4 years later...

Tomorrow marks my four year anniversary with ICLs.  Four years later, I'm still 20/20 with no major issues to speak of.  The halo problem persists, but I really don't think about them much any more.  I don't use the anti-halo drops at all these days.  Some nights, the halos are barely there and the next night they'll be worse than ever.  Their impact on my quality of life is minimal.

Now having gone four years without contact lenses or glasses, it's almost like I can't remember what that was like, and how much of a hassle it was.  I love being free of those things!  I love seeing the alarm clock in the middle of the night, even if there is a halo around it. ;)

If you're considering ICL, really think about pros vs cons, and accept that there are likely to be cons.  It's amazing to think about going from total nearsightedness to 20/20 in a couple days' time.  That kind of magic has to have a price with it, and apparently my price was a few halos.  I'm happy to have paid it and enjoy my clear vision.

3 years later

It's been a little over 3 years since I had my ICLs done.  As far as they're concerned, everything is holding steady.  I'm still seeing 20/20, and still impressed by how clear things are outside in the daylight.  The halos, unfortunately, are still holding steady, too.  No change there.  I've accepted them as a necessary evil with my ICL.  I don't use anti-halo drops much anymore.  I just use them in certain situations, like concert halls, dimly-lit restaurants, driving in unfamiliar areas in the dark.  That's about it. I don't use them on a daily basis, as I really don't like how they make my eyes feel and it sort of dries out my sinuses.  But they do the job when necessary.

My biggest problem at the moment continues to be the tear dysfunction problem.  I don't call it 'dry eye' these days, because most of the time my eyes are anything but dry.  They tear like crazy and are really red without some sort of steroid drop.  I assume the tearing is due to my punctal plugs giving my tears nowhere to go.  I don't know what the red is all about.

I went for a new procedure called "meibomian gland probing" (not as painful as it sounds!), that was supposed to free up the meibomian glands in the lids, but it didn't work for me.  So now I plan to have my punctal plugs removed, or at least, a couple of them, to address the tearing.  This will be done by a doctor at my ICL surgeon's office, so hopefully they will have some new ideas on what's causing all this.  I have tears, just not good quality tears.  It's frustrating, to say the least.

status report

So, Daylight Savings Time has ended and with that, the need for anti-halos drops increases.  I'm resisting, though, as, well, frankly I'm sick of squirting stuff in my eye.  The halos are a lesser concern at the moment because for the last year I've been battling an unrelated infection/inflammation that I've just not been able to shake.  It started with severe redness and increased dryness about this time last year - so red that I found myself not looking people in the eye for fear of grossing them out.  I remember thinking on Christmas Day that the whites of my eyes looked like pepperoni - all red, bumpy, etc.  Awful.

I had a follow up appointment scheduled with my ICL doctor, so of course while I was there the redness was discussed.  At first the opthalmologist (not my surgeon) said it was a dry eye flare up (I had dry eye prior to surgery) and she prescribed a couple of things.  Tried that for a few weeks with no results.  Went back, was prescribed something else.  Again, no results.  The prescription given to me at the third visit turned out to be something I was allergic to, so I only used it twice.  At that point, I decided to call my regular optometrist, as the allergic reaction needed immediate attention and getting into my surgeons office last minute is virtually impossible, and by this time I was ready for a second opinion.  My optometrist prescribed something that made the whiteness go away, but every time I tried to taper it off (per my doctor's instruction), the redness came back.  A few months ago, the tearing started.  Copious amounts of tears.  I had to keep tissues on my at all times, I was dabbing at my eyes every few seconds, having to apologize to strangers and tell people that 'no, I'm not crying'.  It was a ridiculous amount of tears, and the redness was creeping back. 

Fortunately, two weeks ago my optometrist gave me a new prescription that is working!  Within two applications, the tearing had stopped and my eyes are white again.  It remains to be seen if this will hold once I start tapering off again.  But so far, so good. 

Anyway, with all the stuff I've been squirting in my eyes this year, anti-halo drops are an afterthought.  I still use them when absolutely necessary, but otherwise I'm just living with the halos.

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 2 years...

Not much new to report, which I guess can be a good thing, too. My vision is still holding steady at 20/20, but the halos are holding steady, as well. Now that spring is here, my dependency on the halo drops will go down both because of the longer days and because with warmer weather I'll be spending more time outside and not indoors where the lighting can be dim. So, I'm looking forward to that.

I've mostly ditched the reading glasses. They seemed to make it hard for my eyes to adjust back to normal focus, and since I can read just fine without them, why bother? The only time I wear them is at work in a particular conference room. Something about the distance to the projection screen and the light level in there make them necessary. But that's pretty much the only place I use them at work. I think its the "halo effect" going on in there. The light is somewhat low, and though I may not actually see halos when I look at the projection screen, there's a slight blurring of the edges - not blurring, really, but duplication? That's not the right word, either. It's hard to describe. Anyway, the glasses help with that when its happening.

I'm getting frequent requests for information from others interested in having ICL surgery. I am happy to respond, as I was in search of the same perspective when I was considering surgery. At that time, I knew of one other person who'd had it, and I asked her lots of questions, so I know how the 'not knowing' can be.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to get as much information as you can prior to surgery so that you go into it fully prepared with knowledge of both the benefits and potential consequences. Based on my own experience and the experiences of others with whom I've communicated with who have had ICL surgery, you shouldn't go into it thinking you'll be just like someone who's always had 20/20 vision their whole life, even if you have 20/20 vision after surgery. The risks for retinal detachment that you have as a near-sighted person will still be there. ICL does not change that. Knowing that you have implants in your eyes will be a consideration, so anytime you have accidental impact on your eye (my niece's elbow, for example), you'll have an 'oh no!' moment just before you realize no harm was done. For me, my dry eye syndrome (which I had before surgery) makes my vision a little fuzzy when I first wake up, so I have to remind myself to wait a few minutes after waking before freaking out over nothing.

Wow, for 'nothing new to report', I sure had a lot to say. ;)