Great for you but when I tried distance only in contacts (I’m -8 with astigmatism) it drove me nuts! I was constantly taking glasses on and off. My suggestion to anyone is to try it out in contacts first to see if you like it.
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This is a very important thing to understand. Full distance correction in monofocal IOLs is like glueing contact lenses on. Some are fine with it, but giving up the inherent near vision associated with myopia is a disappointing shock to some who weren’t properly counselled.
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Pre-cataract surgery I had to bring objects very close to my eyes to read them. Now, post-surgery I have gotten used to putting objects farther from my eyes. I adapted quickly. Sorry it didn’t work for you.
Also I don’t find myself whipping reading glasses on and off my face, but that’s just me.
I haven’t had surgery. It’s the collective experience of my patients that I was speaking of.
The patients that have the most problem aren’t the -10s of the world. That refractive error isn’t very functional for reading because it’s too close (10 cm). Giving up -2.00 is a different story. That’s close to perfect reading distance.
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For a quick read, take advantage of cellphone magnifier / light functions.
I have a Magnifier (enlarges, with flashlight controls) app that I can invoke with iphone triple-click. Currently I just use it for teeny print on packages, embossed serial numbers etc. But I think it could be used in other quick situations instead of reading glasses.
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I appreciate everyone relating their experiences, and of course @eyemgh 's expertise. I am sure I will need cataract surgery, and this thread has been unbelievably helpful.
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@eyemgh, thank you so much!
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I will be going for cataract surgery early next year. (First consultation is Dec 16). Left eye only.
I’ve been nearsighted all my life. Started wearing glasses in second grade. I currently have progressive glasses. Around -5 to -6, plus mild astigmatism mostly due to the developing cataract–or so my optometrist suggested since I never had astigmatism before. I don’t tolerate contact lenses well so I don’t wear them and haven’t for decades. I doubt I could manage mono vision.
I fully expect I’ll need some sort of glasses post surgery (for my right eye if nothing else) and I don’t mind wearing glasses. What issues should I keep in mind when choose IOL for my surgery?
I would love to be able to drive without glasses. I would be Ok wearing glasses for reading and computer use/ sewing machine use–though if I could get by without glasses for arms length work (Computer/sewing machine) that would be a plus.
What’s your prescription in the eye that isn’t developing the cataract?
About the same as the eye with the cataract. The right eye also has a cataract, just it’s not far enough developed to warrant surgery yet.
I lived at high altitude (6000+ ft) for 45 years so had lots of exposure to UV. I started developing cataracts about 6-8 years ago. They’ve progressed quite slowly until recently.
The issue you are going to face is that you will have a substantial asymmetry between prescriptions (amisometropia) if you shoot for a full distance prescription. At that difference it will likely induce double vision (diplopia) due to the image size difference (aniseikonia). Your non-operated eye will produce a smaller image through a glasses prescription. So, what to do? There are three options.
You can maintain your myopia by shooting for something in the -4 to -6 range. that will be close enough to avoid the double vision.
You can wear a contact lens in the non-operated eye until it’s ready. Myopic contact lenses at the corneal plane don’t minify like a myopic prescription at the spectacle plane.
Lastly, and probably most appropriately, you can shoot for full distance, and plan on doing the other eye too based on the anisometropia. Insurances used to deny that if the aniso was surgically induced, but they don’t tend to do that today.
It’ll be an interesting discussion with your surgeon. Good luck!
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I had a similar situation, @eyemgh and @WayOutWestMom. I had cataract surgery for one eye, and was told about using glasses. I was a long-term hard contact lens user, so I just wore the one contact lens for several years until I had my second eye done. I did find that I needed glasses for driving, so I wore the contact lens, and had a pair of glasses for distance.
When I took my contact lens out at night and was reading something, I found myself either holding the reading material either within inches of one eye or at arms length from the other, or using standard reading glasses for the other. With the contact lens in, I generally used readers for very close up work.
With single focal length lenses in both eyes now, I am fine with middle distance vision, using the computer (large screen helps), and most activities without glasses. I use readers for newspapers, books, mobile phone, and close detail work. I need glasses for driving - in particular, I find that a prism correction is needed, because I have some trouble with double vision at distance.
