Slightly different perspective here. I had both eyes done two years ago. Had the distance correction put in and saw 20/20 again. Hooray.
Fast forward to April this year and I had a retina detach. Now into my fourth surgery with a bleak outlook for that eye. According to my retina specialist there is no way to directly blame the cataract surgery, but it is a possible cause. The disclaimer mentions that retina issues are a possible problem. When my wife had one eye done for cataracts, she mentioned this to the Dr. The Dr pointed to a 1 in a thousand possibility. I guess I am the one.
Bottom line, I think it is a very helpful surgery, BUT, I would wait until it is a bigger problem. (65 and medicare is almost free) Research and find out who is the most successful surgeon and go there.
Your experience may vary, so take it for what this is worth.
I had done a lot of research into the whole cataract surgery thing and the only really bad complication is a detatched retina, and the risk goes up with your amount of nearsightedness. The basic mono lenses, the ones I got, the Alcon Labs AcrisoftIQ are supposed to be the lenses with the least complication rate, period. Seemed to be the fancier the lens, the higher (Still very unlikely) the bad complication rate, so I went basic. I had nothing but the drops in the eye during surgery, nothing to relax me at all. First time, it would have been a waste of the drug, but for some reason, when I was having the second eye done, I was about as close to a panic attack as I've ever been. I remember hearing the monitor beeps speed up as the procedure went on, and the last couple of minutes was pretty bad, I was gulping like a fish. I was pretty much soaked in sweat at the end, but was instantly back to normal as soon as the thing that keeps your eye opened up was removed. A woman I work with was so nervous the first time, they dosed her up and she was awake, but remembered nothing until the end. The second time she was fine, and got nothing to calm her down at all.
If your surgeon doesn't explain everything in almost too much depth, find another one. Mine explained pretty much everything in a phone call several days before the procedure, and again in person before it was done. Infection, detatched retina, that's pretty much about it, my doctor has done thousands of them and has had a very low rate of any signifcant complications, but he said due to my very high amount of nearsightedness, I had a higher than average chance of detaching a retina. He said by the time six months has passed afterwards, the rate is pretty much back to what anyone who is nearsighted has, which is there, but very low. He's been doing them for almost 30 years and no matter how well he explained it, he still gets a patient once in a while who is unhappy because he needs glasses, AS HE WAS TOLD HE PROBABLY WOULD. The guy next to me in the lineup on the first surgery on my right eye was at the doc's office the next day like I was, but he was complaining about the glasses and the doc was really getting frustrated with him and when he came in with me, I said, "Unhappy customer?", he just shook his head, and said, "Didn't I tell you there was a good chance you might still need glasses for perfect vision?", "Yeah, I don't know why he's shocked about it! You said it to him right before you said it to me 5 minutes later!". He said he gets one every so often and it's never apparent who it's going to be, and most of the time, it's a total surprise when they whine about glasses, but showed no signs of caring about it when they had everything explained to them. I had to come back and have the YAG laser for a fold on my lens capsule, and I didn't complain, it's not his fault, it's just a thing that happens a lot of the time.
It's such a nothing procedure in so many ways at this point, we should be thrilled we can see correct colors, etc, and in most cases, your distance vision is better the day after the surgery than it ever was before. But people still find something to complain about...
...Ben
