Major Announcement

[yogi]

Reading about your improved vision after surgery makes me smile big time. You deserve something getting better and glory be that it is your vision that is improving. I've heard a few stories about people not needing corrective lenses after cataract surgery and it seems you are headed in that direction. Perhaps the astigmatism will be affected in a positive way after all that poking around by the ophthalmologist.

[Kellemora]

As the swelling is going down I am able to see further and further away.
The doc did say the lenses would correct some of my nearsightedness.
But at the same time, by making me more farsighted, I'm now glad I bought those Reader Glasses.
I've lost my close-up vision, which is actually a good thing, since I will still have to wear glasses anyhow.
The new lenses inside my eyes, don't make up for the problems with my Corneas.
This tells me I might be right back to wearing tri-focals after all is said and done.
The hard part is waiting out the two months before I can be tested for new script glasses.

I will say this much. The world is a much brighter place, and the colors are now true.
I'm no longer looking through dark tan, and brown lenses, hi hi.
So things I thought were Ivory color are actually WHITE! Did I say WHITE loud enough? How about BRIGHT WHITE, hi hi.
I need to buy a pair of Shades, hi hi.

FWIW: I've worn glasses since I was 4 years old. I'm NOT ME without my glasses, hi hi.

[yogi]

Astigmatism is caused by the cornea being out of shape. Since the lens is directly in contact with it, it is possible that a new lens will help straight out the cornea. I doubt that it will ever be perfect, but I'd guess it could even out enough to eliminate the need for trifocals. Seeing the world in true color is a wonderful thing. The greater improvement should be the reduction or elimination of glare around lights. This is particularly a problem with night driving, but you don't do much of that so that the reduced glare might not be very noticeable.

There is something to be said about how glasses affect appearance. People tend to look more stable and intelligent with them. At least that is a common perception. I had to wear glasses as a kid and hated it. Now that I probably should be wearing them full time I don't. I only use them for driving and that is because of the restriction on my license. I get by well enough without them when I'm not super tired.

[Kellemora]

Apparently, the cornea works in conjunction with the lens.
I say that because, getting new lenses, set a little bit more farsighted due to my nearsightedness, has not really changed anything other than color perception.
I cannot do super close up work anymore without using reading glasses, however, my overall vision is still really bad.
If I want to see anything, I have to go back to my original glasses, and then I can see about as well as I did before I got the lens implants. My right eye was done first and is now 10 days since the surgery, and doesn't seem to be changing anymore. I have no distance vision in it, until I put my old glasses back on again, then all is fine.
Left eye still has a tad bit of swelling, so things are out of focus with it for a few days yet.
I know the swelling is down in the right eye, because I need readers to use that eye at 1 to 2 feet, beyond that the readers don't help, old glasses do work fine for 3 feet to infinity.

I have the same restriction on my license also. But I know have a card showing I have implants, even though they make no difference in my vision, other than everything is the proper colors now, hi hi.

[yogi]

The cornea rests on top of the lens. I'm not sure how flexible either one of them are, but astigmatism is due to the cornea being out of shape. Thus if that odd shape presses against the lens, the lens too would be out of shape, and out of focus. Replacement lenses, if they are rigid enough, could reshape the cornea assuming it is flexible enough to take on the shape of the new lens. In that way your vision could be improved, but not necessarily made perfect. Your experience seems to be that nothing changed in terms of focus. You only notice a lifting of the cataract veil. That is good enough for many people, but apparently your corneas have not been altered enough to dispense with corrective lenses. I suppose it would be prudent to reserve judgement until well after your eyes have recovered from surgery. Two months minimum seems about right. Be that all as it may, you are doing a fabulous job reading the very small text here in these forums. I don't know how you manage it, but whatever you are doing is working quite well.

