Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cataract and Lens Surgery

I had both of my eyes implanted December 2018

Two separate surgeries

My only recommendation is buy the upgrade lens if you can and be ready for a "getting used to" period.

At first you won't like them....I didn't

One other thing....if you turn your head just right with the correct lighting people will see your lens reflect and shine like walleye eyes in a flash picture.

Get used to people noticing

Yeah, I tell that too.

Wonder if they light up like a deer across the field?

Had my left eye done this morning, right will be in two weeks. Paid for the deluxe lenses, hopefully I won't even need readers. We will see.

Yessir, that’s the one.
Thanks.

Hey Guys, what a wonderful bunch of responses. THANK YOU!!!!

In reading through all of your comments, I'm truly getting a feeling of what to expect and ways to avoid what few problems I might encounter along the way.

Again, thank you and please keep the comments coming.

Blessings, Steve

Steve,
My dad (70) had both his done in brief, separate procedures over the last three weeks and he’s reporting normal healing and adjustment so far.

He and mom are closely following the drop regimen and logging when they put them in and hoping for the best result. So far, so good I’m told

I wish you an equally uneventful yet completely successful surgery.

A grateful fan of your writing,
Todd

Steve,you will be able to see like when you were a kid no matter which lenses you get.

I’ve had no trouble driving at night, but only had the right done.

Good luck Steve! I have not had mine done yet, but I am sure it is in my near future.

I had my right eye done 2 weeks ago with a multifocal. Fantastic and glad I did it. Supposed to have my left done tomorrow, but was canceled due to our TX ice storm.

Mom had hers done about 5 years ago. She was pretty near-sighted but is now out of glasses except for readers. She says it's the best she's ever been able to see in her life.

I will warn....

I didn't get perfect vision after surgery

I wear contacts

-.5 in my right eye and a -.75 in my left

I had both eyes done in 2019 plus astigmatism correction in one eye. My yearly checkups are so good I could qualify for USAF fighter pilot school. No reading glasses.

Indy, what lenses did you opt for?

Set up a written schedule of meds (mainly drops) and follow it religiously. Mark off each time the drops are administered. Whoever is nursing you needs to be 100% committed to your care for several days, nothing else. The results that my wife got are astounding. She had the "forever lens" installed. Needs to use 1.50 readers but can see like a hawk.

Good luck with your surgery.


RS

My wife had both eyes done last Winter. she is getting along fine.

Sorry for the long reply, but this may be of interest to someone trying to decide which option to choose.

I had both lenses replaced a year and a few months ago, right before I turned 60. Up until then, I’d worn glasses all my life for nearsightedness, changing to bifocals in my 40s and adding computer glasses in my early 50s. I started noticing some lack of acuity and started comparing notes with my wife when we are out on walks – “Can you read that sign?”. So, I asked my optometrist, who said I had minor cataracts, and he referred me to the ophthalmologist that runs the clinic. The ophthalmologist spent an hour (!) talking to me about different options. Then he sent me to a specialist clinic in Tulsa, partly because of some astigmatism that needed correction IF I was going to get the best vision possible. They also did some testing and spent considerable time talking with me about the options. It was mainly a choice of:

• Multifocal lenses – but both doctors were concerned that I wouldn’t be happy with them due to the risk of reflections and possible compromise on how sharp my vision would be. Many people are completely happy with them, so my sense is that the recommendation was based on my personality and high expectations.
• Fixed focal length lenses – then the question is do you (1) want both eyes corrected for long distance (and have to wear readers or computer glasses), (2) both eyes corrected for near focus, which for me would’ve been more or less the status quo pre-cataracts, or (3) “monovision” – one eye (right eye for me) corrected for long distance and the other corrected for near focus – in my case, about the length of my arms.

After thinking about it, I chose (3) – it’s worked out quite well. I have 20/20 or better distant vision and can read books with very small print. But every choice has its benefits and drawbacks. When I decided on (3), I realized I might want glasses correct one or the other eye. Later, I ordered a pair of reading glasses that mainly correct the right eye, and a pair of “nighttime driving glasses” that would correct the left eye. I’ve found that I almost never wear either pair, but… if I’m working on something really fine or using the computer with a really small font I may use them. Really small lettering or details with low contrast can be a problem. I sometimes squint a little trying to read the number of steps on the Fitbit when it’s sunny. I sometimes use a magnifying glass.

In the other direction, the only issue I find is that at night my brain can get tired of making the automatic correction to using only/mainly the right eye and I sometimes see some blurring of lights that can be corrected by closing my left eye or wearing the “nighttime driving glasses”. I noticed this driving 6 hours on a drizzly night, a month after the surgery. So I ordered the “nighttime driving glasses” and have used them twice when I was going to be driving long distances at night. So, I could probably get by altogether without the extra glasses, but they help at times.

Another minor disadvantage to the monovision – I had to replace one pair of compact binoculars that didn’t have individual eye focus! And of course, I have to remember to wear safety glasses of some sort more often, for situations where I usually didn’t worry about it wearing my old glasses with polycarbonate lenses.

Regarding shooting, almost all of my shooting in the last year has been with rifles with scopes – and the monovision seems to me to work fine. Though, to be clear, most of my shooting has been either deer hunting here (max. distance 100 yards) or practicing / load development / hunting for cape buffalo in Zimbabwe, so neither one needs 1/2 MOA accuracy!

I hope this helps. Good luck with your surgery!

Good luck BUT be fore warned, I had my left eye done may of 2022 and an still waiting to get the right one done. It seems in about 1 or 2 percent of those people that get the operation the eye will swell slightly .it happened to me and my eye doc will not do the right eye until the pressure gets below 20 right now it sits at 22 and hasn't moved for a couple of months ,so I put drops in my left eye twice a day and wait . I had to take the left lens out of my glasses so I could see to function, drive,read,ect. Be sure to ask your doc about this problem! Don't wish it on anyone

^^^^
Good info.

Steve,

Check your pm’s when you get a minute please.

Thank, Les