Dealing with temporary wonky vision
January 11, 2023 1:29 PM Subscribe
I had cataract surgery yesterday on my left eye, and have two weeks to go until my right eye has the same surgery. Advice on how to deal with mismatched vision until they're both done and healed?
I had an optician pop out the left lens of my glasses. My right glasses lens is progressive, and my left eyeball lens is mutifocus. My glasses prescription is +5, which means there's a big difference in what my left and right eye are seeing. Consequently, I'm getting headaches, mild nausea, etc.
Please advise.
I had an optician pop out the left lens of my glasses. My right glasses lens is progressive, and my left eyeball lens is mutifocus. My glasses prescription is +5, which means there's a big difference in what my left and right eye are seeing. Consequently, I'm getting headaches, mild nausea, etc.
Please advise.
I wore one contact lens for the three weeks between my two surgeries. I tried wearing my glasses with one lens popped out, and the difference was so bad it seemed like a movie effect where they want to show the room spinning around a person who's drunk or has been drugged. If you don't already have an active contact lens prescription, is there a reason you can't get fitted for a lens in your uncorrected eye to tide you over? If I hadn't already had a supply of lenses I'm pretty sure my regular eye doctor would have just given me enough samples to tide me over.
posted by fedward at 1:46 PM on January 11, 2023
posted by fedward at 1:46 PM on January 11, 2023
Hi, fellow cataract-haver. I had mine done before Xmas, but with quite a gap between each eye (first was done in October, second in December). My optician specifically told me she didn't recommend taking one lens out of my current glasses as that would result in the very side effects you're experiencing. I went ahead and tried it anyway and lasted about an hour or so before the dizziness got to me. I had distance lenses as eyeball replacements and to be honest, I got used to having one normal rubbish eye and one bionic eye within a couple of days. You might find that once your eye has settled down after the insult of the surgery, you manage ok. It was nowhere near as awful as the glasses episode.
As per fedward, a single contact lens might be better, if you have access to them.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2023
As per fedward, a single contact lens might be better, if you have access to them.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2023
Response by poster: The doctor said I could tape over the popped-out space in my glasses (but not actually wear an eyepatch on that eye), so I'll try that.
I haven't worn contacts for about 15 years, so I don't think that's going to happen.
> My optician specifically told me she didn't recommend taking one lens out of my current glasses as that would result in the very side effects you're experiencing.
Out of curiosity: isn't it better than keeping the lens in? If I'd left it I would be looking through double correction, which would also be miserable. I don't have that lens anymore so it's sort of moot -- I do have my spare glasses I could wear, which still have both lenses but are an older prescription.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:58 PM on January 11, 2023
I haven't worn contacts for about 15 years, so I don't think that's going to happen.
> My optician specifically told me she didn't recommend taking one lens out of my current glasses as that would result in the very side effects you're experiencing.
Out of curiosity: isn't it better than keeping the lens in? If I'd left it I would be looking through double correction, which would also be miserable. I don't have that lens anymore so it's sort of moot -- I do have my spare glasses I could wear, which still have both lenses but are an older prescription.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:58 PM on January 11, 2023
As I recall, she said that the difference between my operated-on eye's prescription and the remaining prescription lens would be too significant for my brain to make sense of it or adjust to. My prescription lens was designed to compensate for something like -7.5 short sight and my "new" lens in the other eye meant my vision in that one was now almost perfect for distance.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 2:32 PM on January 11, 2023
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 2:32 PM on January 11, 2023
The doctor said I could tape over the popped-out space in my glasses (but not actually wear an eyepatch on that eye), so I'll try that.
I haven't worn contacts for about 15 years, so I don't think that's going to happen.
The good news is that if you stopped wearing contacts for comfort reasons, daily disposable lenses are a huge improvement over what they used to be. I had quit wearing contacts regularly for that reason around 2004, but I still kept a backup prescription and a box of daily disposable lenses for each eye for the two dozen days a year it mattered (usually for hiking trips, occasionally for other reasons). In your position I would ask specifically about getting a contact lens for the one eye.
