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ReSTOR woes

Hi all,

I am a 27 year old female diagnosed with bilateral cataracts last year. I waited until time was appropriate to get my surgery last week. I was promised "good" vision at all distances with ReSTOR lenses and went with it after reading about the functionality of the lens and its promises. Today is post op day 5 and I never regained any intermediate or near vision. Distance is just ok. I can watch TV but can not read anything on TV. I am completely dysfunctional at intermediate and near distances when it comes to reading or using computer. If a person is sitting at an intermediate distance, I can see their face. I guess the biggest issue is being unable to read anything. My surgeon keeps telling me that my eye is healing and it will take time before things are settled. I am starting a new job at a hospital in 2 weeks which requires a ton of computer work. I am so devastated by these results and wish I had found this forum before and read about ReSTOR experiences for other people.I

Has anyone regained their near/intermediate vision (particularly with reading letters/using computer) after being blurry post-op? If yes, how long did it take you all?

Any comment/info would be valued. I am a young professional who was seeing pretty good with moderate cataracts but wanted to improve my eyesight by getting this surgery.

Thank you all.
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Avatar universal
Thank you so much Dr. Hagan. This gave me a lot of points for discussion with my surgeon during my 1 week appointment.
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Avatar universal
Thank you for the insightful information,

No, as far as I remember, I was told that I had no astigmatism pre-op. Prior to having cataracts last year, I have never worn glasses and had 20/20 vision all my life. Could one have astigmatism following surgery?

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1 Comments
Yes you can develop astigmatism post surgery even if you had none prior to surgery.  This was a big problem when large incisions and stitches were used, much less now with small incision and no stich.  The cornea is usually flattened (less astigmatism) in the axis of the incision. Also its possible to have corneal astigmatism but not glasses astigmatism (the cornea astigmatism being balanced by lens (lenticular astigmatism).

JCH MD
Avatar universal
It may be that your eye is still healing as he says, perhaps there is some initial postop swelling or something,  and things will be fine before you start work. I'd suggest being hopeful things will improve, however its likely possible to get you able to function for your job in the worst case.   Even if nothing changed, if  your distance vision is even "just ok", then worst case they should be able to prescribe reading glasses to shift that "ok" distance vision to reading distance to let you function.  If your other eye doesn't need correction (or if you have a contact lens for it) then you could try over the counter reading glasses now from a local store to see if that works for you.

If you don't have a contact lens for the other eye, you could try readers to see if they work for your Restor eye and if so then have them prescribe a contact lens for the other eye so you can  use off the shelf readers. They could prescribe reading glasses to work with both eyes, but often they prefer to wait 3-4 weeks or more until someone's vision stabilizes before prescribing correction. If  you need it to function they would probably be willing to prescribe glasses earlier for you but you'd risk needing to have them remade if the prescription changes (though you might   find a place that will redo your glasses at no cost or  low cost, sometimes a friendly Lenscrafters or other store will let you update a prescription within the first few weeks for free. they might be more expensive for a single pair of glasses, but  if they'll update the prescription free within a few weeks that may be cheaper than a place that won't).

I'm guessing you will have a 1 week postop check where you can get more information.   Did they check your prescription at 1 day postop and your "best corrected" visual acuity? One possibility is that you have residual astigmatism interfering with vision. Did you not have much astigmatism pre-op or did they attempt to correct it with an incision or a toric lens (which might have rotated and could cause issues)?  

Another possibility, though it seems unlikely they would be this far off, is that the lens power they implanted is off and it left you farsighted, hyperopic. If you were left too farsighted, then the "near" point for the Restor would be pushed out further, though it seems like that would give you good vision at some intermediate distance unless it were so far off that the near point became  the distance focal point.  For most people the formulas to determine the lens power are fairly accurate, but they are based on statistics rather than being exact. For a minority of unlucky patients (often those with strong prescriptions preop) the lens power can be off enough to cause issues.
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2 Comments
Just a year ago, a close friend of mine underwent lens replacement for cataracts.  Her replacement lens was not a Restor, but the prescription was very far off.  She had been only slightly myopic, but post-surgery, she could not read unless she literally held the page up to her nose!  It turned out to be an erroneous prescription, and she was quickly offered corrective surgery by the embarrassed doctor.

It could be useful to re-check your prescription.
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