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Today was my four-week followup for my second surgery: A day I've been anticipating throughout this entire process: The day I get my new eyeglasses prescription.
Also a day I've been looking forward to with a little trepidation for the past couple of weeks, since I started noticing a phenomenon so occasional and so faint I wasn't sure at first it was there: a tendency for point sources of light to have a little ghost image off to their left. I initially thought it was tracking, but that was quickly disproved by covering both eyes and seeing that it was present when looking through my right eye solo. (For those playing along at home, this is the one with a complete neurological apparatus behind it; the left is the amblyopic one.) I didn't notice it often, and only looking at a point source of light in the dark, so I decided it would wait til today.
My surgeon says I have "remarkable self-awareness:" Most patients who have this don't notice it. The reason for it is that the capsule in my right eye* is healing rather extraordinarily well — to the point where it is ever so slightly occluding one edge of my new lens. When my pupils dilate, that part of my new lens comes into play — and I see oh-so-faint ghosting. There are surgical techniques for resolving this; they all have risks and should not be undertaken lightly (duh!) Another option is to take a daily eyedrop that limits how much my pupil dilates, and the third option is to see if it is in fact a problem just to live with it. Since (1) I expect knowing what it is will make it less distracting, and (2) I have yet to experience this with a fully in-focus world, I had no trouble agreeing that wait-and-see was the place to start.
She wrote me a script for the eyedrops so I don't have to go back just to get them if I decide it is too much of a bother to just put up with, and we resumed my regular eye exam.
Turns out the vision in my right eye is very nearly 20-20; a little correction to focus at distance and I'm there. When I brought my prescription in to my optometrist, the first thing she said was "you had a really good surgeon" — apparently the extent of correction you need after cataract surgery is a measure of the surgeon's skill. And I need very little.
So. Right now I'm still waiting for the dilation to wear off (which has made writing this a little blurry). Then I get to spend a final four or five days paying attention to things no further than two or three meters away. And then I get my new glasses, and see what the world looks like through my corrected new eyes.
* sorry; I'm too tired to dig up links right now. I posted a link to an eye anatomy article some months ago; IIRC it was from Wikipedia.
Also a day I've been looking forward to with a little trepidation for the past couple of weeks, since I started noticing a phenomenon so occasional and so faint I wasn't sure at first it was there: a tendency for point sources of light to have a little ghost image off to their left. I initially thought it was tracking, but that was quickly disproved by covering both eyes and seeing that it was present when looking through my right eye solo. (For those playing along at home, this is the one with a complete neurological apparatus behind it; the left is the amblyopic one.) I didn't notice it often, and only looking at a point source of light in the dark, so I decided it would wait til today.
My surgeon says I have "remarkable self-awareness:" Most patients who have this don't notice it. The reason for it is that the capsule in my right eye* is healing rather extraordinarily well — to the point where it is ever so slightly occluding one edge of my new lens. When my pupils dilate, that part of my new lens comes into play — and I see oh-so-faint ghosting. There are surgical techniques for resolving this; they all have risks and should not be undertaken lightly (duh!) Another option is to take a daily eyedrop that limits how much my pupil dilates, and the third option is to see if it is in fact a problem just to live with it. Since (1) I expect knowing what it is will make it less distracting, and (2) I have yet to experience this with a fully in-focus world, I had no trouble agreeing that wait-and-see was the place to start.
She wrote me a script for the eyedrops so I don't have to go back just to get them if I decide it is too much of a bother to just put up with, and we resumed my regular eye exam.
Turns out the vision in my right eye is very nearly 20-20; a little correction to focus at distance and I'm there. When I brought my prescription in to my optometrist, the first thing she said was "you had a really good surgeon" — apparently the extent of correction you need after cataract surgery is a measure of the surgeon's skill. And I need very little.
So. Right now I'm still waiting for the dilation to wear off (which has made writing this a little blurry). Then I get to spend a final four or five days paying attention to things no further than two or three meters away. And then I get my new glasses, and see what the world looks like through my corrected new eyes.
* sorry; I'm too tired to dig up links right now. I posted a link to an eye anatomy article some months ago; IIRC it was from Wikipedia.
