Cataract Surgery

[morgandawn]

 I've done some reading online but no one is answering these questions. My mom is gong for cataract surgery on both eyes. Eye 1 will be first and then a month later eye 2 She is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses to walk, eat, drive, watch TV, move about safely

1. During the one month between the 2 operations - how will she see? Her old glasses will not work on Operated Eye. I've read some people had to pop out the one lens of the old glasses so they can see

2. During the weeks after Second Eye surgery she will have even worse vision. Neither eyes will be able to see through her old glasses. They will give her a new prescription BUT.......

The doctor told her they will not give her a new prescription until one month after her second surgery. It will then take another 4-6 weeks for those new glasses to be made. What is she supposed to do for those 2 months? She is a senior at risk for falls and relies on good vision to walk safely

The new lens will most likely be fixed to give her 20/20 long distance vision.  She will have to use reading glasses or bifocals to read. She will also have problems with computer work - most progressives offer too small a 'slice' for middle vision (computer work)

Comments

[amedia]

So I pumped TODS for information this morning. :-)

He was extremely nearsighted before the surgery—although it was expensive (at that time, the laser was considered experimental, so that part wasn’t covered)—we’ve undoubtedly saved a couple thousand dollars on glasses since then. He got the Toric distance lenses, which corrected his nearsightedness and astigmatism. He does not wear glasses to drive. However, he need reading bifocals (different magnification for different components of tasks). We got them cheap from Zenni.

He’s mentioned that he misses being able to take his glasses off to look at things close up. So I asked him this morning if he wishes he’d gotten the close-vision lenses implanted instead, and he said no, because he loves to travel and the distance vision is good for that.

Between surgeries, he said, he simply took his glasses off and ignored the input from the bad eye, which, he said, was much easier than it sounds. He said the surgery was painless and the results were immediate—he could see perfectly out of the operated-on eye right away. Mind you, he was thirty years younger than everyone else in the waiting room. And I realize that info might not be as helpful to your mom for driving, since she’s looking at the closer-distance lens.

He had asked about using his glasses and taking out the lens in front of the operated-on eye, and the doctor said that wouldn’t work, at least not for him, because glasses distort your vision somewhat (nearsighted glasses make things look smaller), so the input from the two eyes wouldn’t match.

[amedia]

More on the reading glasses, including a weird gendered phenomenon. They told him he could use drugstore reading glasses, but those made him feel nauseated. The female optometrist who wrote the Rx for reading bifocals was puzzled by this, but the male optician wasn’t. TODS came into my office to explain. “I’ll show you!” He said. “Type something,”. So I did, and he looked baffled. “You’re not looking at your hands.” “Of course not!” I said. “Girls my age were taught to touch-type.” Hence the gendered reaction from the specialists—the guy realized the keyboard is farther away than the screen, hence, two different levels of magnification. Didn’t occur to the gal, just as it didn’t occur to me;we don’t look at the keyboard.

The locally-purchased reading bifocals were something like $200. From Zenni, $40-50.