cataract surgery

A friend is having cataract surgery very soon, and needs to decide today if they should correct for distance vision, or for near vision. She is extremely near-sighted and has worn very thick glasses for over 60 years. She never really took to bi-focals, opting for reading glasses instead, and having to constantly change glasses. She is not very active but does need to be able to drive, and she is a a constant reader. In her coming retirement she is more likely to spend her days reading and being on the computer than anything else.

The question is should she opt for distance, or for near vision correction? Has anyone here had this surgery and regretted choosing one over the other?

She needs to give the Dr. her choice right away. What would you do?

hmmmmm - I'd search up on how effective over the long run short distance correction is. I don't know the answer, but here's what comes to mind for me.

Near sightedness is usually caused by your eyeball not being perfectly formed and therefore not focusing directly on your retina as it should, while problems with short distance generally come with age and are related to your eye losing it's elasticity and therefore it's ability to focus closer.

Correcting the shape of your eyeball should, I would think, pretty permanently correct your far vision, but does correcting for near vision last? or will your eye continue to lose elasticity and eventually you'll be back to needing readers? If that is the case I'd probably go with the distance correction.

what did your friend decide in the end?

In October I had corrective laser eye surgery, and they asked me if I want my non-dominant eye to be under-corrected so that I can keep from wearing reading glasses longer. With contacts, which I wore all the time, I was starting to pull things farther away to see, so I opted to get it under-corrected. Now I can see things closer while still being able to see far. Pretty nifty what they can do these days (I was pretty near-sighted as well, -6.5 range)

She's opted for distance vision correction, and is having the first surgery on Monday, the other a couple weeks later.

It would seem to me that the next few weeks will be really weird for her, and until her eyes heal and vision settles down being able to read or drive or anything will be a chore. Her glasses are like coke bottles - they will work for the uncorrected eye, but what about the other? Remove the lens from the frames? Then after the 2nd eye is done, the 1st may not be completely healed and her current distance glasses will be sooooo very wrong, but her corrected vision won't be resolved yet.

Does anyone who has done this have any words of wisdom?

I wonder if you had tried and liked having "one eye for reading and other eye for distance" contact lenses (my mum is doing this and finds it great, but apparently it doesn't work for everyone) if they then would do the same for lens inserted for catarats?

My father-in-law had this done with laser surgery as well.

Back in the mid-90s, my boss had cataract surgery on one eye, which gave him 20/20 vision in that eye. After that his glasses had one Rx lens (for the non-corrected eye) and one plain lens (for the post-cataract eye).

I imagine the doctor will have a solution like that for your friend, since I'm sure they deal with it all the time.

I have a friend who is having cataract surgery soon. She had lasik some years ago, but still wears glasses for reading. I will have to ask her if she will be able to lose the reading glasses after the surgery.

My friend did try contacts about 40 years ago but she stopped wearing them and went back to glasses. Think she had some discomfort, or fell asleep wearing them? Then said never again. I used to work with a woman who had one contact - so one eye was for distance, the other for near vision. I guess the brain adapts but it sounds weird to me.

I'll very curious to see how this plays out.

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Originally Posted by Kiwi Stoker

I wonder if you had tried and liked having "one eye for reading and other eye for distance" contact lenses (my mum is doing this and finds it great, but apparently it doesn't work for everyone) if they then would do the same for lens inserted for catarats?

My father-in-law had this done with laser surgery as well.

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they made me do this before they went ahead with the procedure; like you said, it's not for everyone.

I would imagine that the surgeon has done hundreds/thousands of these surgeries and have solutions to your friend's correction issues post-surgery.

My eyes are still settling, after 4 months, but I'm continually amazed that I can see so well without any glasses or contacts.

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Originally Posted by badger

they made me do this before they went ahead with the procedure; like you said, it's not for everyone.

I would imagine that the surgeon has done hundreds/thousands of these surgeries and have solutions to your friend's correction issues post-surgery.

My eyes are still settling, after 4 months, but I'm continually amazed that I can see so well without any glasses or contacts.

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My doc says I'll need this done in the next 3-4 years (before age 55) at the rate I'm going. I can't wait, to be able to see without glasses finally!!

Isn't there a multi-focal lens on the market now? When I had mine done over 10 years ago (I was only in my 40s) I also had to choose, and chose to have good distance vision. I have not regretted that decision; it's so nice to be able to drive and be active without glasses. I don't find it "too" irritating to wear reading glasses and keep several pair all over the house, a couple of pair at work, and always have a pair in my purse. I even keep a pair in my seat bag on my bike!

KB

My friend had the surgery on the first eye last week. She said her azaleas look kinda coral colored with the un-operated eye, but are bright pink with the corrected eye. Apparently cataracts affect color perception, adding a yellowish haze to everything. She is planning to paint her living room, and is very glad she waited to select the new paint color until after fixing the cataracts!!

I didn't realize how dusty my house was until after I had mine done! :eek: