I had cateract surgery 6 weeks ago. It should have made me farsighted but I am now nearsighted in that eye and honestly not great at any distance. I am very blurry. I had to get new glasses so I can drive and the Optometrist told me I am now nearsighted. My Cataract card shows +21.0D Clareon. CCA0T0 I am wondering if they put the wrong lens in and corrected for middle distance. I go back in 3 weeks and I wonder if I need to get a 2nd opinion, as I doubt they will say it is incorrect. Also any glare is difficult for me.Has anyone else experienced this and did it correct itself?
What is the prescription for the glasses that you just got? Have you only gotten surgery in one eye, and if so what are the plans for the second eye? I presume when you said the goal was to be far sighted, you are meaning to be able to see in the distance without glasses? Being far sighted is different than that, and actually not a good outcome - worse than being near sighted. Your current eyeglass prescription is the best measure of where you are at now, and what the options might be... The lens power does not say much, other than it appears you may have been far sighted prior to surgery.
Thank you for replying, my new perscription is od +1,75-1.25x0.80 in right untreated eye and OS -0.50 -0.25x120 in operated left eye. My unoperated eye is so much clearer than my operated left eye I am hesitant to get the other done now. I guess I thought my left eye would be set for distance. At least that is what we discussed, but didn't turn out to be clear for upclose or distance.
That is a bit puzzling. Technically without glasses you should be seeing better with your left treated eye than your right untreated eye. On a spherical equivalent basis which is an estimation of total correction converted to spherical only (by adding 50% of the Cylinder to the Sphere) you are at: . OD Right: +1.125 (far sighted) OS Left: -0.625 (near sighted) . This should give you better vision at distance in the left eye only, compared to right eye only. . Looking at sphere only, as I assume you got a non toric lens the -0.5 D near sighted outcome is not all that uncommon. Determining the correct power is not a perfect science. Statistics show that only in 70% of the surgeries is the outcome within +/- 0.5 D. You unfortunately ended up at the limit of that expected outcome. In hindsight an IOL power of +20.5 should have been used. That would have reduced your sphere error from -0.5 D to -0.125 D. The next lowest power of +20.0 D would have pushed you into the + zone where you do not want to be. . All said this is not a terrible outcome. If your left eye remains stable at this degree of near sightedness you could get a Lasik touch up which should reduce the myopia to near 0.00. But, I am not sure I would jump into that as it is expensive, and it may contribute to a dry eye side effect. Instead I would get the other eye done but with the assurance from the surgeon that they will not miss the power on the second eye. They should have learned from your first eye what caused the "surprise" miss. And assuming they get you to the perfect window of -0.25 to 0.00 D, your vision should be as good as it gets with the second eye. You will want to ask about residual astigmatism predicted. If it is -0.75 D or more it would be worthwhile considering a toric lens. Your eyeglass prescription of astigmatism is not that high however, and with just a non toric lens it may well come down to a very low amount like your left eye did. Your surgeon should have an accurate prediction of what it could be. . With one eye corrected for full distance and the other eye mildly myopic you should have a good outcome for distance vision and a somewhat improved nearer vision from the myopic eye. With a monofocal lens like the Clareon you will still need OTC reading glasses or progressive prescription glasses. Suspect you could get away with reading glasses only. . It is unusual that you should be experiencing glare with the IOL eye. I would expect the cataract eye to have more glare. You should ask at your next visit for them to check the position of the IOL to make sure it is centered and not tilted. They should do that without you asking though.
Thank you for replying. It sounds like they missed it but not by much. I checked out at 20/25 the day of the surgery. I have had a stroke and am subject to balance problems so that might contribute to my discomfort. I will wait and see what the doctor says on follow up! Thanks
I'll agree with Ron that your prescription would be considered a fairly good outcome by most surgical standards. I'm wondering if it will take your brain a bit longer to adjust to being slightly nearsighted since you've been far-sighted your entire life. Give it another 6 weeks and see if it improves. If possible, I'd wait on the 2nd surgery until the issues/complications associated with the first one can be identified.
Most people wouldn't bother getting glasses with a prescription as low as in your left eye and they'd still be able to see clear enough to drive. I'm surprised the glasses make a big difference.
