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I'm Sorry for this Vanity. Cataract Surgery - YIKES!!
None | May 16, 2016 | A Blind Woman

Posted on 05/16/2018 2:41:09 PM PDT by CaptainPhilFan

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To: CaptainPhilFan

Please get a second opinion. My out of pocket expenses were $400 per eye and that included new lense implants that have me seeing 20/20 for the first time in 65 years.
My doctor is part of a small family practice of doctors who were all the head of their respective Ohio State classes and internships.
You don’t have to pay thousands for good care.
Surgery is outpatient at their office and I was home before noon.
Get recommendations from family and friends.


41 posted on 05/16/2018 3:13:18 PM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: CaptainPhilFan
Three people very close to me had cataract surgery, including my mom. The two who were not my mom were super-fraidy cats. One of them known here as BlackElk. He was the biggest fraidy cat of them all. He had the pro-life Senate candidate/eye doctor Joseph Bentivegna perform the surgery, and he had zero issues either with the procedure or after. Same with the other two.

This is something they are very good at. It's sort of like air travel. Kinda scary if you think about it too hard, but it works great despite easily imagined catastrophes. And bad guys don't break into eye surgery rooms yet, so you are good on that.
42 posted on 05/16/2018 3:13:52 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: All

WOW!

Thank you all so much for all the great stories and info. I have to go back and reread them, of course. I do believe they all make wonderful sense.

I’m not afraid of the surgery as much as I am about making the wrong choice, and no, I don’t feel quite comfortable with this Doc, so I may well seek a 2nd.

Sorry I didn’t realize there was another post about this recently, I’ll look for it, thanks!

I am looking forward to seeing better, kind of exciting after 45 years of glasses!

Thank you all! <3 (that’s a heart) :)


43 posted on 05/16/2018 3:13:59 PM PDT by CaptainPhilFan
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To: CaptainPhilFan
I have had the operation in both eyes and my vision is GREAT. I don't even need glasses for distant vision. I am typing this without glasses and the screen is 2 feet away and I can see everything fine. I did get prescription glasses but the prescription was so mild I don't need to use them. I passed the driver license easily without glasses. Note. You can view your cataract. I found out about this before the operation. Here how to view it. Take a piece of paper and punch a pin hole in the middle. Then go outside and look up at the bare blue sky. Look through the pin hole with each eye. The cataract will show as a fuzzy part of a round image of the pin hole. Do it with both eyes and you can see the difference between the clear and the cataract eye.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

44 posted on 05/16/2018 3:14:29 PM PDT by Varmint Al
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To: yarddog

I had forgotten how yellow everything had gotten. Afterwards everything was clean.

_______________________________________

Prior to my cataract surgeries, I could drive fine at night. I didn’t understand why everyone else was complaining about xenon headlights, or HID lights or the super bright lights all new trucks have. That didn’t bother me.

But after my surgery... Oh my.

It’s true for me, and I suppose most cataract patients. After surgery you are surprised at how much brighter things are. After the cloudy lenses are removed.


45 posted on 05/16/2018 3:15:49 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Nea Wood

Medicare covers the Standard (usually distance) Fixed Lens replacement.

There are advanced Lenses now available that simulate the movements of your Natural Lens, but you have to pay out of pocket for the additional cost.

If you need both Eyes done, they usually do the “worst” Eye first. Never have both Eyes done at the same time. My Cataract Surgeries were done two Months apart.


46 posted on 05/16/2018 3:15:55 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative ( An Armed Society is a Polite Society. An Unarmed Society is North Korea.)
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To: CaptainPhilFan
I had the lenses in both eyes replaced 8 years ago. Can't tell you about the price, because so much has changed since then. Things to note:

The surgeon did the same surgery on his wife a few months before my procedures, and she raved about the difference, and how well her husband did. (Could have been a sales pitch, but she was very sincere.)

One thing that was not explained to me well was that when you go home and the anesthesia starts to wear off, your eye will be looking down for a while. I actually called the office and got the "Oh, that's normal. Don't worry about it." Took about an hour for "normal" to show up.

I was shocked at the difference in color perception, especially how "BLUE" blue became.

I wear glasses to drive, especially at night, and leave the glasses off most of the rest of the time.

Good luck with your decision.

47 posted on 05/16/2018 3:17:10 PM PDT by Bernard (The only Fair Tax is the Tax that Taxes You and not Me)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

I had cataract surgery on my right eye about your age. Suggest an upgrade lens (they had 3 different types) and I went with the mid-range. Day surgery, no big deal, lots of eye drops.

While you will often be the youngest patient in the Doctors office, cataracts in your 50’s is more common than you may think.

My other eye is just about ready 10 years after the first.

Good luck.


48 posted on 05/16/2018 3:17:36 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

My dad and mom both had cataract surgery when they were in their late ‘70’s.
Both times they said that for 4-6 hours after they removed the bandages the thought they were blinded in that eye.
Then their brain ‘made an adjustment’ and suddenly they could see just fine.
And actually much better than prior to the operation.


49 posted on 05/16/2018 3:18:27 PM PDT by willgolfforfood
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To: miss marmelstein

FR is getting old.

________________________________________

Indeed. We will soon go from talking cataract surgery to when should you get that hip replacement.

And oh yeah.... Know any good nursing homes?


50 posted on 05/16/2018 3:19:18 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: CaptainPhilFan

My left eye got a noticeable cataract when I was 53. (Noticed that I was seeing 3 moons at night with left eye instead of one).