That said, here’s what I experienced in those three weeks, but keep in mind I was extremely nearsighted (minus power, not plus power): I did my morning routine (up through breakfast, coffee, and the wordle) with one good eye that required reading glasses (but with 20/20 distance vision), and one bad eye that couldn’t see anything beyond about about nine inches in front of my face. Puttering around the house I was fine like that until I needed to use the computer, which was too close for my good eye and too far for my bad eye without glasses. If I put reading glasses on then my good eye could read the text on the screen, but I basically had to cover the other eye with my hand or the difference between the two would start to cause headaches (from some combination of mental and physical strain to make only the one eye do the work). At that point I’d give in and go put a contact in my bad eye.
My glasses were a non-starter. If I tried I could get the two images to line up, but my prescription was so different that any movement at all caused things to go horribly spinny. I tried them again after a day or two and the problem was still just as bad.
If I didn’t have to leave the house for appointments every week or use a computer I could have gotten away with one eye, but life really pushed me into wearing a contact. At least I found that I tolerated it for longer than I had when I’d first given up on contacts.
posted by fedward at 4:58 PM on January 11, 2023
I haven't worn contacts for about 15 years, so I don't think that's going to happen.
The good news is that if you stopped wearing contacts for comfort reasons, daily disposable lenses are a huge improvement over what they used to be. I had quit wearing contacts regularly for that reason around 2004, but I still kept a backup prescription and a box of daily disposable lenses for each eye for the two dozen days a year it mattered (usually for hiking trips, occasionally for other reasons). In your position I would ask specifically about getting a contact lens for the one eye.
That said, here’s what I experienced in those three weeks, but keep in mind I was extremely nearsighted (minus power, not plus power): I did my morning routine (up through breakfast, coffee, and the wordle) with one good eye that required reading glasses (but with 20/20 distance vision), and one bad eye that couldn’t see anything beyond about about nine inches in front of my face. Puttering around the house I was fine like that until I needed to use the computer, which was too close for my good eye and too far for my bad eye without glasses. If I put reading glasses on then my good eye could read the text on the screen, but I basically had to cover the other eye with my hand or the difference between the two would start to cause headaches (from some combination of mental and physical strain to make only the one eye do the work). At that point I’d give in and go put a contact in my bad eye.
My glasses were a non-starter. If I tried I could get the two images to line up, but my prescription was so different that any movement at all caused things to go horribly spinny. I tried them again after a day or two and the problem was still just as bad.
If I didn’t have to leave the house for appointments every week or use a computer I could have gotten away with one eye, but life really pushed me into wearing a contact. At least I found that I tolerated it for longer than I had when I’d first given up on contacts.
posted by fedward at 4:58 PM on January 11, 2023
Response by poster: Re wearing one contact: how would that be any better than wearing my glasses with one lens gone? I know contacts have a more natural vision but it would still be two different prescriptions, since my regular eye doctor wouldn't be able to match what the eye surgeon put in there. (At this point I'm just curious, since I don't think I'd be able to get contacts anyway; my eye doctor is in there only a few days a week, I don't have a current contacts prescription, etc.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:16 AM on January 12, 2023
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:16 AM on January 12, 2023
I think it's a combination of physical properties and mental compensation. Contact lenses track the movement of your eyes, but glasses track the movement of your head. When your eyes both see approximately the same thing your brain will combine the two images into one stereoscopic image. With high prescription strength glasses (and especially with progressive lenses) it becomes necessary to turn your head to get both eyes to focus on the same thing. That movement becomes second nature, but it's really only second nature as long as both eyes have the same sort of problem to the same (approximate) degree.
You may recall experiencing what my regular optician calls "swimming" the first week or so of wearing progressive lenses (it happened to me a second time when I got new progressive lenses that were a different brand from the previous set). In the process of adapting to that "swimming" your brain gets used to the way things move around and it will stop triggering a seasickness response, but the effect is still there. The stronger your prescription, the more sensitive you'll be to minor movement of your head, but also your brain will adapt to that movement and train you to turn your head to look at things.
After one cataract surgery, though, the corrected eye can point directly at things to look at them, while your uncorrected eye is still dependent on a corrective lens. This means that if you're wearing a single eyeglass lens for your uncorrected eye, you'll still have 100% of the sensitivity to small movements that you had when both eyes needed glasses even though it's really just the one eye with the problem. One eye can look directly at stuff; the other "swims" wildly as you point your head and try to find the focus sweet spot. Your brain can't compensate at all for such a big difference. I was (rightly) worried about this problem before my own surgery but luckily I only had to live with it for three weeks.
