ok, yes, glasses

Current state of my eyes

As I was informed when I was considering surgery back in 2008, I knew that it was likely that I'd need reading glasses at some point just like anyone in their mid-40's might.  Up close vision has degraded a little bit - how much is hard to say because the instant you have ICLs inserted your distance vision becomes something totally different.  For the majority of my life up I was used to always bringing things closer to me to see them clearly and 8 years later I still struck by the fact that I now bring things in too close at first and then have to adjust outward for focusing.  I just haven't gotten that exact distance figured out.  Hard habit to break.

Anyway, I do wear computer glasses every day now because I am on the computer for both work and play for too many hours each day.  I wear these same glasses in the movie theater, too.  But I don't need them to drive and I don't usually have to wear them to watch tv, but I do sometimes wear them to watch tv depending on the distance and lighting conditions.

Oddly, the glasses I wear aren't the most recent ones my optometrist prescribed. Since 2008 I've had three sets of glasses made, and the ones I find work best are the first ones he prescribed. The most recent ones are the worst. I've tried explaining to him that the lighting conditions he does his tests in are the worst for the ICL halos, especially in the right eye.

My main eye complaints these days don't have anything to do with ICL.

Dry Eye

The dry eye I had prior to surgery continues to be an issue (and not helped by all the computer work, I know).  

Horizontal Bands

When I look at a website with a dark background, I will see horizontal bands that interfere with my ability to see.  When I tilt my head, those bands tilt, so it's not a problem with the monitor.  I noticed this prior to surgery, so I know it's not ICL related.  My optometrist has never been able to explain this.

Excessive Tearing/Burning

Again, I'm sure this is due to excessive computer use, but I often find that when I have to look away from the computer and focus at a distance closer or farther, one of my eyes will burn and tear very badly.  Both eyes do it, but rarely at the same time.  I'm trying to do better about taking time throughout the day to do little eye exercises to vary focus.  Many years ago (pre-ICL) I actually had to go through some vision therapy because of "loss of binocular vision" that was blamed on the computer use.  The prescribed therapy basically involved me staring at shapes and crossing my eyes at varying degrees.  So much for the "old wives'  tale" of crossing your eyes being bad for you.

Anyway, as far as the ICL's go, I think they're stable.  I don't think I'm 20/20 anymore, but still fairly close in most conditions.  It's probably worse in lower light. No change in halo intensity or frequency.

6 years later

Well, my six year anniversary since my ICL surgeries came and went, and there's still nothing new to report, so that's good, I guess.  I do find that I'm using the very thin reading glasses my optometrist prescribed after my surgery more often, but only when reading for long periods.  I don't need them at all, most of the time.  Plus, my office chair is a recliner, so most of the time I'm sitting much farther back from the computer than most people would, so I am probably straining them a bit more than necessary.

The only thing notable, really, is that a couple of days ago I had a migraine aura occur, and I haven't had one of those in at least 15 years.  I've got some job stress going on right now, and for me, aura is never accompanied with pain, so after it completed its usual C shape, it was over after about 30 minutes.

I do sometimes have migraines without aura, and they always are painful, but the aura-types are always pain-free.  Just really weird!

I continue to be amazed

I recently went for my annual vision checkup at my optometrist.  Still reading at 20/20.  Pretty amazing for someone in their forties to not need reading glasses. Distance vision, though, is what really impresses me.  As I drive on the interstate and see so sharply at long distances, I still ponder on how novel that is for me.

My eye doctor commented on my adjusting the distance at which I held reading material (backwards) during his checkup. As if that signaled a need for reading glasses on the horizon.  Maybe so, but I pointed out that for my first 30+ years of reading, I had to bring things closer to me to be able to see clearly and I'm still sort of in the habit of bring things close to read, and then adjusting backwards, even 5 years post-ICL.

5 year mark

I hit five years with my ICLs at the beginning of this month, and not much has changed.  Literally.  I still have halos.  I still have YAG hole artifacting.  I still see 20/20.   I am still happy I had my surgery.  And if you are considering ICL surgery, my mantra is still the same:  do your due diligence (research) and be realistic in your expectations.

Let's talk halos

Halos...the big downside of ICL surgery. A necessary evil, I guess, for those of us who really struggled with their vision before surgery. The image above is a classic example of my halo experience at night. Looks relatively harmless in a static photo, but imagine driving down the interstate and all those halos are in motion, they're overlapping and growing, they disappear and reappear. Even the cat eyes on the roadway have halos, and the bright lines on the street glow and waver. Sometimes I find myself focusing on the halos and not on the cars in front of me.



For me, halos are not just a nighttime hassle. This atrium looks bright enough, no? And yet, I have 'halo effects'. I don't see these every day, just sometimes.


This image pretty much speaks for itself. I don't always see the tabs with my halos, but I always see them when I look at this elevator button panel in the parking garage where I work. Never fails.

The drops work most of the time for the halos, thankfully. My pupils are generally slow to react when the light changes on me, so sometimes I have to wait a few minutes before I can tell if they're really doing the job. Our pupils shrink as we age, so hopefully this problem will lessen over time. I just hope I don't have to wait til I'm 70 before finally being haloless.

It's been 3 months

I went for my 3-month followup today. For the most part, everything is going just fine. The halos are still a problem, though, when I don't use the drops. But I learned through an ICL Yahoo Group that allergy medicines can dialate your pupils and I've been on allergy meds for months, so I'm going without now for a few days to see if it makes a difference. So far, it does seem to make a small difference in the intensity of the halos, but after 6 days of no allergy meds, I do still have halos. Here's what they look like at night:


But, like I said, the drops that were prescribed do make the halos go away. My surgeon did offer me some hope today that the halos could still diminish over time. He said that it can take up to a year for 'settling' in the eye. Part of the problem, too, is that I have larger-than-usual pupils for my age. Even so, I'm still happy I went through with this procedure.