Otherwise, it’s great to get up in the morning and not have to pop in contact lenses to see.
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Just curious; this is my latest prescription but I’m not seeing numbers like the -10 and such discussed above. I’ve been wearing progressive lenses for years. I do know my prescription changed after last years eyelid/brow surgery.
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/how-to-read-eyeglasses-prescription
OD is right eye, OS is left eye.
Minus means correction for near sightedness (higher the number the worse it is).
Cyl (cylinder) is the curvature of your eye that causes astigmatism. Axis is where on your eye the astigmatism occurs.
I’m minus 8 and have worn glasses since second grade (and probably needed them sooner). My optometrist at one point (SO very long ago) said my eyesight was two fingers at 8 feet. I couldn’t see the big E on an eye chart.
The High Index appeared as a teen–it took my coke bottle lenses down to something manageable. Now my glasses looked normal. Wow. Such a difference! And Polycarbonate was a lifesaver–my heavy lenses became light.
The absolute best vision was from hard contact lenses. Which I actually loved. But they were easily lost and not easily replaced like soft lenses are today. So I’ll say at different points in my life I’ve given up some vision for convenience–soft lenses offered a cheaper more easily replacement. A hard contact lens actually changed the curvature of your eye (like a mold).
Progressive lenses were great–once you got used to them. Navigating stairs was an exercise in dizziness. Grab the handrail.
At many points in my life they didn’t make contacts in the strength I needed. But things keep progressing. And they’ve had some rapid advancements in recent years. When I went for cataract surgery I was amazed at the technology–and a lot of it is fairly recent.
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Just a “one more thing”–while I was looking for new contacts (soft lenses) a few years ago my eye doctor (a saint) let me try multiple brands of contacts from different companies. Who knows? Maybe she used me for research! She even ordered samples from different companies (anyone who could provide my high Rx). I couldn’t believe the differences between companies but also differences between variations within the same brand. My point is keep looking–don’t ever stop looking for contacts (lol, I know this is about cataract surgery but I know you’ve got friends!) that are comfortable. Just because you try them on and think they aren’t for you it probably means that you need to look further.
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In order to understand this, we need to back up a bit and describe three terms, not including the add power to compensate for age related loss of focus up close. They are hyperopia (farsightedness), myopia (nearsightedness), and astigmatism.
A hyperopic eye is one that isn’t strong enough to focus the distance light onto the retina. It is corrected with a lens that converges the light more so that the total result lands in sharp focus on the retina.
A myopic eye is one that is effectively too strong. The distance light focusses in front of the retina. It needs a lens that diverges the light enough that the result of the total system focusses on the retina.
Astigmatism is when the eye isn’t the same correction everywhere. Think of it like a football. It’s round, but not the same round everywhere. A saddle is another astigmatic shape, as is a cylinder.
There is one more useful term…diopter. A diopter is the inverse in meters of the focal point, or in the case of a minus prescription, the virtual focal point.
Let’s take your right eye (OD) specifically, and discuss your lived experience. The lens prescription is the opposite of that to correct it.
At 78 degrees, the 1-7 o’clock meridian roughly, you are -1.50. That means the light in that meridian will be in focus without your glasses at the inverse of 1.5 meters is 0.67 meters or 26 inches. Ninety degrees away, roughly 10-4 o’clock, your eye focusses at 1.75 diopters more than the reference meridian. The power in that meridian is -3.25. The inverse of (1.50 + 1.75) is 0.31 m or 12 inches. You don’t have a perfect focal point anywhere up close because your eye isn’t the same power all the way around. The least blurry spot though, termed the circle of least confusion or the spherical equivalent is the average of the two, or 19 inches.
Test it out. Clear as mud? It’s pretty cumbersome to explain in a way that it’s easily understood to a layperson. 
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Sounds like both my eyes are uneven in different strengths all over and I am lucky to be able to read without glasses! Still not sure what my “minus” number is. Or am I minus 150?! 
You don’t have a single minus number per se. Your average is just over -2.25, which is a perfect reading distance without your glasses on, between 16 and 20 inches. Specifically, you run between -1.50 and -3.25.
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Thanks so much!
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Looks like the decimal points are omitted, so that “-150” means -1.50.
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