What a contact lens does is make it so you don't have to turn your head to look at stuff, removing the "swimming" problem. My contacts were never perfect for me anyway (I didn't tolerate toric lenses so the best prescription I could get just kinda split the difference on my astigmatism, and even with regular lenses I had trouble making it through a full day with contacts because of allergies), but even with an imperfect prescription I found that it got me "close enough" that I didn't consciously have to adapt to the difference between my two eyes. If I thought about it, or if I covered one eye at a time, I could tell that the eye with the contact was the blurry one and struggled reading, and the other eye could see perfectly at a distance but couldn't read up close AT ALL. But if I just went about my business and kept a pair of reading glasses handy, I was totally fine.
I don't know all of the reasons a contact is better, but for me the primary thing seemed to be that it was way too difficult to get the images from both eyes to converge into one thing unless I wore a contact in the bad eye. With no lens at all I was basically blind in that eye, which was headache inducing; with one eyeglass lens I could "see" but not through both eyes at the same time in any practical way, and that was both headache inducing and dizzying; with a contact everything was suddenly "close enough" that it just felt natural again.
posted by fedward at 8:27 AM on January 12, 2023
You may recall experiencing what my regular optician calls "swimming" the first week or so of wearing progressive lenses (it happened to me a second time when I got new progressive lenses that were a different brand from the previous set). In the process of adapting to that "swimming" your brain gets used to the way things move around and it will stop triggering a seasickness response, but the effect is still there. The stronger your prescription, the more sensitive you'll be to minor movement of your head, but also your brain will adapt to that movement and train you to turn your head to look at things.
After one cataract surgery, though, the corrected eye can point directly at things to look at them, while your uncorrected eye is still dependent on a corrective lens. This means that if you're wearing a single eyeglass lens for your uncorrected eye, you'll still have 100% of the sensitivity to small movements that you had when both eyes needed glasses even though it's really just the one eye with the problem. One eye can look directly at stuff; the other "swims" wildly as you point your head and try to find the focus sweet spot. Your brain can't compensate at all for such a big difference. I was (rightly) worried about this problem before my own surgery but luckily I only had to live with it for three weeks.
What a contact lens does is make it so you don't have to turn your head to look at stuff, removing the "swimming" problem. My contacts were never perfect for me anyway (I didn't tolerate toric lenses so the best prescription I could get just kinda split the difference on my astigmatism, and even with regular lenses I had trouble making it through a full day with contacts because of allergies), but even with an imperfect prescription I found that it got me "close enough" that I didn't consciously have to adapt to the difference between my two eyes. If I thought about it, or if I covered one eye at a time, I could tell that the eye with the contact was the blurry one and struggled reading, and the other eye could see perfectly at a distance but couldn't read up close AT ALL. But if I just went about my business and kept a pair of reading glasses handy, I was totally fine.
I don't know all of the reasons a contact is better, but for me the primary thing seemed to be that it was way too difficult to get the images from both eyes to converge into one thing unless I wore a contact in the bad eye. With no lens at all I was basically blind in that eye, which was headache inducing; with one eyeglass lens I could "see" but not through both eyes at the same time in any practical way, and that was both headache inducing and dizzying; with a contact everything was suddenly "close enough" that it just felt natural again.
posted by fedward at 8:27 AM on January 12, 2023
I'm extremely myopic and my glasses distort things in ways my contact lenses do not. Everything is reduced in size by 40% through my glasses, but the contact lenses don't do that. Having the lens right on the eyeball makes all the difference in how much distortion there is. Wearing a contact lens on the uncorrected eye is a much better idea than wearing one glasses lens.
posted by metonym at 2:51 PM on January 17, 2023
posted by metonym at 2:51 PM on January 17, 2023
Response by poster: Followup for anyone who comes across this in the same boat: my brain has mostly adjusted to wearing my lopsided glasses. I've been able to function around the home and at work. I wouldn't want to live this way for long but it's manageable, so far (one week in).
Re contact lenses: plan ahead if you're going to go that route, don't be like me! But know that your surgeon might want you to stop wearing them three to seven days before the procedure (soft vs hard).
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:51 PM on January 17, 2023
Re contact lenses: plan ahead if you're going to go that route, don't be like me! But know that your surgeon might want you to stop wearing them three to seven days before the procedure (soft vs hard).
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:51 PM on January 17, 2023
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