I find myself in a quagmire much like many of those that came before me on this forum. The magnitude of a decision I must make within weeks and a feeling of ambiguity among the various surgeons and ophthalmologists I have seen has me desperate for guidance.
Three months ago I had surgery to repair a torn retina (corner tear far away from the macula). My surgeon made his three month checkup on me recently and discovered no scarring but a mild puckering that will be looked at again in three months for possible surgical intervention. He wants his view into my eye if surgery is needed to be as clear as possible. The gas bubble caused a cataract that he has placed me on a schedule with a cataract surgeon for repair in the 8 weeks.
His final words to me at the end of the checkup was a strong recommendation that I either switch the mono vision setup i have of the right eye for distance to the left eye that underwent the retina surgery for the long distance. His reasoning was that the right eye sees much more detail at near vision and the left eye may never be at that level again. Or that I make both eyes long distance. In essence he wanted the left eye to have long distance capability no matter which setup.
I have worn mono vision acuvue oasys for astigmatism contacts for several years and loved the setup, never needed glasses for any distance and could read and see long distance very well.
My visit to the optometrist yielded a differing opinion. He showed me how my right eye is the dominant one and that with some blurriness in my left eye, making it my distant one at this time anyway, would not be satisfactory. He also pointed out that I now have a misalignment in my eyes and if both were corrected for distance I would see double vision. He changed my post surgery eye power from -2 for the left and -2.75 for the right to -2.5 for both. Two days out from this adjustment I can generally see ok , but my distance is somewhat less sharp. Reading and computer wise, I still need to enlarge type on the computer to read it, i can read small printed type pretty good if its about 6 inches away.
Here are the questions I am trying to resolve in my decision,
1) Should I attempt to strengthen the left eye for distance even though it is somewhat blurry still? I couldn't drive with just it for distance I would have to go with both eyes set for distance for now until the cataract surgery.
2) What are the chances that the blurriness will clear up with the cataract removal? I have not been able to get a good answer on this, if the odds are very high I could make a go of using the left eye for distance if that is a preferred way.
3) What about the aspheric design lenses for implanting during cataract surgery for the left eye? Does this seem like a plausible way to go for me? If so are there contacts I could try this out on ahead of time? I go back in 10 days to the optometrist and could try something new.
4) Only one eye is planned for cataract surgery right now, the other is apparently in good shape, the right one. If I stay with the mono vision setup I have now, I think the right eye should be put back to 2.75 for more sharpness at distance, it would be a contact so could always be changed? And the left one that will have an implant maybe should be adjusted for better reading if that is possible?
Just not sure which way to go and this decision is so permanent.