKA said, you may want to try having the two eyes corrected to a more similar target refraction to give your brain a little less to adjust to upfront.
Where do you best focus with your eye wearing the contact lens?
My operated eye's image does look a touch bigger than the contact lens eye. is that why i feel the operated eye is somewhar magnifying?
Initially i thought the refraction was wrong. The operated eye supposed to target -0.6 but ended up at -1.75. So i asked my optometrist to let me try a contact lens that is -0.5 lower than my power. However i dont feel much difference dropping from -1.75 difference between eyes to -1.25.
Do you know the nauseating and disorientating are from the image and light difference? or the refraction?
I am trying the -0.5 lower contact lens power for 4 days now and dont think it made much difference!
Do you think i should go lower in contact lens power?
Doctor said to give it a month for lens to settle before getting refracted!
It's a dillemma because if my surgeon target -0.6 for my second eye and hot target, then my two eyes will have about -1.2 difference. So does it help to use a contact lens of -0.5 lower in power to get use to about -1.25 difference in eyes now before second surgery?
I was fully corrected to distance with contact lens. But i was having big difference in eyes after first rye surgery 10 days ago, and that eye now went from -11.5 to -1.75. Because of the nauseated feeling after surgery, I asked my optometrost to gove me a -0.5 lower power contact lens. i don't think it has helped!
I think that is a great idea, because you will get to trial the mini monovision you are requesting before committing to it with the surgery. However, if the vision imbalance is making you feel very bad, you may want to try balancing the eyes even more than that with contacts to alleviate your symptoms. I think if you have a few different contacts you can try in your unoperated eye to see what you feel good with and what gives you the most functional vision that would be great.
The nauseated feeling is quite normal and I think you might experience it even if both eyes were corrected to the exact same power, whether it's -0.5 or -1.75. The reason is because the operated eye is likely seeing everything as larger through the IOL than the unoperated eye through the contact lens. It's difficult for your brain to combine images of different sizes. You may get used to it with time, and if not, the second surgery should help balance and bring you relief.
Consider going the other way, and try a contact that gives you -0.25D
If light adjusting lens is feasible for you, consider that . Think about it... they missed the target on the first eye by 1.15D.
Also, you did not mention cyl.
The disorientation / nauseating effects are more likely from the Aniseikonia, as also relayed by the other posters.
If you did not find some relief from manipulating the refraction, such so, in an attempt to more match the size differential, you may need to just ride it out, as the surgery for your other eye is not too far off.
I can tell you from personal experience, even though my particular situation differs from yours, any potential ill effects from a new prescription (and resulting image(s) display), especially one that has not really been encountered before, takes some time to flesh out.
Yes, you could try going further off full correction of the myopia in your non operated eye to see if it helps. But, in the long term if you have to do that, you are probably back into glasses for distance vision. Just time to get used to it, may work too.
That is correct. When one eye is done and not the other and you are trying to correct one eye with glasses while the other is being corrected with the IOL there can be image size differences. This is minimized by using a contact for correction instead of an eyeglass lens, but the contact will still sit further away from the natural lens, while an IOL is in the same position as the natural lens. This may be magnified to some degree by the higher power contact being used.
A monovision trial run before cataracts developed would have been more helpful. So now it is difficult to know whether you can tolerate monovision. Whatever the final refraction of the first surgery eye is, be conservative with a projected power difference for your second eye surgery lens. I wore monovision contacts for years, so I was willing to try it with the recommended EDOFs.
Doctor said to give it a month for lens to settle before getting refracted!
For maybe $65 from a local place, you could get an earlier refraction to give an early indication. Then share the numbers.
yes, if you want an earlier refraction you could get one done elsewhere, but I would insist on just getting the refraction done. I wouldn't let the optometrist dilate you or touch the eye as it's still healing from the surgery.