Bad News, and Some Good

self | August 04, 2010 | swampsniper

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I've been noticing some long distance vision problems for several months. I had an exam today, cataracts in both eyes. The doc says new specs will keep me going for a while but plan on surgery within 2 years or so.

The good news is that there are no signs of glaucoma, and my optic nerves and arteries look good.

I've probably been missing a lot, when your eyes just gradually start having problems you don't always notice how bad they are.

[deoetdoctrinae]

Swamp, you are at the top of my prayer list. God listens. God touches us. God heals.

Stay strong in faith. We are here for you.

[fml]

Sending a prayer your way.

[firebrand]

This is one of those surgeries that have become routine and almost risk-free, I believe. Many, many people have had it. The hardest part is keeping your courage up, since eye operations of any kind give people the creeps. Our prayers will be with you when the time comes.

[csmusaret]

Why wait till you are dangerous on the road at night? The surgery is a snap and there isn’t any recovery to speak of. Go for it.

[muawiyah]

I had one eye done without anesthetic ~ which kind of tells you how much of a snap it is although that's not exactly something you want to do unless you have bad reactions to anesthetics.

Still, they usually schedule each eye about a month apart ~ that way if something goes wrong you only lose one eye!

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Got to wait and save up the bucks. My daughter has been job hunting for 7 or 8 months now.

I don't drive much anyway, no need to drive at night at all. Remember, I only go out of the swamp to buy neccessities or take pictures. I could do well with a good saddle horse if I didn't have highways to deal with.

[Outlaw Woman]

ss...I’ve enjoyed your posts since being here. If I might, don’t wait, get your cataracts taken care of now with laser. My elderly neighbor did a few years ago and was up and running in a few days. Nip it in the bud. Advances in the field have been astounding...plus (don’t mean to throw a downer in here) we don’t know how this healthcare crap is going to shake out.
Good luck FRiend.

[LonePalm]

Prayers up for a successful outcome.

Notre père, qui êtes aux cieux!
Que votre nom soit sanctificié. Que votre règne vienne.
Que votre volonté soit faite, sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donnez-nous aujourd'hui notre poindre ce jour.
Pardonnez-nous nos offenses, comme nous pardonnons aussi a ceux, qui nous ont offensés,
et ne nous soumetez pas à la tentation, mais délivrez-nous du mal.
Car c'est à toi qu'appartiènne, le régne, la puissance et la gloire, pour les siècles des siècles.
Amen.

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâces,
le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes,
et Jésus le fruit de vos entrailles est béni.
Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pauvres pécheurs,
maintenant, et à l'heure de notre mort. Ainsi-soit-il.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I need to get ahead on some expenses first. Even with my insurance I’ll need to set aside some money for it.

[Ole Okie]

Take it from an old guy who went from dim vision to 20/20 in each eye with cataract surgery. The results, at least in my case, were astounding. The world suddenly is clear again and I can see in three dimensions.

Surgery itself is essentially a snap. One eye at a time over a two or three week period. Painless. I drove to and from each surgery, so I was operational very quickly.

[Bad~Rodeo]

Prayers from the Lone Star State go out to you

[Outlaw Woman]

I can relate completely. Will keep you in prayer.

[Gay State Conservative]

My Dad had cataracts removed from both his eyes without any problem.Having worked for a major hospital in a big city for many years my advice would be have it done by a doctor who's a member of a large ophthalmology group affiliated with a major hospital in a big city.I see you're in FL.If it were me I'd travel to Atlanta.But,of course,mine is just one opinion. ;-)

[Orange1998]

Relative had the surgery and she is very pleased with results. Prayers your way.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Saying “cataracts good, glaucoma bad” might not cheer you up, but I can tell you that my mother had cataract surgery and for a time afterward was 20/20.

