When can my wife have her new lens replaced?

Greetings:

All the vision problems listed below are due to my wife’s diabetics so I thought that this Forum would be a good place to post my question. However, if someone can inform me of a better site to post my question, it would be greatly appreciated.

In the summer of 2012, my wife had cataract surgery on her right eye. At that time, her defective natural lens was replaced with an artificial soft lens. The surgery went without complications, but we discovered one major problem afterwards. My wife is an albino therefore she is permanently extremely near-sighted. We both knew this. However, before the surgery, the surgeon asked my wife if she would prefer if he put in a new lens with far-sighted properties. He knew that my wife was extremely nearsighted so he was only trying to be helpful. We knew from our own research that in a cataract operation, the surgeon is giving you a permanent contact lens that, in some cases, permanently fixes vision problems. It sounded like a feasible idea so my wife consented. However, after the surgery, my wife discovered that she had a major problem. Her right eye, which before had given her some limited degree of vision when used very, very up-close, was now useless for that purpose. Yes, she could see things perhaps a little better from a distance, but now when she attempted to use her right eye for looking at anything up-close (like on a computer screen), everything became blurry very quickly. She could use her left eye for that purpose but not her right eye.

This summer, we will be seeing extremely skilled optometrist and he will be hopefully fitting my wife with appropriate glasses that can assist her in using both eyes for close up work. However, she was thinking that a more permanent solution might be to eventually replace the soft lens in her right eye with a more appropriate, near-sighted lens. However, we know that all eye surgery is major surgery and has major risks attached to it so, frankly, is this course of action recommended? Finally, if another operation is feasible, how soon can she have this second operation? The last one on this eye was in the summer of 2012, or less than a year ago. For example, could she have the new lens replaced this summer? Is this logical and allowable? Any advice given in this matter is greatly appreciated.

I have several major eye issues going on as well. If I were your wife. I would try to get a pair of eye glasses that treats each eye’s issues individually. I have that situation myself. One of my eyes needs a totally different preseiption than the ogher one does. And don’t be afraid to keep going back to the optometrist if they aren’t right the very first time. I would avoid the eye surgery and do everything else possible before resorting to that. That’s just my personal opinion.

Hi Marad,

Since you are posting on a diabetes forum, I'm assuming you are concerned about the implications of diabetes for your wife's surgery.

As with most things diabetes, a lot of it depends upon your wife's level if control. Diabetes that is out of control can affect short term issues like the ability to heal after surgery and transient vision issues that can change with blood sugar levels. Changes in BG can directly affect lens properties. I can't tell you if replacing the lens of a diabetic negates those issues or not, but it might be something to inquire about.

My vision issues are not nearly as serious as your wife's but it has changed dramatically over the last few years probably due as much to my level of BG control as it is to normal changes associated with age. I've needed corrective lenses for some time, but the last thing I wanted to do was to go to an optomotrist to get a precription that would be expensive but worthless to me in a few months if my vision changed because my level of control changed.

It wasn't until I got an all clear from my opthomologist this past Spring, after over two years of monitoring my diabetic retinopathy, that I decided to finally get glasses that could address my vision issues that i felt had finally stabilized.

Best of luck and keep us updated!