I am getting a surgery. What replacement vision is ideal in your case? Long distance for driving may be too sharp.
First…I want to say…I had both eyes done, one in January and one in February, and the only thing that was notable was all the eyedrops. But it was a very easy procedure, with good recovery…and I wish I had gotten it done sooner (and I could have).
I have worn glasses all my life. And I was VERY nearsighted with no astigmatism. But very very nearsighted. I had two choices.
- 20/20 distance vision but I would have needed readers for all close work and reading.
- Very significantly improved far point vision (less than half the correction needed) and ability to read and do close up work without glasses at all.
I chose option 2. I decided I’d rather take my glasses off to read than to use readers. For me, this was totally the right decision. Im sitting here right now, reading my iPad without glasses. I love it!
There are a couple of other options available.
- One lens for far point and one for near point correction. I didn’t consider this option at all.
- There are lens implants that are like bifocals. I have glaucoma and my eye doc said I was not a good candidate for this. Plus, it’s considered elective by the insurance company...and would have been bout $2800 per eye extra.
I’ve worn glasses my entire life. BUT for the first time ever I have rimless glasses. My glasses prior to cataract surgery were way too thick for rimless. Also, my distance vision with my new glasses is 20/20 for the first time in a LONG time…and my near point vision is perfect without glasses.
I have progressive lenses still, but the bottom is clear glass!
I’d probably pay extra to get the multifocal lenses.
I am considering cataracts surgery as well so I have a dog in this fight. I have read that the multifocal lenses have other issues, such as increased halos around lights. Does anyone have any experience with this?
My eye dr recommended going with either close vision, distance, or one eye of each – but not the multifocals. He said most of his patients who went the multifocal route weren’t happy. I corrected for distance, and because I wear prisms and progressives, I never expected to be able to dump my glasses. OTOH, I can watch TV on the big screen without them!
I had both eyes done at age 46. The worst part was the period between the first and second surgery – I couldn’t read without my old glasses and my cataract surgery corrected for distance. Cheap readers were of some help during that transition, but not nearly enough, since I did a lot of work on the computer.
Another option here if you are used to wearing glasses is to get bifocal or progressive bifocal glasses with 0 correction but with a +whatever correction in the reading part.
Can you correct it somewhere between long distance and close vision? I don’t mind wearing glasses to drive or put on reading glasses for reading. But I would like not to have glasses on for everyday life, walking about and recognizing acquaintances on the street strolling in a botanical garden and seeing plants without glasses. What would you need for that?
I’ve had the multifocal lenses for almost three years. My Dr. uses ORA, a laser measuring tool, during the surgery to make sure the best possible lens is used. He gave me a very thorough explanation of options. My vision is not as crisp with the multifocal lens as it would have been with a regular lens and reading glasses, BUT I can drive and read and do anything I need to do without glasses. I do have halos around lights at night but I had that before surgery due to another eye problem. My only complaint is that certain mid-distance stuff is fuzzy. I have trouble seeing what is on the floor, like something small and brown-did I track in a leaf or did the dog have an accident. I have to bend over a little to get within focus range.
My cost was about $7,000 for both eyes. I would do it again. My H is about to get his second eye done and he opted for the regular lens. He can’t imagine not having the best possible vision technology can give. It’s all a very personal choice involving what matters most to you.
That wasn’t a reasonable option…since prescription progressive glasses cost average $500 a pair (Medicare payed $250 of that post cataract…and so do insurance companies).
Readers cost $1 a pair.
I’ll be following this thread because I’ve been told I will need cataract surgery a few years down the road.
I am in the middle of this, just finished one eye and had the meeting yesterday to pick the correction for the other eye; scheduled for July 3.
You didn’t ask about the procedure, but for me, it was quick, nearly painless and no problem
Back to the lens choice. Surprisingly, after my Dr listened and asked a lot of questions about life style and choices, he picked NOT the bifocal ones (said many people are less happy than they expected and halos are nearly inevitable). and he picked leaving my eyes nearsighted. BUT I can see SO much better . I can see to drive with no glasses, I just cant read the free way signs until I am pretty close. I can see to type and read on the computer (slightly large font). I got readers at Walgreens to read books. So I will need driving glasses and readers, both… but ONLY when I do a lot of those activities!!
