Cataract/Vision confusion

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Dear Group

On Wednesday I received more bad news about my eyes. This last year I have

had a lot more problems with my vision and got new glasses in April. The

glasses did not help and so my doc gave me a new weaker rx which also did

not help. In the mean time I came down with Blepharitis in June and the

eye doc gave me the impression that the vision problems were related to

that. My eye history is 29 years with iritis and a dense cataract in my left

eye now for more that 15 years. I only see out of my right eye, so having

it weak in vision is beyond distressing.

So this Wednesday the eye doc tells me that I need an even weaker rx and

that the vision problem is due to a cataract now in my good right eye. I

can bearly read street signs as it is and he wants to give me a weaker rx!!!

I am upset that he has not told me sooner that I have a cataract in my only

good eye which has had its own history of Iritis.

Has anyone here had a cataract and then been give a weaker rx for glasses?.

I know that my vision is fluctuating, but a weaker rx makes no sense to me.

So I will be on the hunt now for a new doc to get a second opinion, etc.

In the phone book I found a few places that deal with low vision and I am

going today to see what they have. One place said when I called that a

yellow filter may help with seeing when driving.

I am not a good candidate for cataract surgery, so I sure need your prayers.

Priscilla

RS,AS,Iritis,Blepharitis,Cataracts,Fibro,IC,Rapid Heart Beat,Fibro,Sleep

Apnea.......

Meds:Methotrexate,Plaquenil,Neurontin,Lanoxin,Zebeta,Paxil,Xanax, 3 eye

meds.....

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

i have just recently had a cataract removed from my

right eye wich was caused becuase of iritis.It was done without any

pain at all and i was gobsmacked at how quickly the surgery was done

to remove it,much easier than a trip to the dentist for me, so if

you are having second thoughts about surgery forget about it go for

it.

bill gray

[Guest guest]

Priscilla,

Greetings. I'm sorry to hear that you are having so many problems with your

vision. As you might remember, I did have a lot of problems after my cataract

surgery. It flared up my uveitis and I also had secondary cataract laser

surgery a couple of months later. The uveitis never was under complete control

until

my vitrectomy, which I had after all the complications from glaucoma surgery

in Dec. Those of us, especially those of us that have had repeated iritis

attacks for so many years, are at higher risk of complications, for any type of

eye surgery, laser or otherwise.

At the time of my cataract surgery, it was thought that it didn't matter what

type of implant was used. When you wrote about your need for C. surgery, to

my surprise, I found that silicone, instead of acrylic, is a better choice for

us and it also mentions that the size of the incision is important.

I don't think anyone can predict whether or not someone will have

complications. My doctor for the glaucoma surgery was one of the worlds best

known

surgeons. The surgery was beautifully done, but I still had severe and extensive

complications that damaged my eyesight primarily from the fact that inflammatory

uveitis patients are well known for complications and they can be

ophthalmologists biggest headaches. However, if I hadn't done it at all, I might

be blind

today. Some things are just necessary and we have to hope for the best. Don't

want to sound so pessimistic, but we have to be realistic.

I have a cataract in my remaining eye and will, like you, have to take care

of it sometime in the near future. It is growing very, very slowly....probably

because I have had only two episodes of uveitis in that eye and have had

little need of steroid drops, unlike my bad eye which kept the makers of Pred

Forte

in business. :-( It seems yours is much more dense and giving you a lot of

vision problems. In that case, you will have to make the decision to have it

removed. I would really advise you to seek the advice of someone who has taken

care of people like us...with so many years of iritis attacks. I don't usually

arm myself with documents from the Internet to take to the doctors office, but

this seems like such important info for us that I would suggest you do it.

Most ophthalmologists will use the same type of implants on all their patients

(just out of convenience). Some don't do the smaller incision. So it might be

wise to shop around and see who are the VERY best in your area.

Ophthalmology Times - IOL material, designs aid cataract surgery in uveitis

patients

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http://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/ophthalmologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp

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