Is anybody there?

Not sure I can remember how to do the picture thing either, but will have a go!
 

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Awww I love cats. Margaid and LadyA, such lovely puss cats! I sadly don't have any. I now have enough hassle getting the girls to their hen hotel when I am away. Maybe when I have retired I will get one...

Mabel, Miss Muffet and Sindy are laying well. Barbie has been through her moult recently, so hasn't been laying for 2 months and her comb is still pale. She looks fab in her new "fur coat".

I'm off to Prague on Monday. I am having lens replacement (again) in one eye which has become opacified, if that's the correct term. They will explant the other lens which has become blurry (cut it out) and replace it with a new one. A bit like cataract surgery. Not looking forward to it.
 
Good luck with your trip to Prague, Tweetipie. Have you got a companion to help you with the journey there and back? My cataract surgery two years ago made such an enormous difference to my life, I do hope your operation is successful.
It was a very odd feeling, lying back in the chair with my anaesthetised and painless eye, trying to keep as still as possible whilst feeling totally vulnerable during all the whirring and bleeping noises from unseen equipment. You just have to trust your surgeon, - and hope there's not a power cut in the middle of the procedure! Wonderful afterwards, though - big difference in colour vision immediately afterwards.
 
Lovely cat pics.
Good luck with the op Tweetypie hope all goes well and the travel is hassle free
 
Oooh Marigold, do you recall what type of iol you had in? I had lens exchange 2 years ago. I paid privately, it was much cheaper in Prague. I didn't have cataracts, but I needed separate spectacles for reading and driving. It was inconvenient having to keep 2 pairs in my bag and 2 pairs at work. I tried varifocals but I couldn't see properly, the same with contact lenses, hence my decision for lens exchange.
I was talked into having trifocals, stating you can then see near, mid range and long range. Worst decision I made in my life! Since I had it done, I still need reading glasses, I see gigantic spider web halos around car headlights and anything that glows, making it difficult to drive. In dim light, without bright sunlight, it's like seeing the world through cling film.
I am having 1 of those tri focal lenses explanted and a monofocal put in. If you had lens exchange on the NHS, that's what you will have, as they don't use any other type on NHS.
Could you tell me how your eyesight is? Do you see halos? Do you need glasses for reading? I'd love to have something to look forward to, knowing the new lens will be a good one. ?
 
I've had one eye done - went privately in the UK because of time constraints and as a result the lens implanted corrected all the astigmatism. I need spectacle for reading, and because I hate having to look for reading specs when I need them, I wear varifocals which have a tiny bit of long distance correction They help when driving although I'm "legal" without them, but wearing them means I can see the instruments clearly and read a map easily. They also keep the dust out of my eyes when I'm walking down the road.
About 18 months after the op I had to have laser treatment as the rear membrane of the lens which they leave in place,started to go opaque (known as Posterior Capsular Opacification)It's blasted with a laser so it breaks, a bit like popping stretched cling film. It happens to about 1 in 10 lens implant patients.
My left eye which also has cataract developing doesn't need the astigmatism correction so that may be done on the NHS by the same surgeon.
You will need spectacles for reading - I don't usually put mine on until I need to read something, but your middle and long distance (about 3 feet to infinity) should be fine. Other people may have had different experiences.

Hope all goes well. :-)17
 
By the way, I don't see halos but night driving can still be difficult. Not because of the lens implant but because so many cars have badly adjusted headlamps, over-bright headlamps or the vehicles are SUVs, MPVs or 4x4s whose headlamps are now level with my face!
 
I just had standard NHS cataract repair, and once they'd settled down I found my distance vision was amazing. I wear spectacles with bifocal lenses to overcome the problems which would arise because my near focus isn't so good as distance vision. I would be no good at all with a separate pair for reading, I would never have them to hand, and when driving without reading glasses I wouldn't be able to just glance down and see the control dials as this needs closer focus. I've worn bifocals for years, I did try varifocals once but I couldn't get on with them. I find bifocals give me seamless transition between distance and reading vision, I don't notice the change in the lens. I can now drive at night without the problem of bright lights scattering into halo beams all round and dark impenetrable patches.
 
