Carnut, what was the outcome of your doctor visit?
Popped in to give a bit of an update. I saw my eye doc last week, and when they did the initial refraction, my vision wasn’t quite as good as immediately post-surgery. So yeah, I’m developing PCO (Posterior Capsule Opacification). Mildly annoying, but I stood a pretty good chance of developing it, so no surprise. As it’s not bothering me, doc says I can get the lasering done any time; I’m booked in 6 months for a recheck, but if I want the laser done sooner, I can just call and schedule it (no need for another office visit first). I’m going to be driving long distance in June, so I might want to get it done before then to improve nighttime driving.
With the multifocal lens, they have to zap a slightly bigger hole; that’s the only difference there. Supposedly it won’t hurt at all, as the part that gets lasered has no pain receptors. I’ll be numbed / dilated, and there will be something on the eyeball to keep it from moving - no worse than the laser part of the actual surgery.
I got to see other hospitals’ protocol semi-firsthand this week and last: a close friend was having her eyes done, one week apart, and I was her escort both times. She has severe myopia (pre-cataract, -15 in both eyes which is Coke-bottle territory), had been on eye drops for a year or so to lower pressure: though hers was always well in safe territory, they say they can’t get a good pressure measurement with such severe myopia - and she also has other things going on with her eyes so they want to reduce all other risks as much as possible.
So she had one done at a hospital very near her house (happened to be where the surgeon worked that day), where the procedures were much like mine, including the ton of eye drops administered there (though she did not have to self-dilate like I did) and marking the eyeball with a pen (to help align the toric, I think). They used the LensAR laser there - the doc said it was faster than the Catalys (which I had) and less of a pretty light show.
For her second one, she was at a different facility, nearer the doctor’s office. She didn’t even have to take off her shirt for that one. They did the dilation by placing a pledget (little sponge soaked in medication) in her eye, under the lower eyelid; she said that was mildly annoying. She had the Catalys laser there; she agreed the light show was better. More post-op pain then (she had a goniotomy with both eyes, to ensure better eye drainage in the future, but for some reason this one was more painful).
Her pre-op regimen was different from mine. I had to use the steroid / NSAID / antibiotic drops for the week before; she had a regimen of warm compresses and an eyelid cleaner that included very diluted bleach. Which to me actually makes more sense; i’ve read that pre-op antibiotics have a risk of encouraging resistant bacteria to grow.
She’s finding the reading part annoying; she was not a candidate for multifocals (due to the other eye issues), so now she can’t even read her watch without readers. But she’s enjoying driving without glasses.
Scarily, she texted me this morning: she woke up with blurry vision in last week’s eye. She went to the doctor, and they measure her eye pressure at something astronomical. They administered something to lower the pressure, and she was waiting for it to take effect and redo the measurement. Evidently she had a bit of a rebleed into the eye and the blood cells are blocking the drainage; it was also probably affected by the high dose of drops going into the other eye. So she’s now on a different regimen of drops.
