Cataract Surgery

[hbsteve]

Cataract surgery seems to be in my near future.  The Dr. told me i may not be able to pass the next eye exam.  I also have some sun damage on both eyes, which can be dealt with at the same time.
What is your experience with this surgery? 

[Bean]

You will truly wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Make sure you understand the lens choices available.  For instance, I opted for a BL Crystalens and regained a great deal of my reading vision.

[PonoBill]

I may eventually need it, my doc says the progression is very slow and in his words "you'll probably die before it gets too bad." So I got that going for me.

Floaties, on the other hand, I have in spades. No treatment, and none likely. My own personal flight of mosquitos. I was foiling in Kahalui Harbor when a big parenthesis-shaped one appeared. I thought at first it was a hallucination (A little thread cross-pollination, I haven't done psychedelics for many years, but I did a hell of a lot of them long ago) but eventually went to see some shocking competent and thorough eye doctors in Haiku. Anyone who lives un Maui understands my surprise. Just age--the fluid in the eye shrinks a little, inner membrane pulls away from the Sclera and presto, funny stuff. The parenthesis broke up into a bug swarm and now I'm never alone.

Actually, any sudden increase in junk in your eye should be looked at ASAP. It could be one of several potentially bad conditions that can be dealt with if caught early.

And if you're in Maui, the eye docs (can't think of the clinic name) in Haiku are spectacular. I use Casey Eye Institute here in Oregon, and they are world renowned. These guys seem as good or better to my amateur eye (pun intended). Shocking.

[Wetstuff]

'Piece of pie, HBS.  I did a dumbass thing; I delayed the second cataract for like 8mos.  'Can't do both at 10 am, but there was no need to wait. Like being in the Army or left-handed, I belong to another subculture, those who kept their glasses.  I can see like a hawk at 24" — like a mole rat beyond. But once the Chinese broke Luxottica's monopoly - I have a fresh change of glasses for about 12 consecutive hours.  I got a new scrip and two new pairs from Zenni ~$35.  One is a tricky tropical acetate... 'other, conventional, bookish, tortoise.

https://static.zennioptical.com/production/products/general/12/34/123429-eyeglasses-front-view.jpg?resize=800px:*&output-quality=80

They're a little large for my face, but really pretty in the light...  'may be a little gay, but I'm a 'stand and fight' type.  (partially because I am unable to run...)

I wear contacts in the water - fudged my daughter's script in Photoshop and have worn them for years.  I got a contact script included this time and these ones are a LOT better.  I don't think I have lost a contact lens in the surf or kiting in two decades.  I work with my hands, glasses for me have always been 'eye protection' not just correction.  They are my friends.

Jim

[PonoBill]

I'm in the "luxottica sucks" club, so that's good to know about. You'd think if you had a monopoly kicking off monopoly margins you'd cover that with decent customer service and warranty. Nope. Greed wins.

I also get you on the glasses as protection. I got my eyes lasered long ago. and it worked great, but I went from rarely to frequently on getting stuff in my eye. Now I wear safety glasses from the time I walk into the shop, and mine have +2.00 bifocal cheaters, because even though I can read without correction, I can't do fine work or TIG weld.

[Tom]

I had my 1st cataract surgery 10 days ago. Everything went fine even though I have some other eye issues going in. Surgery took about 10 or 15 minutes and the only recovery issue was the eye being dilated.  Now I have to do eye drops every 4 hours, while awake, for 5 weeks. Stay out of water for one week. Easy peasy.

[supthecreek]

Pre op meeting late April 2019
Surgery scheduled for mid May 2019.

Stoked to get my right eye back!

My other option was mid winter... but I plan to be somewhere warm at that time

[Bean]

After I had my right eye done, although my left was still 20/20, I noticed three major improvements.  The first was depth perception.  Just after surgery I was sitting in my living room and my dog came over.  I said to myself, holy shit she's 3D!  So depth perception is a huge improvement.  Also, since I'm right eye dominant, the second big improvement was the ability to hit a golf ball.  Naturally, these improvements pay dividends for surfing too.  The third impovement was reading.  For fine print I now use some stock 1.25 readers but for everyday, iPhone, IPad etc. no glasses neccessary.

[supthecreek]

Good to hear Bean!
my right eye is so blurry now that it can't be corrected with contacts or glasses.
Makes it harder to watch the golf ball land.... I can follow it till it gets low, then my depth perception can't focus my left eye to the correct distance... so I don't see it actually hit the ground.

Surfing it really isn't an issue.... except that I never see the GW fins slice by me while I scan the horizon for sets.

Pretty stoked to be able to see perfectly again... wish it didn't have to be so long till the surgery.

[Bean]

You are in for a treat Rick!

[krash]

I'm overdue and keep putting if off due to cost... basically with insurance each eye is about $1600.00, including some special laser measuring option  if electing laser surgery over hand carved surgery.. and yet another $2000.00 per eye when electing for lense's that give full range of vision (reading & distance)...

Currently I wear 1 contact lense in the left eye, am right eye dominant, and years ago had Lasik to correct almost legal blindness 20/800 to near 20/20.. I had the lasik done in a method called mono vision where one eye gives better distant vision and the other better closeup and reading.
Due to the lasik the special need for a laser measurement down at the time of surgery... apparently if you had lasik the pre-op diag's are 99% of the time incorrect.

The cloudiness keeps getting worse and its inevitable I'll have to get it done before the next driver license renewal.

Was hoping the prices would come down so's I could get both eyes done with the optional lense's to give full range of vision. The best of 4 doctors I went to said with the standard lense she would give me perfect vision at an arms length out, and full range with optional lense, she also said since I've been good with mono vision since 2001 she would recommend a mono vision solution with one standard lense and one full range lense. The prices don;t seem to come down but the lenses get better, and the surgery becomes more improved.

I really don't want to give up the ability to read, actually I don't read except this computer but I do tie knots when fishing and don't want to give up that ability and don't want to have a second pair of reading glasses where I have to remove my polarized sun glasses and put on readers to tie knots....