Back to wearing glasses - ICK!

There is such a thing as "secondary cataracts" - my mom was told about them when she had her cataract surgery last year.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-se...y-cataract.htm

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Originally Posted by Catty1

There is such a thing as "secondary cataracts" - my mom was told about them when she had her cataract surgery last year.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-se...y-cataract.htm

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The docs didn't call the condition secondary cataracts when I had my surgery. Constantly renaming stuff or differences of professional opinions. I wish they would be consistent.

This was the regrowth of lens material that I mentioned in my previous post. I see an optometrist every year, but it has been a while since I've seen an ophthalmologist.

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If the basics of the surgery haven't changed, the doctor cuts a very small hole in the cornea and removes the anterior (front) lens capsule. The contents of the lens capsule is the removed, leaving the posterior lens capsule, hopefully free of lens material. The Posterior Capsule is used as a hammock to seat and secure the lens implant, which I believe is also tied into place in the eye. Months later you are evaluated to see if the cataract material on the PC has grown. If necessary, a laser surgery is performed to cut a hole in the PC so it will fall off and vision will be restored.

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Originally Posted by pomtzu

Did you say 50??? Oh you poor baby. I'll be 68 this week. :eek: I can hardly believe it myself!

Mine isn't the tear duct that's blocked - it's an oil gland in the upper eyelid. Never even knew there were such things in the eyelid, but I sure know now! But they will do "something" to the tear ducts if I have to have the procedure - supposed to increase the natural tears somehow, even tho those aren't blocked. This is an ongoing education for me!

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They will most likely put something in them to plug them up. My Dad also has very dry eyes so he had plugs put in his tear ducts. I think he also still uses some kind of over the counter moisture drops too. I have the opposite problem of too many tears.

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Originally Posted by mrspunkysmom

Having just re-read the thread, I don't think Pom said her cataracts came back. She's having eyelid-tear duct issues with a blocked tear duct (ouch).

Cataracts, as in the whole lens, can't come back. And a stronger presciption won't help. Prescription lenses help focus light as it passes through your cornea and natural lens so that it hits the back of the eye right on. If your lens is clouded with cataract material, light won't get through unimpeded no matter what. Think of a cataract like FOG. We can see light and dark, but the details are not visible.

If the basics of the surgery haven't changed, the doctor cuts a very small hole in the cornea and removes the anterior (front) lens capsule. The contents of the lens capsule is the removed, leaving the posterior lends capsule, hopefully free of lens material. The PC is used as a hammock to seat and secure the lens implant, which I believe is also tied into place in the eye. Months later you are evaluated to see if the cataract material on the PC has grown. If necessary, a laser surgery is performed to cut a hole in the PC so it will fall off and vision will be restored.

I was very young when mine was performed, so there is a possibility of cusping, the lens material growing around the implant.

If your doctor says you need the surgery, you should do it. The lens material clouds over and blocks or distorts light. Colors fade; clarity diminishes. I was unable to drive at night for a long time because all of the lights overwhelmed any night vision.

Believe me when I tell you that the annoyance or anti-reflective lenses with polarizing material is worth the trade for vision. Without it, I, and many others here, would be legally blind. Mine were so bad they were done 6 weeks apart.

You probably don't think you need it now, but wait until the second eye is done.

Good Luck!

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I'll have the other eye done, just not keen on it because of the big deal we go through here when it's a 15 minute op. Actually with only one eye done I'm in heaven, I see colours now and actual faces so I thought I could skip the second eye but might as well go the whole route. I wouldn't dare cancel now, someone would have my hide...gotta keep up with her, what she can do I can do...I think not...:D

I've always needed polarized glasses, always will but I'm so comfy in them that I couldn't do without them, no eye pain from light, no shimmering roads or sidewalks etc.