Anyone had a cataract done?

I’ve got a trauma cataract (old injury) and it needs to go after years of waiting for it to grow big enough to be an issue.

I wear varifocals day to day. Has any fellow varifocal wearers had it done? What do you do about glasses post op? My optician didn’t give me much info and said it all works itself out.

I wear single vision contacts when out on the bike. What happens then?

I’m very confused by the lack of clear info from them

Watching this – pun intended – with interest.

Eye eye

Eye see.

I can’t speak personally, but my late dad had it done, it makes a huge difference so you’ll need a new glasses prescription, or maybe even none once you’ve recovered from the operation.

It doesn’t sound like a very pleasant procedure though!

I’ve had cataracts done in both eyes, first one a year ago October, second in January. First one was a bit unsettling because you’re wide awake with eyes open but the one being operated on is completely desensitised and you can see lots of blurry colours but you can’t feel anything at all, and all the time they’re working on the eye. They were also training the person doing the operation on me… 😳

I mentioned this while they were doing the second one, and someone said, “careful what you say, she’s standing right by you!”

That one was done in about twenty minutes.

I was wearing contacts at the time, so I just carried on with one in the eye still to be done, and I had an existing pair of prescription glasses fitted with a plain lens on the side that had been operated on.

Bloody awesome! I always had poorer eyesight in my right eye, with astigmatism, and that was the one with the worst cataract, but the astigmatism is much improved, which sometimes happens, and now both eyes are done everything is so much brighter, I only need reading glasses for close-up work, and my eyesight is better than since I left school.

It’s great being able to wear all my sunglasses that I’ve collected over the years without having to phaff around with contacts now. 😁

Thanks CZ

I’ve been considering getting mine done. Very mild at the moment and not causing an issue but the prospect of going from -10 to -3 is appealing. Or do I just stick with what I’ve known for my entire adult life? A friend had his done a few years ago and realised the paintwork in the kitchen was white not grey! Seems to be a routine job these days. The interim glasses thing between having two done is a small concern given.

My mum had both hers done, she was delighted and her eyesight was almost back to 20/20.

What is your current Rx r&l?

The main problem is when they correct the eye to zero and the other eye is still a high prescription.
Especially when the other eye won’t be ready for years.

I had mine done a couple of years ago, I had really good eyesight before the cataracts, and have found the fixed point of focus to be a little bit of a pain afterwards. Odd thing was I really didn’t notice till quite late on. it had got quite bad in one eye and it was only the lack of depth perception when on my mountain bike that lead me to getting my eyes checked.

Here in Germany, I was able to get a higher quality lens fitted by paying a little extra, but still monofocus, it cost me about 700 euros per eye extra. I was recommended to get mid focus, but now suspect I would have been better getting one done with the mid focus and one done with a longer focal length. I think it is worth talking over with the specialist to see what your options are, and take a little time to decide, especially when getting the second eye done. Think about your lifestyle, what you want to prioritize and where and when you are most comfortable wearing glasses or when you would prefer to be without.

Get it done, poor vision creeps up on you, you will be amazed, the colours are better as well.

You can get a choice of lenses – here in Wales the NHS only does single focus, but you can choose to set that at infinity or nearer (this will affect the prescription of glasses you need afteerwards and when you need to wear them). Privately you can get varifocals and all sorts. I had my first one done five or so years ago on the NHS and went for good distance focus. In the event that eye (left) focusses just short of infinity, but is fine. I got my second one done privately because of a long covid related waiting list, obviously went for the same and this time the focus was bang on. I just put up with it in the interim with no specs (my natural focus point was a few tens of metres behind me so my right eye was pretty useless apart from reading with reading glasses).

I now have varifocals with a tiny prescription for the top half of the left lens, plain on the top part of the right, and my vision is better than it has been for decades. I can drive without glasses, but with the varifocals I can decipher the car dashboard, which is nice. For cycling I use bifocal safety glasses so I can read the Garmin, fiddle with repairs, read cafe menus etc.

So, ask about lens options and if you want something fancy consider going private. You need to think about when and where you would want to be wearing glasses, when not.

The operation is weird but not unpleasant. Don’t be a pussy.

