I was a bit surprised that you said yours was being corrected with glasses. Reading further, I see you are jus starting to see the ‘haze’. I’m way beyond that. Eye doc can’t even see in to do a proper retinal exam. I can ‘read’ the top, single letter line on an eyechart with the left eye, but it’s a half guess. Right eye is good still, or I’d be pretty helpless.
I had LASIC done and was not put under. I think they gave me a valium. And numbing drops. No problem.
I do find this to be quite a good image though - “I have to think it would be tough to do a successful surgery on me while I was running shrieking down the hall”
Had both eyes done about a year ago at age 57, and like most of you I am still ecstatic. No need for reading glasses or anything and I too had terrible vision all my life.
My mom had this done last December, first one eye and then the other. She seems to be doing very well, and can see without glasses or contacts for the first time since she was a child. She’s 76 now.
She tells me that she has lost that very-up-close vision for fine reading, though–the kind of thing nearsighted people have when you put the book or other object with text on it right up to your eyes without your glasses to read the small print.
Yes, they do. Someone I know had it done just last week. No sedation because there was no need for sedation. It’s pretty much an in and out job, home in time for tea.
I’m not sure if I could have it done without sedation. Other stuff, yes, but eyes? I’m a bit twitchy at parts of an eye test. Although not as much as I am at the price Due to my unusually bad eyesight with multiple defects (my natural vision is classed as “functionally blind” and I don’t fit on the “20/20” scale at all because it only goes up to 20/800 and I’m worse than that) the lenses I need are not cheap.
Having said that, I have claustrophobia and was rather perturbed at the thought of an MRI. I don’t know if the tech has improved since then, but when I had an MRI it was half an hour fully inside a space about the same size as a coffin. I think I could have licked the top if I stuck my tongue out hard enough. But I managed because it was necessary. I needed it done and the staff didn’t need the hassle of me freaking out.
I’ve had a few MRIs. The first was on my feet, so my shoulders and head weren’t even in the machine.
Next couple, I asked for drugs in advance. I’d once gone to one of those “human Habitrail” play structures with the kids and found that I did not like it at all, so it was a safe bet I’d have trouble with the MRI. I’m also a larger-than-healthy person so there’s really NO spare room in there. I have to hunch my arms together to keep them from getting caught on the walls.
So, I’d always asked for benzos beforehand.
The last time I had one, evidently there was an artifact in the machine and they made me come back again. Sigh. That time I decided I was gonna bull through it. I closed my eyes before they slid me in (and that one involved some kind of cage over my face too) - and managed just fine. I think for me that’s the trick: if I don’t look, I am less likely to panic.
Kinda hard to “not look” for eye surgery though!! Between the whole “EYES EEEEEEEK” thing, my light sensitivity, and an unpleasant history of local anesthesia not working well on me, there will be DRUGS involved. Which reminds me, I need to make sure the doctor knows about the anesthetic failures.
I also need something more than local for dental work, due to a well-earned terror (due to numerous instances of injections doing fuck-all to stop the pain). When I switched dentists, the new one scoffed at my suggestion of horse tranquilizers and a ball-peen hammer to the head, and instead offered oral sedation and nitrous. When she sold her practice and retired, the first time the new dentist had to work on me I asked for nitrous. She seemed surprised. I assured her “you do NOT want me undrugged. It’ll be easier on BOTH of us. Gimme the nitrous”.
My doc was of the self-proclaimed “new school” of cataract thought. Where it comes off the minute you notice something in your eye. No waiting for it to get bigger which he calls silly.
Your brain adapts to the damn thing growing, and you don’t realize you’re losing color and 3-D vision. My issue was the feeling that I had somehow gotten face cream in my eyes.
So easy peasy, and BIONIC LENSES!!!
I couldn’t be happier. Colors!!! 3 dimensions!! Night driving!!!
I bumped my laptop up to 125% and really don’t need readers, although I carry dollar store readers for medicine labels and paperbacks, phone games stc.
I did have to go back in for laser zapping of protein, as mentioned above.
ETA
I had had RK years ago, knives not lasers, and they corrected me to 1 eye for far and 1 for close. I went back to the same doc. for this procedure, and I think I still have that, although your brain figures it out quickly and I hardly notice.