[Kellemora]

I know I have a warped cornea, although they always said I had warped lenses.
I guess this explains why the straight lines did not turn out wiggly looking after the implants.
They put a +17d in my right eye, and a +19d in my left eye. I know, that means nothing to me either, hi hi.
I knew I would still have to wear glasses, mainly due to the astigmatism, and also bifocals since the new lens implants helped to correct my very near nearsightedness. I just have to lean closer to the monitor, which is hard on the back and neck.
But right now I have the +1.25 or +125 reading glasses on, so I can sit up a little straighter. If I use +200 I have to lean over even further, because the focal length is shorter. That being said, to work my crosswords in bed, the +250 seems to be the best since my nose is only like 8 inches from the page, and the pencil hits my nose, hi hi.

The eye doctor already pushed my appointment up from May 11th to the 18th after we talked on the phone.

[Kellemora]

Forgot to add, for everything else, I'm back to wearing my original glasses.

[yogi]

Your comments seem to suggest that the focal length of a lens changes with the magnification. I never thought of it being that way because I use reading glasses and driving glasses both of which have different focal lengths. The reading glasses are focused at about 18" and it takes a certain dioptor lens curvature to make my vision 20/20 at that distance. If my natural eyesight changes, the new glasses will still be focused at 18" but the dioptor rating will change. In other words the focal point will remain the same but the magnification factor will change. So, when buying reading glasses off the shelf, I would expect the same scenario. You can get different magnification glasses, but the focal point, the proper reading distance, should be standard and not change. Well, that's the way I'm thinking about it, but that may not be the way things work.

The distance the natural eye can focus on is due to the flexibility of the cornea/lens combination built into your eyeball. The eye squishes the cornea and lens in order to change it's curvature naturally depending on the distance we want to focus on. But, when we get older things don't squish as easily as they used to, which is why we become nearsighted. I can't imagine how "squishable" a new lens implant could be, but your narrative suggests it's not much. If you still need corrective lenses after the implant, that tells me there is no flexibility in the new lens, or there is very little. While you are now able to see clearly, it seems that the natural distance at which you can focus is now fixed. Glasses should take care of that.

[Kellemora]

If I put on my original pair of glasses now, which are tri-focals.
The bottom bifocal part is no good for close reading anymore.
Now, with the Right eye, wearing those same glasses, the bifocal is blurry at all distances, as expected now, the center or tri-focal lens now gives me long distance vision, and the top or normal lens is blurry at all ranges.
The Left eye is different, the bifocal is good for 6 inches, the center or tri-focal is good for 2 to 3 feet and the top is good for 5 feet to infinity or long distance.
Because I can't twist my glasses with one side up do to astigmatism, if I hold my glasses in such a way that I'm looking through the top lens of the Left eye, and the middle lens of the Right eye, I have good distance vision. Clear as bell but weird due to the glasses being ground for astigmatism, hi hi.

Because my Right eye has always been the worst of the two, and because the cornea in that eye has the most warp, I will still need script glasses to see good. This is OK with me! Heck, I've worn glasses since I was 4 years old. I feel naked without them.

[yogi]

The question now is, was it all worth it? You probably will be in a better position to answer that in a couple months, but I have a feeling that merely eliminating the cataracts made a huge difference. Most people say clearing that up is worth the pain and agony, and I suspect you will be glad you did it too. Vision problems can induce other side effects especially when you sit in front of a computer with small type face all day long. You might notice that you can stare at the computer monitor longer now and thus become more productive.

[Kellemora]

You know how when you wear a pair of sunglasses all day long, and although you got used to them, and everything looked alright, but when you took them off, all the colors were much brighter and more pure in color.

The only thing weird was going through the Blue Stage, when you looked at a computer screen or TV, and a few other things that are bright white had a blue cast to them. Doc said that don't happen to everyone, just those of us who had the brown tint cataracts. Those with gray tint cataracts seem to have a more yellowish look to things that first day, and always only on the first eye done. So I guess the brain recycles its video card, hi hi.

