So my vision has gotten awfully bad – hard to see faces across a room, hard or impossible to read my phone in low contrast (bright light) situations.
I figured my prescription had changed (it’s happened before, and no I don’t have diabetes) so I went to an optometrist. Cataracts! He showed me pictures - big orange blob on my eye lenses. I’ve been scrambling to find an ophthalmologist that takes my insurance who can do my eye surgery . Closest appointment I can get is on the 20th of November, almost 3 weeks from now, no idea how long to schedule surgery.
In desperation, I went to a doctor who does not take my insurance, paid out of pocket for an exam. She says I need surgery, it’s pretty bad, but reassured me it takes months for your eyes to deteriorate. Glad I saw an eye MD, but it seems like my vision is deteriorating daily, one day worse than the next. My face is about 9" from my monitor as I type this. Optometrist gave me a new prescription (“they should be ready in 2-3 weeks”) but I didn’t want to wait so I got an internet pair (zennioptical.com). They’re no better. They’re bifocals and I’m looking through the lower panel to read my computer.
I’m a bit panicked – will I be blind before the surgeon can get to me?
IMNAO, but from my experience, from the time you first notice a problem, to the time you need to have the surgery, is usually a long time, often years. I don’t think you’ll be blind within the next three weeks, but if you can get someone else to do the driving until your get the surgery I think that would be wise.
I also will need to have the surgery done at some point, but my annual check-ups don’t show it getting worse that fast. If your Ophthalmologist is saying you have months before you need the surgery I would trust that, but in the meantime rest your eyes whenever you can and make an appointment with a surgeon who will take your insurance as soon as feasible. Worst case scenario you’ll have to pay full price to get it done sooner by someone else if that becomes necessary.
I first noticed the problem in September. My prescription did change, a bit dramatically (I can post new/old numbers if anyone wants) but also the cataracts. From late summer until now it was annoying to “shit I can’t see!”. It seems pretty fast.
According to one online source " The cost of cataract surgery in the United States can range from $3,500 to $7,000 per eye, but the exact cost depends on several factors. Are you on Medicare? Apparently they will pay a good part of the cost.
I wouldn’t. The notion that cataracts need to “mature” is largely nonsense perpetuated by doctors who want you to keep paying for exams. Go to a place that specializes in eye surgery rather than to your corner ophthalmologist.
I seem to remember that the cost per eye was about $2500, but that was some years ago. My insurance covered it.
Recommendations for finding such a place? As far as I know, all ophthalmologists are surgeons. If I type “eye surgery” into Google Maps, I find one place about 40 minutes from me in San Jose.
Your vision should NOT be deteriorating on a daily basis like this! I’d have the opthalmologist explain this, pronto!
I was at the opthalmologist office years ago when an emergency case man was brought in by his wife. I could hear almost everything from the next exam room. He’d been seen just 2 weeks earlier by someone else, but somehow whatever it was has been missed. The deoc said he’d have lost his vision completely if he’d been brought in a day later.
Yeah, I was thinking on Monday I’d call the doc who’ll see me on the 20th and explain the urgency, see if he’ll take me sooner. Not much else to be done at 1pm on a Saturday.
There are a number of eye conditions that are essentially emergencies and need to be treated immediately, like retinal detachment. The symptoms are things like a sudden increase in floaters, flashes of light when you move your eyes, or a “curtain” or “veil” across your vision. If you saw an ophthalmologist and presented a recent change in vision, it seems very unlikely that she could have missed something like this. Cataracts are not an emergency, but they also don’t change on a daily or even monthly time frame. It wouldn’t hurt to get a second opinion from another ophthalmologist to confirm that there’s nothing going on besides the cataracts. There may be something that needs to be done before Nov. 20, but it’s highly unlikely to be cataract surgery.
A grad student I knew several years back had a cataract in one eye that went from nothing to surgery in about 6 months, and he was a young man, about 30 y.o., so cataracts can develop quickly.
@squeegee , there is no benefit to postponing the surgery if you can have it done sooner rather than later. The cataracts will not improve on their own, and you are already concerned about driving.
I suggest, though, that you get a good surgeon, not a cheap one. If you don’t mind wearing glasses, you can get a fixed focus lens implant that won’t break the bank. If offered the choice of traditional (i.e. old-fashioned) surgery or ultrasound, choose the latter from a surgeon who specializes in it. Good luck!
But first, be sure the problem you’re having is cataracts and not something else and almost certainly more evil.
Not so scare you, but my late wife started having trouble seeing. Which arose rather quickly. It was a metastasis of her earlier breast cancer growing in her retina. The good news is we caught it early. The bad news is it later killed her after it spread into her guts.
My Dad developed retinal cancer ab initio. Same basic story; first concerns were rapidly deteriorating vision for no obvious reason. Same outcome; it eventually metastasized into his guts and killed him a couple years later.
I am seeing an eye surgeon every 6 months to monitor my eyes. At the last visit I was started on eyedrops for glaucoma. I also have cataracts that are slowly getting worse. She said that they would require surgery if they got to the point that a new glasses prescription won’t rectify my vision. It would cost thousands of dollars here too. Ironically I have been donating, for many years, to The Fred Hollows Foundation. They state:
It was Fred’s dream to provide low cost IOLs to the world. Part of The Foundation’s early work was to set up IOL factories in Eritrea and Nepal to lower the cost of cataract surgery in developing countries such as these. Since they’ve opened, the factories have produced over 4 million lenses. The low cost of production of the lenses means that in some countries, cataract surgery can cost as little as $25.
The other threads helpfully linked by @LSLGuy are very informative reading, including about the different types of artificial lenses available.
I read them with interest since I was diagnosed with cataracts myself, mostly confined to one eye. I was also tested for glaucoma was was fortunately negative. If it’s any consolation to the OP, the diagnosis was several years ago and I’m still fine. I’d say vision in the affected eye is probably a bit worse than it was then, but certainly not dramatically so. This stuff usually develops very slowly.
When these sorts of medical conditions arise, I’m always thankful that I live in Canada where cost for medical treatment is never a concern. If anyone is wondering why I still haven’t had the cataracts treated, it’s for the following medical reason: I am a chicken-shit!
Getting another set of experienced eyes on … your eyes … may make sense.
What you’re looking for, generically, is a corneal specialist ophthalmologist who is a cataract and refractive surgeon.
You can give this a shot – subspecialty “cataract/anterior segment:”
Look for the usual stuff: went to a good university and medical school, been at it a while…
IIRC, you’ve had a complicated health history. If you wanted to, you could always choose from this list instead and make a five-day vacation out of it:
As a reference point, in South Florida, I paid roughly $11,000 as a non-insured elective procedure in 2023. Highly respected surgeon, cutting edge laser technology, top choice of available multi-focal replacement lenses. There are options to make it cheaper without sacrificing safety, if you are willing to continue wearing glasses in some circumstances. I don’t remember how much the lens choice added to the cost, however.
