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General questions re. cataracts

Eye Conditions | Last Active: Sep 18 8:07am | Replies (69)

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@cherriann

I had a multi-focal lens put in my left eye in 2017. My cataract was also causing halos at night and it was starting to bother some when I drove, so that was the main reason I chose to have surgery and not wait for any further decline in my vision. The lens I had put in was suppose to make it possible to no longer need glasses, except perhaps for close-up, small reading (menus, etc.). I have had astigmatism almost all my life and have wore glasses for that, but otherwise my vision has been quite good. Unfortunately, the multi-focal lens did not eliminate the halos, and my vision without glasses improved very little. The glare at night when driving and with certain indoor lighting, intensified! I had a small cataract on my right eye that I had intended on removing a week later after the first surgery, however because of the poor result of the first surgery, I did not dare do a second multi-focal. The surgeon also agreed that a second multi-focal would not be advisable, and to wait to see if vision/glare issues would resolve. They did not, and I am going to have right eye cataract removed in 2019, but will have only a regular lens with astigmatism correction in it put in. If I had the same result with a second multi-focal lens I would not be able to drive at night again....the glare/halos are very distracting and cause eye strain. I am hoping that with the astigmatism correction and removal of this second cataract, my night vision and vision in bright lights will see improvement. I strongly urge you to really do your homework on your lens choice when you do have cataract surgery. Removal of a lens after you've had one put in has risks that I did not want to take, so again, do your research. I wish I had made contact with others who had this type of lens put in before I had my surgery and found out what their experiences had been. Also, in case you are not aware, not all of these lens are covered 100% by insurance companies. My insurance company only paid for the regular lens, so I had to pay many thousand dollars out of pocket for the multi-focal. Hope my comments are helpful, and good luck!

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Replies to "I had a multi-focal lens put in my left eye in 2017. My cataract was also..."

no two people tend to have identical experiences. i wanted to get a multi-focal lens but at the end (before surgery) my cataract surgery informed me i would need to accept the risk that i might not read better than 20/60 with a multi-focal len. That was entirely unacceptable to me