I had cataract surgery twice last year - I had both eyes done, about 3 weeks apart.
Mine developed fast, too - and the one in the bad eye had almost completely obstructed my vision in that eye. It was causing me a lot of problems - my brain typically adapted but sometimes when I was tired it just stopped adapting and my vision crashed.
Yet I couldn’t jump the line for the first surgery, despite my insistence that it was really bad. The doctors kind of freaked out at the thickness of that cataract- she said it was almost too bad for outpatient surgery. So I DID jump the line for the second one.
The procedure was annoying, I put a lot of that on the doctors surgical nurse that did the scheduling. She was a nasty woman. I always got conflicting information between her and the surgical center. She was determined that I was going to be the last patient of the day — so she told me to come at 1. But the hospital told me to come at 10. I did and they took me first. This nurse scolded me the next time I saw her — for coming when the hospital said instead of listening to her
And the sedation was really light but they insisted on it and made me fast for a day. It’s was so light I didn’t really feel it when they did the first eye. They had to sedate me more for the second eye because I got hiccups in the OR.
I’m generally happy with the result, although some days my vision is better than others. But even on the worst day it’s better than it ever was.
Trivia — I did not have any discomfort after the first eye. After the second eye, I did, I felt some roughness and itchiness. I mentioned it to the doctor. She said it’s because since she has to work with her dominant hand, the incision is at the bottom when she does the left eye and at the top when she does the right. And you will feel the incision more when it’s on the top than the bottom.
Hiccups - now that’s a scary thought!!!:eek::eek: I tend to get them, a lot - and will occasionally utter DAMMIT when one catches me by surprise. My daughter has taken to calling them “the dammits” as a result
But it would seem like a Very Bad Idea to get hiccups while having eye surgery. Of course, it wouldn’t be great if the doctor had hiccups then either, but I’d rather they not sedate her!!
The ‘dammits’. That’s quite cute. And appropriately named.
Just thought I would update if any one is still watching.
Had second pre-surgery visit yesterday to get eye measured. Very easy. I will be getting a multi-focal lens. It’s called the Symfony Yep that’s the way they spell it.
It will cost a few thousand out of pocket, but I’m quite excited about it. Surgery in just over 3 weeks.
Work (GIS programmer) is becoming more difficult it seems every day. Seems like my right eye is working overtime. Thank god I’m a touch typist, and for spell check. The thing about programming is that a lot of stuff is odd, and critical, and doesn’t work so well with spell check. Heh.
Driving is still good. But I don’t have to go anywhere that I haven’t been going for the last 30 years (same job, same house since 1992). It does take more concentration though. That I can tell.
Not apropos of anything, but I must share with someone, so I will do it here. I hope I don’t sound sexist, but my eye doc could have taken a different career path if she chose to. Supermodel. I just… wow. It’s not that unusual to run into attractive people, but holy moly. Please don’t flame me for that observation. I’m nearly half blind, but not that blind.
The eye doc is just 2 blocks away from ‘Wings over the Rockies’ air and space museum. Yesterday, I had an hour to kill and walked over. Pretty cool. It’s not nearly as big as Dayton Ohio’s museum, but they have for instance a B52 a B1A an F111 a Tomcat and Starfighter just to remember a few. I didn’t have that much time to spend there. I’ll be going back.
Just one eye? will the other one be worked on soonish after?
My eye doc seems overcautious about surgery - it’s nearly a year since she first told me, and though I met the criteria (2 eyes 2+ diopters apart) she wasn’t in a hurry to schedule it. Even 5 months after that when the eye was a full diopter worse, she was in no hurry. She finally agreed, last month.
I’m considering going with a single focus lens in the bad eye versus a multifocal, then when the other eye is done getting it set for computer distance - i.e. monovision. I’ve basically had monovision going on for a while now anyway - I’d been very, very skeptical about it until this happened.
My understand with the multifocal lenses is that they require a fair bit of brain adaptation and there’s no way to tell in advance who will have trouble and who won’t.
Glad the first one went well for you. The second one should be just as easy. I won’t go into my experiences since I have some rare vision issues, so my case is atypical and wouldn’t be of any use.