Thanks Greg, I had a stroke 3 years ago with no problem to my eyesight. I had to get glasses for my right eye anyway so I got a new perscription, since my stroke I am very cautious. I think the plan was to set my left dominant eye for distance and maybe the right for intermediate, I actually feel like I got the worse of both worlds, I don't see well close up and my distance is not great either. All of my friends talked about how colors now look vibrant, but everything is fuzzy to me. I am cautious now about getting the 2nd done.
Colours should be vibrant looking compared to the cataract eye. And with a -0.5 D outcome objects at distance should still be pretty sharp. It is certainly something to raise with the surgeon when you see them next.
If that eye glasses Rx is accurate for your left eye with the IOL thats actually a very good result since the IOLs come in 0.5D steps so it can always have an error up to 0.5D and they usually for distance target -0.25D rather than 0 since they want with that possible 0.5D error to avoid going positive farsighted. Also your cylinder result is excellent at -0.25D since often the residual astigmatism is higher than that like -0.50D to -0.75D. So that should give you very good distance vision uncorrected in the left eye, if not 20/20 at least 20/25 I would think. If not it may be due to some other issue only a full eye exam might detect or your eye still may need more time healing.
Thanks Nighthawk, I guess where I am confused is I was suppose to be able to see clearly at a distance. I can see much better at a distance with my right eye, which has not been operated on, but not as well close up. If the same thing happened on my right eye than I would have poor distance vision in both eyes. Maybe I should be happy with my right eye.
Remember that we can only estimate what you should be seeing based on your eyeglass prescription. Only you see out of your own eyes and that is what really counts. From what you are describing there must be something going on that is reducing your vision that is not the result of the lens power being slightly off. I think about all you can do is report what you are seeing to your surgeon and ask for an explanation. I agree with @Night-Hawk. You should be seeing at least 20/20 and perhaps a touch better with the operated eye. And for sure at distance you should be seeing better than the eye that is further off and has a cataract. Be sure to tell the surgeon about that.
I don't see colors as more vibrant with my surgery eye, just a bit more blue ish . So you can't count on vibrant colors.
That may vary from person to person based on the specific nature of their cataract. With my first eye I was seeing a very orangish colour instead of bright whites. When I had it done, it made so much of a difference that I found my TV to be too bright and so saturated it seemed unnatural. I switched the colour mode from Vivid to Normal and it looked much better. But, on my second eye, which was not as bad when it was done, I really did not notice much of a difference.
I am still confused, I started my surgery with +1.25 in each eye. After surgery I am -.50. Should I see better distance in the operated -.50 eye or the unoperated +1.25 eye. Thanks in advance, this is confusing to me!
Has the after surgery -.50D in each eye been confirmed at an optometrist? If not, that could be only the target, but the end result could be significantly off from that after healing of the eyes after 6-8 weeks. Also there could be new residual astigmatism as well that would complicate the result.
I had only the left eye operated on so far. I went from +1.25 in both eyes at first now -.50 in left eye only and still +1.25 in unoperated eye. I had two different optometrists cofirm that, they both reached the same conclusion. I didn't get toric lenses so I assume the doctor didn't see a problem. I am not sure what I gained from the surgery
Sorry I meant both eyes were +1.75 before surgery.
I am not sure what you are currently at in the un-operated eye? +1.75 or +1.25. But in either case a -0.5 D after cataract surgery should be better.
I think what I am confused about is should the-.50 be better for distance or the +1,75 is better for distance, I don't know anything about this except what I am reading, I read that a negative sign means nearsighted and a plus means farsighted. The optimitrist thinks I am 20/40 in my eye that was operated on. Should I be seeing distance better in my -,50 or my positive 1.75 unoperated eye? Thanks!
At the end of the day, only you can see what you see. All I can comment on is the numbers and what they should indicate. If your non operated eye needs a +1.75 D correction to see well in the distance, then you should not be seeing very well at all without that correction. I am think it would be about 20/125, especially if there is a cataract in play. . On the other eye if you need a -0.50 D eyeglass correction to see well at distance, then you should be seeing not all that bad without any correction. I would estimate about 20/30 or so. . That is a big difference between the eyes without eyeglass correction. You are comparing the eyes without eyeglasses I assume? . I think perhaps what you may be asking is whether a +0.5 D (far sighted) prescription indicates an eye with better vision than an eye with a -0.5 D (near sighted) prescription. The answer to the best of my knowledge is that for distance vision, they will be essentially the same at about 20/30 on the Snellen scale. However, for closer distances the -0.5 D eye will be better than the +0.5 D eye.