I am soon to have intraocular lenses implanted b/c my corneas are becoming obscured with cataracts. I’d like to hear from people who have made the choice to get their implants with fixed focus for reading distance, rather than the more common distance vision. I have assumed I would get closeup lenses that allow me to read in bed without glasses, but I’m having second thoughts.
What is your lived experience with closeup / reading intraocular lenses?
My question for you who have these lenses and are living with them is basically: how bad is your uncorrected vision outside the tiny range for which the lenses are designed? And how tight is that range in day-to-day practice? Does your vision fall off dramatically, as off a cliff, at the edge of that very short range?
WHY CLOSEUP?
I read myself to sleep. I sleep on my side, and it kinda hurts to wear glasses lying that way, with the pillow pushing them to the side, and the nose piece pressing into the bridge of my nose. Also, if I have glasses on, I have to wake up and take them off, and then… read myself to sleep again so I have to put the glasses back on to do that and… you get the idea. So I assumed I would ask for reading-focal length implants, and continue to read in bed without glasses, as I do now.
I have worn glasses since I was about 15, and frankly, I probably look better with glasses than without, being somewhat featureless otherwise :) So no problem wearing glasses most of the time as I do now.
HOWEVER:
Even though I have pretty dreadful vision, I can still see without glasses. If there was an emergency and I had to drive without glasses, I wouldn’t hit anybody, though I wouldn’t be able to read which cross-street I was approaching. I occasionally wake up in the morning and don’t put my glasses on — just forget to — and I can do just fine around the house that way. The world doesn’t look strange to me if I walk around the block without glasses.
I believe, with reading-focus implants, *my vision without glasses will be much worse than it is now* except for that 10cm or so range a foot or so from my head. IS THAT CORRECT? I tried on Mr pixxer’s reading glasses (the store-rack kind) and if they are any sort of simulation of what my vision would be like, it’s HUGELY worse than it is now — a mucky mess, rather than the current somewhat squidgy but discernable view of the trees at the back of the yard out the kitchen window.
QUESTIONS:
I basically want to know what I will be giving up in getting closeup lenses. Will my vision without glasses go from its current state to being a blurry mess?
Do drugstore reading glasses give a fair simulation? Does “closeup implant” vision really give you middle (dinner table) and distance (trees, birds) vision that is like seeing through Vaseline?
ALTERNATIVES:
Mr pixxer has come through his cataract surgery absolutely loving his “new eyes.” He chose, as many do, to have perfect distance vision, and he loves being able to identify birds again, and count the leaves on trees. Since I am used to having glasses on all day, and want not to have them on to read in bed, the choice seemed clear. The warnings about poly-focal lenses — imperfect at any range, and sometimes giving haloes around light sources and other weirdness like that — soured both of us on that choice quickly.
I’d just like to know, before finalizing this once-in-a-lifetime decision, what I’m getting (I pretty much know that) and what I’m giving up (your experience invaluable).
Thanks for any feedback you reading-lens people can offer.