The polarized glass insert in my desk has made sitting at a computer all day pleasant.
Now when I go sit at my wife's computer, within an hour I've had enough of being in front of it.
Something about her computer puts one to sleep real easily too.

[yogi]

Something about her computer puts one to sleep real easily too.

I think that's a conditioned reflex (think Pavlov) built into your psyche when you have to deal with Microsoft products. LOL

Your comments about color tint are very interesting. I don't recall if my wife experienced anything like that. She probably did but didn't want to talk about it at the time. I don't understand how cataracts interact with color vision. If I weren't so lazy I would ask my friend Google to explain it, but for the time being I'll just be happy reading your comments.

The brain does a marvelous job to compensate for shortcomings in our senses. I have a few floaters in each eye and before my brain kicks in they look like black holes in my field of vision. One of them is substantial in my right eye, and there are several small ones in the other eye. One day I was plagued by these things and suddenly they disappeared. It was like some kind of mental switch being flipped. Spots for one second, and gone the next. I figured my eyes self corrected, but was told by my eye doctor that it's all in my brain. The floaters are there forever apparently, but the brain can compensate for them. It makes me wonder why the brain can't compensate for cataracts. It can fill in blank spots, but apparently can't clear up fuzziness. Interesting to say the least.

[Kellemora]

I think it has to do with the trauma the eye went through during surgery.
Right after I opened my eyes, everything was like I was looking through red cellophane.
But right after I got home, looking at the TV or a computer screen looked like looking through blue cellophane, and this lasted for like two days, then started to fade away.
Didn't have anything like that with the left eye though, although the left eye is still sore a week later, and the right eye was not sore even the next day.

My focal vision, with glasses of course, was just fine, and that is why I kept putting off the surgeries.
I didn't really realize just how brown everything had become. When I looked at white, I saw white, or at least I thought I did.
Now if I would close my left eye and look at something white or any color for that matter, the quickly switched to my right eye, things were definitely a darker brownish hue.
They did the right eye first, since it was the worst, and now whites looked really bright, and if I did the closing one eye trick, going back and forth, white became tan in my left eye. Other colors all looked like I was wearing a set of tan colored shades over my left eye.
But now, all the colors are nice and vivid with no distortion in color. This part is wonderful.

Shame they can't replace cornea's just as easily!

[yogi]

Shame they can't replace cornea's just as easily!

I think the lens replacement is similar to putting the new one in an envelope. It naturally stays in place. The cornea is stuck to the eyeball around its edges. I guess they haven't yet found the right kind of glue to stick on the cornea and keep it in place. If they can make a lens, I'm certain it's no big trick to make a cornea. Gluing it in place, however, is tricky.

I can understand the red filter effect. That's a veil of blood resulting from the surgery. The brown or blue on the other hand is mysterious. I suppose a cataract is made out of brown goo which would explain that color. Taking the brown away, however, should clear things up. I guess it does eventually, but the fact that things look blue in the interim is an interesting phenomena.

I think I see better with glasses, but wearing them is annoying to me. I can read this tiny text without lenses just about all the time. I tend to have dry eyes, which, if you can believe this, makes them water. Looking through those tears is a nightmare experience. I used to think it was allergies, but the eye doctor explained that I need to be using artificial tears to help the dry eye condition. Amazing as it seems, those artificial tears do in fact stop the real ones from forming and thus helps my reading vision. Driving without glasses isn't much of a problem either. When I put them on, however, the scenery suddenly gets sharper and my distance vision is clear to the horizon. That doesn't seem to affect the safety of my driving, but I can't pass the eye test at the DMV without glasses. If it were not for that fact, I would not bother with glasses at all.

[Kellemora]

From what I understand, one can only get a new cornea from someone who has passed away, and then you are on anti-rejection drugs the rest of your life. And they don't always take very well.