I have had very mild cataracts from birth, and very strong myopia (about -12) plus a bit of astigmatism. A couple of years back I started to notice that things were fuzzier. For a year or so it was adequately correctable with a stronger prescription, but about 18 months ago I was recommended to have cataract surgery (was 46 then).

Given the strength of my prescription and the fact that I still had excellent accommodation (i.e. could shift focus from near to far so hadn’t used reading glasses), and had worn contacts for 40 years, I was not keen on the idea of reading glasses or varifocals. So I did a load of research to figure out how likely it was that I could achieve freedom from contacts / glasses.

In the end I had the surgery done privately at Moorfields Hospital. Given the strength of my prescription, the best option for me was single vision lenses, with one specified for distance vision and one at about computer screen distance. 18 months on it’s really very good. I don’t wear anything most of the time. Can look at my phone adequately and drive during daylight no problem. (I have some glasses that live on my office desk, some for night driving and some for reading my kindle in bed.)

I absolutely recommend the Moorfields guys and my surgeon in particular if that’s an option for you. Happy to discuss further about details if anyone is interested.

For someone who is happy wearing varifocal glasses, I think just getting single vision lenses implanted and then wearing new varifocal glasses will be fine. If you’re keen to be glasses-free though, you may have options…

Oh and I had both done at the same time. No good reason not to, and I got myself back from London to Oxford by train a couple of hours afterwards and was amazed by how much I could see!

I can recommend a good plumber. Depends on severity, he’s not up to a full-blown waterfall though

Have you considered beavers?

Interesting thread. I’m booked in for refractive lens exchange in about 8 weeks, no cataracts and a relatively weak prescription but I hate having to wear glasses (logistics rather than vanity, I’m too old for vanity). I’m going private through Moorfields so very pleased to hear you had a good experience @gray.

@ElShalimo, you should ask for more info on the options you have (assuming you have options with the NHS). The private guy I saw went through tons of different options and ended up recommending varifocal lenses for me. Sounds really weird but I’m going to trust him. The thing that does worry me a little is when biking, running, etc I wear single vision glasses so I can glance down at the ground instead of moving my whole head. I’m not sure how that will work with varifocal lenses but will ask at the pre-op. I wear varifocals day to day.

MiL had hers done last year. She was terrified of the op, and, in her words, planned to put it off and hope she died before her eyes got too bad, so she wouldn’t have to go through with it.

Eventually did it anyway. It was really straightforward, no probs at all, she’s delighted at the results, and the only downside is she feels naked without her glasses on! She only wears reading glasses now.

When you say varifocal lenses, do you mean varifocal glasses, or the lenses that they will place inside your eye to replace your natural lenses?

Assuming the latter, since they’ll be inside your eye, you should be able to see at all distances wherever you look – it’s not like varifocals where the lower portion is for close up and the upper portion for distance, it’s supposed to focus every distance everywhere at the same time. It’s not quite as perfect as it sounds – there are downsides and not everyone gets on with them (though some do find them amazing), but for riding you’d just look where you want to see, simple as that. Doesn’t make any difference whether you move your head or just your eyes. Depending on your prescription, you may be able to get a sense of what it’ll be like by trying multifocal contact lenses first.

@jkomo – my prescription is -1.5 for distance and about +1.75 for reading, I have astigmatism too.

@tonyd –  the way it was described is that the local NHS will fit a single vision new lens with a prescription to match my current eye sight – it’s not distance correction. They could drop it a bit to give me better reading in that eye. The optician noted a slight thickening of the other eye lens so that will need sorting in the future too. There’s a small chance they might do both eyes as I’m early 50s and healthy, so should recover very quickly.

The confusion for me is how do I use a computer and read books, drive etc. in the following days and weeks. The optician said they’d be changing lenses and so on but that process as we know takes weeks. I do have some old varifocal glasses in the house but it’s really not clear how the post-op weeks and months pan out. I’m sure they do it all the time it’s just poor communication

Depending on your prescription, you may be able to get a sense of what it’ll be like by trying multifocal contact lenses first.

I tried multifocal contact lenses and didn’t get on with them, hence (in part) my decision to stick with single vision implants and use glasses where necessary.