[dickmc]

I'm in early seventies and had to wear glasses since 6 years old — one needing a fairly strong, almost coke bottle lens. Had one eye done last year and the other a few months ago with both lenses sized for distance. Vision is now essentially 20/20 in both eyes. In a pinch I can read a newspaper without glasses with a normal reading light brightness and can read my watch fine. I can also use the monitor to read FR but prefer to use reading glasses for a lot of computer work or books. (This is because you loose the ability to focus when the lens is removed but I can still do a little. In any event a lot of the ability to focus close is already lost by the time you reach social security age. That is why kids hold something a few inches from their eye to look at it. They can actually focus that close! Even a lens set for distance should give excellent vision as close as around two feet.) Knowing the result, I should have had it done years ago. See the words to Paul Simon's Kodachrome :-)

Between Medicare and the Blue Cross private insurance supplement, I was only out a few hundred dollars. And that was with an excellent eye surgeon done as an outpatient at a local hospital. Anesthetic is kind of twilight as you need to be awake enough to look in various directions during the surgery. In at 7 a.m. and home by 1 p.m. No pain during or after or even any irritation like you feel with a piece of dust in your eye. You need to sleep on your back for the first week with an eye patch shield at night. After that no swimming or contact sports for a month.

Find a good experienced eye doctor and get it done as a hospital outpatient rather than at a clinic. In this case it was my wife's eye doctor who does about four cataracts every Wednesday. My advice is to get the regular lens, the ones that are supposed to be able to focus "don't" and are not that well developed. My wife got one eye lens set for distance and the other eye's lens set for reading. Personally I'm happy with both set for distance. Find a good eye doctor with a lot of experience and it will be a piece of cake. Regards

[Nepeta]

Have the cataract surgeries done as soon as you are able.

If possible, look into the 'focusable' lens implants. I had 'Crystalens HD' implants done 2 years ago. I can drive, use a computer, and read labels in stores without glasses after a lifetime of wearing glasses for everything. The astonishing thing was how much brighter everything was and how color perception was changed--paint in my house had NOT yellowed after all!

The surgery is one of the most successful performed today. 24 hours after your surgery, you will have the bandage off the eye that was worked on, and being using it! All you have to do afterwards is use eye drops in the immediate days after surgery to lessen the possibility of infection.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Not to worry, I was in the same boat a couple years ago. As a youngster I suffered from ambliopia (lazy eye) which caused a lack of central vision in my right eye. The right eye visual acuity was 20/400. I had cataract surgery done in my bad eye which unexpectedly brought the acuity up to 20/70. I had been wearing glasses to correct astigmatism since my late teens, I now get by without glasses except for close in tasks like reading and I can use nonprescription magnifiers for that. The most amazing thing was the return of full vibrant color which replaced a view of the world that ran towards a washed out yellowish beige. I had the left eye done as soon after as I could and have never had a single problem.

You are awake during the procedure. The bandages come off in about two days. You deal with several different kinds of eye drops and a salve for the next three weeks and that it.

It's like the $6,000,000 man, not only can your eyes be "fixed" they can be made better then new.

Regards,
GtG

[dickmc]

"If possible, look into the 'focusable' lens implants. I had 'Crystalens HD' implants done 2 years ago."

As I mentioned, normal cataract lens replacements are monofocal and usually set for distance. The 'Crystalens HD' is an accomodating lens by having some extra tabs around it that shifts position about 1 milimeter (about one twentyfifth of an inch) forward or backward to focus. I looked real hard at them and read every forum I could find on the net about experience. While some worked well (and I'm glad yours did), others tended to shift position or not focus well at all. I also had long discussions with my eye surgeon who had done several of them. Setting aside the expense (which was not an issue in my case), I felt the risk was too high for the limited benefit.

I'm amazed at how well I can read even without the 'Crystalens HD' type of accomodating lens. There is another variety called "multifocal" which is like a circular bifocal which should probably be avoided at all costs as the posted experience in forums has generally not been very good.

swampsniper: In any event, ask lots of questions and read all the forums you can find before you go with anything other than a normal monofocal lens.