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Thread: Intra ocular lens (IOL) choices

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Totem Polar View Post
    I am literally still putting steroid/antibiotic drops in both my eyes after having lens replacements. Moreover, I’m picking up the ipad for a sec after having just spent 30 minutes looking through the sights of a good number of the more common items in my safe.

    After talking with several people, including @mmc45414 who was most helpful, I ended up going distance vision in my non-dominant eye, and setting my dominant (right) eye for arms-length focus. As it happens, the ideal distance for a music stand is within a half inch or so of the FS on a G45, so having an eye optimized for arm’s length yields both specific (shooting, music) and non-specific (using a cell phone, reading a menu, email, checking my watch, etc.) benefits. In short, I’m sold on the mono vision solution. I don’t *need* glasses to do the things I want to do at this point. I’ll probably get a pair optimized for distance so my dominant eye can be more equal to my non-dominant/distance eye for driving long distances, but I don’t have to get glasses any time soon to function.

    At this point, I have peregrine falcon vision in my distance eye, and I can see the sights on my old fixed sight J-frames with my dominant eye, so I am a seriously happy camper. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend mono vision as a solution, with the caveat that I’m only 4 days out from the dominant eye.

    mmc will be along at some point—I found his input to be most reassuring, but I’m thinking mono vision all the way. Two distance eyes would be killer for hiking and driving, but you’ll be chained to low-mag readers from any walgreens to check the time if you wake up at 3am, or read a menu, or surf P-F on your phone. Not the end of the world; I did that with my first eye for 2 weeks, but it’s nice to be able to see my watch or the sights of a vintage j-frame without glasses. On the other hand, there is at least one other P-F’er who did distance in both eyes, and is doing wonderfully. The up close correction isn’t a deal breaker, considering the overall improvement.

    Whichever way you go, you are going to like it a hell of a lot more than what you’ve got now, for sure.

    HTH.
    Ooh, like the sound of "peregrine falcon vision".

    Did your doctor discuss any multi-focal or accommodative options with you? If so was there any particular reason you stayed away from those options?

  2. #12
    There are some compromises with clarity and night vision with the trick all-range lenses.
    And they are expensive.
    Code Name: JET STREAM

  3. #13
    Site Supporter Totem Polar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luckyman View Post
    Ooh, like the sound of "peregrine falcon vision".

    Did your doctor discuss any multi-focal or accommodative options with you? If so was there any particular reason you stayed away from those options?
    My doc flat out recommended against a multi-focal implant. Both distance, or mono vision were the recommended choices.
    ”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB

  4. #14
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    Thanks again for all the info everyone. I’ve got a meeting with the surgeon in mid March, will report back after then.

  5. #15
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    N. Alabama
    My wife was severely myopic (approx -13 or so in each eye). Due to this she had to wear hard contacts. She had lens replacement/cataract surgery on her eyes a couple of years ago and went with the monovision option (one eye close, one eye distance). She has loved it, and was already defacto monovision prior to the surgery due to one contact irritating her eyes to the point she had to leave it out for a couple of months prior to the surgery.

    As far as the question of *WHICH* eye (dominant/non-dominant) got the close adjustment and which eye got distance, they reversed hers, mainly due to an error, but it hasn't affected her much, if any. She is NOT a shooter, however.

  6. #16
    Hokey / Ancient JAD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RAM Engineer View Post
    As far as the question of *WHICH* eye (dominant/non-dominant) got the close adjustment and which eye got distance, they reversed hers, mainly due to an error, but it hasn't affected her much, if any. She is NOT a shooter, however.
    I wear monovision contacts, typically putting them in and leaving them for a few weeks at a time (not recommended but it works for me). I accidentally reversed my mono a couple of weeks ago and it is driving me batshit, but not batshit enough to put in a fresh pair.

    As an aside, it is beyond wonderful that we can reliably address cataracts. For centuries, being blind was just part of being old.

  7. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by JAD View Post
    As an aside, it is beyond wonderful that we can reliably address cataracts. For centuries, being blind was just part of being old.
    My grandfather had one fixed, he was flat on his back for a couple days, forty years later I was in and out in two hours - most of that time spent waiting - and walked out the door able to read street signs a block away.

    Same grandfather had his chest cracked twice for heart surgeries, today he probably would have gone to the cath lab.

    Some advances are amazingly great!

  8. #18
    Member Hemiram's Avatar
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    Feb 2017
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    MW Ohio
    I had been told I had small cataracts several years ago by my eye doctor, and I seemed to be having no issues until about the time Covid hit. I started noticing my right eye was blurry at night, bright lights had all kinds of halos around them, and it was obvious something was up. I set up an appointment with my eye doctor and it took a while to get me in. By the time I got in, my left eye was beginning to show some problems too. The doc said my right eye was just plain ripe and my left showed a huge deterioration in less than a year since my last check up. By the time I went in, my left eye was ready too, and driving at night was getting pretty scary unless it was on a brightly lit street.

    I had my first and by far worst (right) eye done back on Jan 25th. I talked to everyone I knew, shooters and non-shooters and there were so many complaints about multifocal lenses, that I just pretty much decided that monovision distance was the way to go. I talked to the eye doctor and he asked me what were my goals as far as what did I want to do without glasses after the surgery. Basically, I wanted to drive and to watch TV without glasses. He didn't try to upsell me as some friends had their doctor do when it was their time to choose. One of my friends has the mixed close up vision in one eye, and distance in the other, and he likes it fine, but another friend ended up having her close vision lens replaced by a distance one soon after it was put it.