@ElShalimo, I am surprised they will only match your current eyesight, specially if you are definitely going to get the other eye done in the future, you ought to be able to choose your focal length. In the interim you would need a pair of squinty glasses made up if good binocular vision is important to you. But you will probably favour the new eye anyway as it will see better.

ETA cheap readers would work as a stop-gap, but not if you currently need glasses to read distance things not near things and they replicate that with your new eye.

My dad was living with me when he had his done, except he didn’t tell me, first I knew was when the hospital called to ask me to pick him up as they weren’t letting him ride his mobility scooter home after the opp. Which was fair enough, apart from it meaning I then had to ride his mobility scooter home passed two miles of rush hour traffic 🫣

Did you visit a pump track on the way home?

If you have the same Rx in both eyes you could easily ask for full correction as a difference of 1.5 dioptres between the two eyes is fine.
You’ll still want varifocals until the other eye is done, then it depends on your job. On off with readers is annoying.

I’m WFH analyst type job sat/stood in front of screen for 9-12hrs/day, 5days per week.

I need varifocals to see my notes, the screen, look across the room, look out of the window etc. etc.

In my experience it would be bold to get expensive varifocals in the days following surgery. So there’ll be a period where you’ll probably have to accept an interim solution for a couple of months or so. For me, that was self-prescribed Internet glasses for about £40 delivered approx next day.

I’d also be very surprised (and would not agree to it!) if they deliberately replicated your current -1.50 prescription unless it was part of a plan to keep one eye a bit short (one of mine is about -1.25) and focus the other one at distance. They’ll probably correct the -1.5 so that that eye can see clearly at distance. You’ll then just need a weak reader lens for computer work for that eye until you get new varifocals.

When you say varifocal lenses, do you mean varifocal glasses, or the lenses that they will place inside your eye to replace your natural lenses?

The latter

Assuming the latter, since they’ll be inside your eye, you should be able to see at all distances wherever you look

That sounds like wizardry! I was looking forward to getting it done before I knew that, now I really can’t wait

You can get varifocal intra ocular lenses privately but not on NHS. They would work much like a varifocal contact lens, which not everyone gets on with. It will be a bit of a ball ache if you don’t.
One eye Plano one -1.50 would probably get you by without specs for most things but you’d probably need some occupational specs for working at a computer, and maybe some for driving, in which case back to varifocals.

One eye Plano one -1.50 would probably get you by without specs for most things but you’d probably need some occupational specs for working at a computer, and maybe some for driving, in which case back to varifocals.

This is roughly what I have. jkomo is a professional so has more experience beyond my sample size of one. But for what it’s worth, I am roughly 0 in my dominant eye and -1.25 in the other (spherical equivalent, I have some residual astigmatism), and am really OK working with no glasses – in my office that’s what I do. At home when working I wear glasses at the computer to focus both eyes at the screen, because there’s nobody else about so I don’t need to look up and talk to people. I did get some varifocals for driving, but found them too weird, and gave them back. I’m sure that’s because I haven’t worn varifocals before, I only drive once every few weeks, and my vision with no glasses is now so good that I’m not inclined to wear them full time to get used to them. For someone used to varifocals, I’m sure it would be a different story, but for me having been as blind as a bat my whole life, being glasses/contacts free is incredible.

For driving now I have glasses which put me perfect for distance on one eye and about -0.25 or -0.5 (I forget) in the other so that I can see well at night and see the dashboard / sat nav well enough. I’ve considered bifocals for driving, and may yet try that, but would need to get the boundary in the right place.

You can get varifocal intra ocular lenses privately but not on NHS. They would work much like a varifocal contact lens, which not everyone gets on with. It will be a bit of a ball ache if you don’t.

Just for clarity for anyone googling, although these are often referred to as varifocal, they are correctly referred to as multifocal. They essentially split the light coming in and focus it at two or three focal lengths, so theoretically you get three distances in perfect focus and in between those it’s a little less sharp. In reality it doesn’t pan out as clear as that, but an expert should advise. I actually tried multifocal contacts on top of my “new eyes” to see if I could get the best of all worlds. For me they kind of work, but aren’t that great. Partly this is because my vision is now so sharp anyway, that changing both my distance eye and my closer eye to being “pretty OK at all distances” means that at pretty much every distance, it’s actually less sharp than through one of my eyes naked! So two jack-of-all-distances feels less good than two individual specialists 🙂

I had a cataract operation about 37 years ago on one eye after I got a very small (map pin) stuck in it. Story was we were blowing them at each other through straws and guess who got one in the eye. Anyway straight to hospital and they did a lens replacement because it was a certainty a cataract would form.

