Wellness

[I am still oxox]

I had very early cataracts before I was 40.  Back then there was no choice of lenses, everybody got the same thing

[Rosebud 06]

When I had my cataracts repaired I chose a distance lense. I don't need glasses for distance but I still need them for reading. I need a much smaller lense for reading after surgery.I also used 2 different kinds of drops before and after surgery.

[Oostende]

I had the PanOptix lenses impanted in both eyes two or three years ago.  I can see well at all distances.  I am happy with my choice.

There is a real downside to multifocal lenses though.  I get more glare, especially when driving at night.

[SleeplessinSD]

I've had both eyes done. Like @Shelbelle , I wasn't given a choice. My vision is perfect for distance, but I do need reading glasses. I bought some OTC readers with a 2.0 lens, and they do fine. I recently renewed my drivers license and didn't need glasses or help with the vision test, even covering each eye, one at a time, while I read. I didn't know about the compounded eye drops. I wish I had. Doing the eye drops, 3 bottles was a nuisance, and the worst part of the whole procedure.

ETA...I did experience floaters for awhile with my second surgery. They're gone now, or I'm used to them.

[Shelbelle]

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@SleeplessinSD wrote:

I've had both eyes done. Like @Shelbelle , I wasn't given a choice. My vision is perfect for distance, but I do need reading glasses. I bought some OTC readers with a 2.0 lens, and they do fine. I recently renewed my drivers license and didn't need glasses or help with the vision test, even covering each eye, one at a time, while I read. I didn't know about the compounded eye drops. I wish I had. Doing the eye drops, 3 bottles was a nuisance, and the worst part of the whole procedure.

ETA...I did experience floaters for awhile with my second surgery. They're gone now, or I'm used to them.

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Yes, no choices for me either since I only wear reading glasses too, on occasion. My doc office told me about the compounded drops, they say only 2 pharmacies have them in the country, mine were delivered from Montana, $40 and free shipping, what a pleasure !!!

Now some docs are using a dropless procedure, I am not sure my opth does it. My friend had a few complications from it

[ID2]

@tends2dogs  Be sure to ask for the dropless cataract surgery. It wasn't any extra in price. 

[CelticCrafter]

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@ID2 wrote:

@tends2dogs  Be sure to ask for the dropless cataract surgery. It wasn't any extra in price. 

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Because it's oh so hard and terrible to have to put one drop once a day in your eye and cross it off on the chart.

FYI, Medicare doesn't cover dropless cataract surgery, they expect the surgical center to absorb the extra costs.

[Nuttmeg]

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@Oostende wrote:

I had the PanOptix lenses impanted in both eyes two or three years ago.  I can see well at all distances.  I am happy with my choice.

There is a real downside to multifocal lenses though.  I get more glare, especially when driving at night.

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I also had mine down in 2020. The love them, but I need bright light to see fine print. 

[crazy4bears]

When I had my cataract surgery on both eyes I opted for the "mono" lenses. As that was whaty my contacts were.

My left eye has lense for distance and right eye has lense for close up.

No problems at all.

Don't need any kind of glasses.

[MILKI]

Hello, 

I have been an RN for 54 years and recently retired. I worked for nearly 40 years in the operating room and loved the job very much as opposed to taking care of patients on the medical surgical floor. Loved the OR. My specialty was open heart surgery and general surgery. But as most OR nurses will tell you, each of us are a jack of all trades and a master of none, meaning if I had to do ortho pedics or GYN surgery, I would do it. Same goes for eye surgery. Ophthalmologists are or can be really difficult to work with because most run their ORs like an assembly line, meaning if they can get 10-15 cases done a day in an OR they will. Fast turn overs, precise instumentation, implants, making sure the correct eye gets the correct lense can be nerve racking, not to mention washing trays of instruments and resterilizing them over and over because no OR will have enough instruments for each case, but the same is true for any specialty. Now it is my time for cataract surgery. The regular lenses that I am familiar with , are the traditional IOL mono vision lenses, where.a tiny slit is made in the cornea. Medicare and most insurance companies will pay for this type of cataract surgery, but hence, new technology , new ways to resolve ones cataracts are now in play. The problem is that the insurance companies have not kept up because the cost of doing this advanced laser cataract surgery is so much more. The price is usually per eye, meaning the cost of this surgery is determined by the ophthalmologist, types of lenses he selects for his practice and region of the country he or she works. Here in Billings, some have paid up to 5500 per eye, meaning this surgery could cost you out of your pocket anywhere from 3-5ooo per eye. Medicare may pay for some of the surgery such as glasses if you need them, but the advanced laser technology is a multi focal lense and 99 % of patients who go this way will never have to wear glasses again. Im torn as to which way I will go. Spending 10000 dollars or more out of my pocket doesnt turn me on, but I guess it truly boils down to how much do I consider wearing glasses after the surgery as a nusance . MJ RN.