Thank you both for the replies. I'm more concerned about the outcome, as I've been so unhappy with my lenses since the replacement 2 years ago.

I hope that having the monofocal lens in my eye which has postule opacification will improve my sight for mid to long distance and rid me of halos and clingfilm living. I'll keep you posted. It's good to chat about it with people who have had the same procedure.
 
So Marigold uses bifocals in the same way I use varifocals. One point with varifocal lenses is that you MUST have a really good dispenser so that the focal length changes in the right place for you. I always have to remind my dispenser that,being short, my natural head position is tilted otherwise I'm looking at tall people's chests. That has to be taken into account when measuring for the lens and fitting the specs. My mother couldn't get on with them until she had spectacles made up in Cyprus. As they went there on holiday every year it wasn't a problem if she needed new spectacles. That may be why you're not comfortable with your trifocals. The "cling film" effect, which will also cause the halo, is due to the opacification of the capsule.

What you get in the UK as varifocals, with implanted lenses and contact lenses is one eye for long sight and the other for reading and I decided I didn't want that. The other thing is that different makes and grades of lenses suit different people. I don't like Zeiss lenses so I have Rodenstock and there are I think four variants of those, one of which doesn't suit me. It's all to do with how much of the lens width is used for each focal length. The shape is a bit like a wine glass with a thick stem; long distance as the bowl, middle distance as the stem and reading as the foot. Different makes of lens have wider "bowls" and maybe smaller "feet", or the other way round. I have a pair with sunglasses which attach with tiny magnets especially for driving. The log distance "bowl" goes the whole way across, there's a very short stem for middle distance and a reasonable "foot" for reading. I can go into a shop and read the ingredients on a label quite easily.
 
Just in case you're wondering how I know a lot about it, my sometime-to- be-ex-husband had lenses implanted in both eyes 36 years ago at the age of 35 by one of the pioneers of this particular technique, Eric Arnott. Being an Engineer he wanted to know everything about the implants and their effect especially as he was only the one hundred and fourth person to have this done, the other patients all being very elderly. He was the first person in the UK to have the Yag Laser treatment to deal with the opacification of the rear membrane - and that was very different from how it is done now!

Anyway, best wishes for the operation.
 
I just wanted to add that all the cats look adorable. I so miss mine, all now dead, but if I ever get settled in one place again without incessant travelling, I will be straight onto the nearest rescue place, ideally for 3 middle aged cats (that's one each and a spare!) I have never had a kitten, I know they look adorable, but they don't attract me in the same way. My SIL rescued/was adopted by a feral cat, who is now 12, but she never took to the resident dog and they live separate lives, he is downstairs and she is upstairs with her own cat door out onto a balcony and a plank down onto a bank outside. We also took in 2 cats to live with us when their owner's emigrated, and I have to say our resident boy wasn't overly impressed, although he did show them who was boss and then proceeded to ignore them for 2 years. He was allowed upstairs with us, and the 2 newbies weren't, so I hope he knew he had privileges for giving up some of his territory!

On the topic of eyes, my Mum had a cataract op just before Xmas, but it is still scratchy and she is having to go back for a 2nd check up. How long did it take before your eye felt normal Marigold? I wish you well with your op Tweetypie; I hope you have someone with you, it must be daunting, if not, you are a braver woman than me.
 
It shouldn't feel scratchy Mrs Biscuit - she should have eyedrops to use for a month which keep the eye lubricated and help to reduce the pressure. Maybe she is allergic to something in the eyedrops. They changed the preservative in the eyedrops I'd used for years which meant my eyes reacted to the instead of the pollen! Fortunately there was an alternative, and better, product available. My pupils take a long time to return to normal after they have been dilated but by day two everything was back to normal except of course that I could see clearly out of that eye.
 