37 years later it still works ok and actually might be better than my right eye now. Obviously I can’t focus on close objects as it won’t autofocus like the lens in your birth eye but it serves just fine really and I’ve never bothered with glasses yet…..although at 50 this may have to change now.

I did have some scar tissue build up a few years back but they layered that off in a few minutes and it’s been good since.

They told me that my op would have been one of the very early lens replacement ones they started back then so it’s testament to the surgery that it’s still good.

MiL had hers done last year. She was terrified of the op, and, in her words, planned to put it off and hope she died before her eyes got too bad, so she wouldn’t have to go through with it.

This sounds like my mum and in January she was told she has one in each eye although she has been given the option of being knocked out while it’s done. Didn’t know this was an option to be honest.

She has been offered to go to Glasgow to get it done but as she’s north of Aberdeen isn’t going to but this to my mind is another delaying tactic. I have said I’d drive down we could stay a night either side but not going to happen

I was diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye in July. At age 56 this is apparently unusual.

Currently on the NHS waiting list but the blurred vision in the that eye is annoying. I work at a laptop all day and actually feel I would be better off with an eye patch over that eye.

Given the length of NHS waiting lists, I’m considering asking the optician about going private. It would be a chunky outlay for us just now, so needs thought. Any pros and cons I should consider?

The vision in my left eye hasn’t changed much in 2 years but I’m told the the affected eye has had a big change.

It varies per NHS trust. I got mine done at Easter but the wait was only a month or so. Local trust outsources to SpaMedica

If you’re up north don’t use SpaMedica for private treatment. They’re not good.

I was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes at the age of 43! Probable cause being steroid inhalers since childhood.

I went private (using the money for a new kitchen – haven’t been allowed to forget that!) and had them both done in the same sitting and had multi-focal lenses fitted. The surgery was intense and not much fun, especially when they’d done one and then I had to go again and knew what was coming.

Recovery was quite slow – several days of not being able to see much at all but once it all healed it’s been awesome.

The lenses cause some funky concentric halos around bright lights but I’ve got used to them now. I can see far and near without glasses and things should stay like that, in theory, for the rest of my life.

I did have some capsular thickening and needed a bit of laser treatment to get rid of that a couple of years after the op but that is quite standard I believe. Left eye isn’t quite as good as the right after this but boat to worry about.

I’d forgotten about this thread, just noticed it had popped up again. It’ll be two years since I had my second eye done, and I can barely remember what my eyes used to be like, I’m now so used to doing everything without glasses, and being able to wear different sunglasses according to whatever I’m doing, and just putting on a pair of cheap readers for closeup, it’s hard to believe that I had to wear glasses for over forty years!
For closeup I mean closeup, I can read fairly small text, about 14/16pt, at just over arms length; I was up on Uffington White Horse this afternoon, and I can identify the gender of kestrels a couple of hundred feet away, and ravens a lot further than that, previously they’d have just been fuzzy greyish or black blobs, so it’s made an absolute world of difference.

Needing reading glasses just for reading or repair or craft work is absolutely no issue at all, not even a minor inconvenience compared to spending a small fortune to regularly update my glasses or contacts prescription.

Hoping everyone else is getting on just as well.

Had the pre op and now waiting for my appointment. Cataract is a result of surgery 5 years ago for a detached retina. Spent almost a year with reducing eyesight and since Jan time I have had triple vision in the eye which is no fun especially as the good eye has floaters, so been struggling. My complication is my good eye is about -4 which means I will not be able to wear glasses after the op as the focal point with glasses for the good eye will not match my new lens. Going for a contact in the good eye as NHS would not cover Lazer surgery of a corrective lens in that eye.

Good news for me is my new lens will remove the cataract, correct my short sightedness and my astigmatism so hoping for a good result. Can’t wait. I have chosen local anaesthetic.

Saw the consultant today, booked in for surgery on 23rd. That’s my pocket money used up for the next few years!