My husband tried to push the monovision because he wears a contact in one eye to read and has distance vision in the other eye. I couldn’t do that I was pretty sure, and even more sure while I am in this half done phase.
Also, I thought I could get by with just taking one lens out of my glasses and looking dumb, but it didn’t work at all. My vision is too bad and with the correction in the one eye, the glasses had a much smaller image and they did not play well together. I wound up getting a contact for a month in the non-fixed eye.
I went in with fairly bad astigmatism and now have basically none in the corrected eye. It feels very different not to have glasses on. I may be kicking myslef for ignoring contacts all these years, but after college they hurt and I never went back.
Anyway, long rambling way to say to pick YOUR vision. I drive a lot and enjoy it, thus I didn’t want halo’s and didn’t mind glasses for driving, especially since I usually wear sunglasses to drive anyway. I read a lot, but don’t mind readers … they are so much lighter and easy compared to my glasses. And there are magnifying glasses for those pesky slivers. I haven’t tried needle point yet, I had had to give it up because I couldn’t see well enough. I still have another problem in my eyes that I’ll have surgery for after the cataract is done. But my advice, since you asked, is consider how YOU use YOUR eyes and what would bother you most (halos vs glasses etc) and then pick that!
Disappointed to hear about the multifocal lenses. I’ve always needed correction for distance, but in the last ten years, my near vision has gone completely to pot, and even my mid range isn’t so good now. I was looking forward to being able to correct for all, but halos or compromised vision in any field are not something I feel willing to accept.
I bought the multifocal contact lenses years ago and it improved reading only somewhat and decreased the clarity of my far vision. Total waste of money, and I wouldn’t want to make compromised permanent “improvements” to my eyes.
Hoping that by the time I need them, technology is vastly improved.
You can get progressive lens glasses at Zenni with whatever prescription-- like nothing on top and magnifiers on the bottom-- for less that $100, possibly much less.
Any way you can try monovision by getting some trial contacts?
I am extremely nearsighted. After years of wearing contacts and getting tired of readers my optometrist suggested monovision. I couldn’t imagine it but was assured that after a few days your brain adjusts and it’s very natural. Sure enough after about 3 days I couldn’t tell–and it was great to finally need no glasses at all-even for reading.If I was to have surgery that’s the way I would go.
I did monovision as my eyes naturally are that way. I see distance with one eye (that was the one with the cataract) and read with my other eye. I now have 20/20 in my distance eye. My reading eye is 20/30 - which my ophthalmologist says is perfect to read at a comfortable distance. He doesn’t think I will need cataract surgery on that eye for several years.
My doctor wants me to wait 3 months before I get the other eye done to get used. Would that simulate monovision? I don’t think I would like that tho.
For monovision one eye would be corrected for distance (you usually have a dominant eye for this anyway.
The second eye is corrected for reading distance. So no readers!
Sometimes there is too big a difference between eye strengths for this to be comfortable.
So a variation is mini-monovision. Here one eye is corrected for distance and the second eye less than perfect for all close-up work but enough to maybe get away without readers most of the time but maybe not always.
So, just having one eye for three months with no contacts to correct to a specific strength would not be the same (I get dizzy just thinking about that).
What are you going to do for the three months? Sounds like a great time to try out some options.
I haven’t had replacement lenses, so cannot comment on that aspect, but I’ve been very fortunate (so far) in not needing distance lenses as I’ve aged. I used to wear glasses for distance, but not close work. As I’ve aged, it reversed! I now need them for reading, but not distance. FWIW: I LOVE not needing glasses for distance, but don’t mind them at all for reading. That means I can hike, swim, watch movies, drive, etc. without lugging glasses along. It’s no big deal to pull them out for a menu, a book, or when sitting at the computer.
I had cataract surgery in just one eye three years ago due to drugs used for inflammatory glaucoma (caused by shingles). I was hoping that by putting a distance lens in that eye, it would be like having the two different lenses effect. But, alas, I have to cover up my cataract lens eye if I want to see close up without reading glasses. I really do need readers for my other eye to avoid eye strain, but can still read closeup with it unaided.
On the other hand, I can see pretty well for distance without glasses (always had a fairly weak prescription), but because I have an astigmatism, glasses that correct for that make things a bit sharper.
About the eye drops, I now had the surgery. The eye drops are really PITA. Do you really need to use it for 6 weeks? Or is my doctor being over cautious?