I think the reason you used to have to wait for a cataract to “ripen” (ew–always hated that term.) was because docs couldn’t get it out of the eye unless the lens was hardened enough from cataracts. With newer surgical techniques, that’s no longer the case. Good thing!
Yeah, I was extremely myopic but didn’t have astigmatism. My cataract surgery improved my vision to a -2 dioptic, but with pretty bad astigmatism. I can sort of walk around without glasses and read up close without glasses.
In any case, my vision is far from perfect, but it’s perfectly tolerable wearing glasses.
I’m shamelessly bumping this thread, that I started. For two reasons. - I will have a few days of downtime after the surgery, and I want to let others that may have questions about it to be able to ask them. I’ll be answering them here.
My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug 7th 2018. So far I’ve had two visits to the folks doing the surgery. Measuring my eyes and such.
It is just one eye. But as it gets worse (it seems like every day it gets worse) I’m having a harder and harder time doing daily tasks. Broke a butter dish the other day because I didn’t see it was sitting on a dish towel I picked up. It’s very odd. The blurred vision on one side is really throwing off my balance and I think distance perception. My good eye often waters, gets blurry. I think from over work.
Work/job is getting very difficult. I’m a programmer. Driving now is ok, but I have done the same route every day for 25 years. I’m about ready to cut myself off from driving. But I only go into work one more time, and that will be all the driving I will do before this is fixed.
Everything is all set to go. My Wife will drive me to surgery, 100 miles away. And then I have two days at home. I will be seeing a ‘local’ (25 miles away) optometrist the day after surgery, and my Wife can drive me to that if need be.
Just some more reassurance-- my mother had this surgery, and everything went perfectly for her. She never needed glasses in her life until she needed reading glasses in her 60s (! I needed then in my late 40s), and however the surgery corrected her vision, she needed glasses for distance vision afterwards, because she wore them for driving, but she did not wear them around the house. She had the surgery around age 69-70 for one eye, then needed the other one done a few years later.
She kept separate distance glasses and reading glasses; never had progressives or bifocals made. Her reading glasses were never prescription; she bought them at the Dollar store, or some place like that, for just a few bucks, and she still did that, even after the surgery.
So basically, even after the surgery, she could see better than I do. Our family has an odd progressive myopia that often results in people not needing glasses as children, but needing them as older teens, or in their early 20s, and the myopia just progresses. Of all my cousins on that side of the family, only one does not wear glasses, and all of us, plus my brother, started wearing them between ages 16-22. It was 18 for me. College did it. Couldn’t see the boards in my lecture halls. My mother’s siblings have it, but she didn’t.
Having especially good vision to begin with might have helped her to have a very good outcome, but she also is the sort of person who is obsessive about following doctor’s orders to a T. So anything you are told to do-- drops, darkened rooms, eye patches, dietary restrictions, FOLLOW THEM. I’m sure my mother did.
Thanks for reassurance and kind thoughts. I had LASIK done about 12 years ago, so I’m OK with the surgery. As well as one might be.
I kinda excited about this. I’ve needed vision assistance since 2nd grade. This may end up being the best vision I’ve ever had.
Wife and I worked on some drainage problems in the yard yesterday, and that went fine. Just have to be very deliberate with every action because of distance perception being off. Moved about 12 yards of gravel with tractor. But blew out hydraulic line that I need to fix today. That’s gonna be interesting, but needs to be done as we have another 30 yards of gravel that needs to be spread. Would like to finish up next weekend. NAPA says they can build me a new hydraulic line.
I’m generally a pretty good wrench, but have never worked on hydraulics. I know to be very careful, and will be sure system is not under any pressure. It’s one of those jobs that either gonna be real easy, or a real pain in the ass. Don’t know yet.
I, too, have cataracts. Really tiny ones in both eyes and likely have been present for a couple of decades. They’re off to the side so the cloudiness is typically not in my field of vision unless I specifically look for 'em.
Due to my unusually bad eyesight with multiple defects (my natural vision is classed as “functionally blind” and I don’t fit on the “20/20” scale at all because it only goes up to 20/800 and I’m worse than that) the lenses I need are not cheap.