By age 56 I could no longer read with my left eye (Now I was seeing 12-18 moons with the left eye, all popping out of one another).

Right eye - 20/20 correctible, no noticeable impact yet. So time came to get the left eye fixed.

Additional problem - I always had heavy astigmatism and -7 prescription. So - if they fixed the left eye to be close to 20/20, I could no longer wear glasses because a glass prism for a -7 prescription is too thick for the brain to be able to put that image together with 20/20 vision from the left eye.

The solution? Got the left eye fixed to 20/20, and I wear a soft contact lens in the right eye. So I now see 20/20 distance, but have to wear bi-focal reading glasses - top part for in-between computer screen viewing, bottom part for closeup reading.

Science is amazing, isn’t it? My VA doctor who did the surgery did an A+ job.

Hope this helps you.


51 posted on 05/16/2018 3:25:06 PM PDT by Simon Foxx
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I’ll repeat the information that I gave on the last cataract thread, since no one has said it yet:

You have a choice of where you want your vision to be best. Most people choose to have excellent long-range vision, and to wear reading glasses.

I chose the opposite. I now read without glasses and have two pairs of glasses-—one for the computer and one for distance. You can apparently choose anywhere in between, but I can’t see the point of choosing in the middle unles you spend every waking moment at the computer.

I was told that if your doctor recommends the surgery, have it right away, because the longer you wait, the harder it is to remove the lens and that could cause complications.

Good luck and don’t be nervous. It is a short, painless procedure. The worst parts are the anxiety and one set of eyedrops that burns quite a bit right before the surgery. I think they were the antibiotic eyedrops but not sure. And that goes away very soon. Prayers for an excellent outcome.


52 posted on 05/16/2018 3:25:32 PM PDT by firebrand
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To: CaptainPhilFan
It is said that 60% of wealthy Asian Americans have cataracts.
The rest drive Rincolns.

Hope everything goes smoothly for you.

"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."

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)

53 posted on 05/16/2018 3:29:10 PM PDT by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

99% of the time, the so-called laser surgery is totally unnecessary, does not result in a better outcome, and sometimes a worse outcome. It’s totally a gimmick for the eye surgeon to gouge you, and is NOT covered by insurance OR medicare for a reason. It’s also debatable whether it’s worthwhile to correct an astigmatism if it’s really small. Again, insurance usually won’t pay for surgical correction of astigmatism.

Likewise, the fancy AND expensive alternatives to plain ol’ monocular IOLs (ike progessive IOLs, etc.) frequently have worse outcomes than the plain ‘ol monocular IOLs, and are yet ANOTHER mostly unnecessary profit center for the eye surgeons. the fancy IOLS too are not covered by private insurance or medicare for a reason.

sadly enough, even the best of eye surgeons will often try to sell you on unnecessary “undercoating” when you buy that new lens.

Also, if you don’t have both eyes done back to back, you’re going to be stuck for two (or more) pairs of expensive eyeglasses, one set after the first eye and a second set after the second eye, so best to do each eye back to back with a couple of weeks between. Either wait until both “qualify” or see if the surgeon can justify both.

Regardless, you’ll need good pairs of progressive eyeglass lenses because with monocular IOLs, you lose all ability to accommodate, that is, you’ll have a fixed focal length lens instead of your original natural zoom lens.

If both eyes are done, one thing to keep in mind is that you can have one eye set to long distance and one set about 1.5 diopters near-sighted, which is called monovision. I did that, and it’s OK, but still doesn’t give great vision as a good pair of progressive eyeglasses, so I’ve elected to correct the mono vision with my progressive prescription.

Also, I don’t know why the surgeon is making YOU file for insurance qualification, that’s something that ANY surgeon normally does, especially eye surgeons. That alone would make me look at some other surgeons.


54 posted on 05/16/2018 3:29:33 PM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: CaptainPhilFan

Nothing to it when I had it done I DIDN’T FEEL A THING.

I was afraid of having anything to do with the eye and had worn glasses then contacts for forty years.

As long as you have someone to drive you there and back there is nothing to worry about.

Don’t hesitate for an instant there is a whole new world to be seen


55 posted on 05/16/2018 3:32:06 PM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

My wife just had this done. She did the right eye and had the “distance” lens put in. It worked out so well she just had the left eye done. 20-20 vision. She bought Walmart 3X glasses for reading. She has been very happy with the whole process. I would do it my eyes were bad enough but they are not at this time. She is 70 and I am 74.


56 posted on 05/16/2018 3:34:27 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: miss marmelstein

both my brother and brother-in-law [age 45] had cataract surgery and both developed wet macular degeneration. they both need monthly shots in their eyes. i need the surgery but cannot fathom that loss of vision, when i can still see with glasses. you only get one set of eyes. good luck with your decision.


57 posted on 05/16/2018 3:37:00 PM PDT by IWONDR
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To: CaptainPhilFan

Prayers you get it successfully treated !


58 posted on 05/16/2018 3:37:47 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: firebrand

FYI - there is a third option, lens implants that include little focal mechanisms that are operated by the muscles of the eye, much like real natural eye focusing.


59 posted on 05/16/2018 3:40:48 PM PDT by Truth29
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To: Nea Wood

Go with the laser. Even Dr. Nick Riviera could do it.


60 posted on 05/16/2018 3:42:21 PM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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