    I ended up having Alcon Acrysof IQ lenses put in, these are, from what I've read, the lenses with the lowest rate of complications of any out there, period. The surgery was not bad at all, the only real pain is when they put some sort of burning eyedrops in your eye just before the actual surgery starts. It hurt like hell, for about 10 seconds. It was bad enough that even though I was warned it would hurt, I was surprised, both times. I remember hearing the heart monitor beeping accelerate after they were applied. The surgeries themselves were pretty uneventful, when the first eye was done, the color change was amazing. The scrubs they were wearing appeared to be a kind of blue-green before, but were a solid blue afterwards. I spent a lot of time closing one eye and then the other just to see the color shift. At first, your eye is dilated to a huge extent and everything is super bright. It was still dilated the next morning when I drove to the doctor's office for my 24 hour checkup. It was the first time I had ever driven without glasses in my life and the only things that were odd was red LED lights on an ambulance had "rays" coming out of them, and a truck had what appeared to be red laser beams coming out of it's taillights. Not scary at all, but odd. My friend who drove me the day of the surgery and I went from the hospital to get lunch and by the time lunch was over, about 2 hours after the surgery, I was seeing pretty well, vastly better than preop. When I got home about 3 hours after the procedure, I thought I was seeing very well. I was wrong. I got up about 10pm, and turned the TV on, and WOW, it was amazing. The next day after the 24 appointment, I went to bed again, and had another huge improvement when I got up. I was watching "The Amazing Dr. Pol" and saw wrinkles and spots on him I had never seen before. For 4 days, my vision got better every time I slept. About the only negatives are I now understand why friends of mine all had reading glasses all over their houses/apartments. I've bought a bunch of them and somehow lost one pair and another pair broke a couple of days after I got them. I tossed the receipt, so they just got tossed into the trash. And I'm one of the lucky people who taste the eyedrops. Yuck. I just put them in and wow, they taste awful. I will be very happy when they are over with. I'm getting close with my right eye, but have like 3 weeks with the left.

    One of the unexpected things is the huge improvement in contrast, I never noticed how bad it was before. Even though looking at what I'm typing without reading glasses is blurry, it's better than it was before the surgery with them! Everything was sort of "greyed out" looking, and I was shocked how text pops on a white background. I can and have used my phone without glasses, but it's borderline, and kind of uncomfortable. All in all, I'm very happy, and while I haven't shot yet, I turned on my "house gun's" laser and I had thought it was kind of weak looking, but it was my eyes. I was aiming at objects and I don't see how I could miss. The sights on the gun itself are a little different story, if I extend my arms out about as far as possible, I can see the front sight OK, but the back is just a blur. I don't think I'm going to have a major problem shooting anything except possibly my AR with the red dot on it. I haven't gotten it out yet, but I think it will be an issue. I can live with it.

  9. #19
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    Quick update:

    Had my pre-op appointment today. Spent quite a lot of time with the surgeon. He just did surgery on a shooter last week. Anyone in PF get surgery last week? Apparently shooters are the one of the common "high performance" customer categories for cataract work. I guess there aren't that many baseball players that are getting cataract surgery.

    After a whole bunch of discussion, and taking some complications in my non-dominant eye into account, I am going with something pretty new: the Alcon IQ Vivity EDOF (extended depth of focus) IOL, at least for my non-dominant eye. This is pretty new technology. I shouldn't get any "halo" effects, which apparently given my eye situation I would be at risk for if I went with a multifocal option. Close vision, like looking at tiny print on a serial number plaque on a piece of equipment, or tiny printing on certain medicine prescriptions, will be compromised. Computer work should be fine. Shooting-wise I think the Dr is glad I'm having my non-dominant eye dealt with first. He said an unsurprising result would be that if my distance vision is 20/20 uncorrected after the procedure, that my "front sight distance" acuity might be 20/27. But that is still better than a fixed-focus set to far vision, and can be addressed with corrective glasses if necessary. The other option for me to seriously consider would be a fixed-focus solution for my dominant eye set to pistol sight distance, i.e., a monovision solution.

    In other good news the doc says that while my dominant eye currently needs prescription lenses and does have a cataract forming, otherwise it is in really good shape; way better shape than my non-dominant one. I kinda knew that since it hasn't gone through some of the trauma that my left eye experienced. But it is still good to hear the surgeon say that.

  10. #20
    Member Hemiram's Avatar
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    Feb 2017
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    MW Ohio
    Glad it's working out well for you. My recovery has gone very well. Not perfect, but pretty close. I had to choose to either roll the dice and ignore my "borderline" astigmatism and forego the $1000 per eye "Toric" lenses, or pay the price. I went cheap, and it looks like I will need very weak glasses to see "perfectly". I can drive fine without glasses, but white on green street signs, the smallest ones, are difficult to read until I'm right at the intersection. I'm typing this without glasses, and have no problems reading black on white text at all. It's not perfect, but it's ok. I can and do use my phone without reading glasses sometimes, but it's borderline and I have to do a lot of squinting, and for some odd reason, opening my eyes past the comfort level improves the clarity a lot. I don't know why. Gets old really fast.

    I had new lenses made for my less than a year old frames and will end up buying the same frames with prescription sunglass lenses in them online for about 1/2 the price of putting new lenses into my old frames. I still haven't shot a firearm yet, but a friend has a pellet rifle with a red dot on it, and even though the dot is kind of like a comet shape, I shot very well, better than he did, and it was my first time shooting it.

    All in all, I wish all my problems were solvable like my cataracts were.

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