It does take a while for it to settle down, and during this time I found my spectacles didn't work well- reading was difficult and I wasn't able to drive confidently - because, of course, the prescription in the first eye I had done was wildly different from before. And then, when the second one was done a few weeks later, there was a total period of four months before I could get a new prescription from the optician. You just have to be prepared for the total process to take about 6 months from the time the first eye is operated on, assuming the second eye is to be done a couple of months later, because as with any operation on a delicate part of the body, it has to have time to heal and for the eyeball to return to its normal shape. If you get your new prescription too soon, it would need changing again within a very short time. The prescription which was right for me at first needed changing a year later, once both eyes had fully settled down, so you have to be prepared for this as well. Also at first your brain needs to re-train to the new arrangements, like when you have a new prescription normally, as it has to get used to the new way of seeing.
I was glad to have had it done for another reason - because of the 6-monthly checkups I was offered, I was diagnosed with early-stage normal pressure glaucoma, which has no obvious symptoms or sight impairments until it's well advanced. If I hadn't had my cataracts fixed, i wouldn't have had the specialist eye examinations which diagnosed this, so i'm grateful now to be on eye drops to slow or halt the progress of the glaucoma, plus regular tests to see how it's getting on. The type of pressure test used by an optician to diagnose glaucoma isn't sensitive enough to detect normal-pressure glaucoma, because as the name suggests, it's not due to high pressure within the eye, but to damage to the optic nerve itself.
I do hope your Mum will get on OK, - just keep on using the prescribed drops, that's very important to help with the healing. Yes I agree with Margaid about the possibility of allergy to drops containing preservative. The ones I had for glaucoma made my eyes really sore, but now i have the same drug in a prescription with no preservative. It comes in little dispensers holding a single dose, instead of in a bottle, so it's guaranteed sterile on application.
 
I was fortunate that the prescription for the eye that had no cataract was relatively simple and I was actually legal to drive without spectacles, but I couldn't wear them for the reason Marigold has given. I was fortunate to have a pair of specs with fairly small, standard shape lenses so had my optician remove the right hand lens and replace it with a perfectly plain lens. It meant I could wear the specs although I couldn't read with my right eye. Solved that problem with a pair of £3.00 "Ready readers from the chemist - which I still wear to read in bed at night.

Because I only had one eye done I was back to normal very quickly - but everyone reacts differently. I hope your mum gets sorted Mrs Biscuit.

Pleased to hear that they sorted your glaucoma eyedrops Marigold :D
 
Thanks for the feedback both, I am taking her to the eye surgeon again tomorrow, and am keeping everything crossed that its all OK. I will mention the possibility of reacting to the drops, although she is no longer using them, as the surgeon said she could stop at her check up about 10 days ago.
 
I seem to remember that when I came off the initial post-cataract prescription for drops, I used Optrex drops for itchy eyes, as by then it was summer and I was reacting to pollen allergies anyway. They were soothing and did help.
I've found out that pharmacies have been warned about actual or potential shortages for some drugs if we get no-deal, including Monopost for my eyes and Ramipril for high blood pressure. It took 2 and a half weeks for our overworked small local chemist to fill my latest online prescription renewal. I expect the whole country is stocking up with at least a month's worth of spare medicines.
 
I'm trying to read all the replies as quick as I can. Hee hee.

MARGAID my trifocals are Zeiss AT Lisa. The new monofical is a different brand. IOL Clareon from Alcon. I hope and pray all will be straight forward. The thought of having it cut out makes me nauseous and frightened.
I'm having it done on Wednesday.
 
I'll be thinking of you. I've just looked up my paperwork as I couldn't remember the make of lens (it was manufactured by Abbott Medical Optics Inc), One thing I noticed was that Tri-focal lenses were mentioned but were described as not being suitable for work or hobbies demanding very good vision, but more importantly, that they can cause halos around lights at night. Hopefully that means the halos will disappear when you have a monocular lens.
 
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