According to the doc, my seeing blue is normal, since my lenses were of the brown instead of the gray clouding.
That is how the brain compensated for the brown haze over everything, so things looked right to me when they weren't.
He didn't understand the red either, since very few mention it, and it only lasts for a few minutes after surgery.
What he thinks it might be is the Betadine than wasn't washed out yet. Since you are technically not put to sleep for the surgery, only put into a limbo land for a very short minute or two.

I've worn glasses since I was four years old, so I feel naked without them. And it looks like I will still need tri-focals, based on what I see with my new lenses in place.

My left eye is still in pain and it has been over a week, but the right eye, not much pain at all after the surgery. This has me concerned a little bit. I hope something didn't go wrong during surgery.
And I guess I won't find out until my appointment in the middle of May.

[yogi]

I probably do not need to remind you, but there are a zillilon people who have had cataract surgery and about half of them post comments online regarding their experiences. It shouldn't take too long to discover if you are the only person in the world who saw red, or if you are unique to have pain for an extended period of time. None of those comments, as you know, would be authoritative but it would give you a fair idea of how the rest of the world responded to the same surgery. And, if the pain gets too bad, I am sure the doctor will see you before the scheduled appointment. I used to be thick skinned and have a high threshold of pain, but as I get older that threshold is lowering. You may be experiencing something very normal, but the thought of something abnormal going on must be discomforting. Don't hesitate to at least call the office to get some advice.

Well, I didn't know about cornea transplants coming from corpses. It sounds creepy but I guess that is the major source of all organ transplants.

[Kellemora]

I know quite a few who have had it done, both before they put in new lenses, and afterward as well.
Most of them had the gray tint in their lenses, so didn't see the colors I saw.
One lady said she saw green for a whole week if she looked at the TV, or something white.

I did call the doc, and he said it is normal to have some discomfort for an extended time.
Which is the reason for the eye drops with the tan lid, it is a mild pain killer.
But you only use it for one week is all.
He was surprised when I told him I saw no improvement to my vision, other than at 2 feet and 3 feet on one eye.
All he said was it will get better as the swelling goes down.
Which probably won't happen as long as he has me on Predisolone drops.

[yogi]

Apparently the eye drops with the tan lid is a topical anesthetic. That's the same stuff dentists use prior to stabbing you with a giant needle to inject novocaine into your gums. They numb the gums first so that you don't feel the needle. I can imagine the eye drops doing something similar. I've read that Predisolone is a steroid that is used to control inflammation. Seems odd that it is causing swelling instead of curing it. The good news is that your eyes will heal in spite of the gunk you must use to control the discomfort. I'm glad you confirmed things with your doctor. It might not make the pain go away, but it will allow you to sleep better knowing you are, more or less, normal.

[Kellemora]

It was the Prednisone regiment they put me on after I was in the hospital that caused my feet and eyes to swell up. But then that was some mighty powerful Prednisone too. Even so, my feet are still swollen, even with super tight compression socks, but at least the swelling in the eyes went down enough for them to do the lens implants.
I just hate having to wait, and wait, and wait, to get new script glasses, so I can see normally again.
Going without glasses, or wearing the wrong script, gives one eye strain and a headache.
Doc said there is no reason to see me before my scheduled appointment. I'm doing close to normal for some folks.

[yogi]

The only thing I recall about steroids when I had to take them was that the supply was limited and the prescription was not renewable. It's possible that I experienced some swelling too, but since I already was wearing compression stocking due to thrombosis problems I didn't notice the swelling. I do recall, however, being told that it takes several weeks for the residuals to be purged from the system. Every so often I read about athletes who are penalized for taking steroids to improve their performance. I find that hard to understand given what you and I have experienced. There must be more than one kind of that medication. I also think that part of your problem is that you need to keep busy ALL the time. The missing glasses obviously slow you down, not to mention the eye strain. I too feel better when I am busy, but I can go for weeks or months doing absolutely nothing. Actually, that's how most of my retirement has gone so far.