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Restor Lens IOLs
Hello, I sure hope someone out there can answer some of my questions.
Two weeks ago I had Restor Aspheric IOL lenses implanted into my eyes and small slits made to correct the astigmatism. I was told the lenses would give me almost perfect near & far vision and good intermediate vision. They did warn me that I may experience rings and halos around lights at night. (I had no idea how bad this would be)
Since I love to spend all my free time outside and on the waters fly fishing the thought of being rid of my progressive glasses was a dream come true.
Right now my distance isn't too bad but not nearly as clear as it was before with my glasses. My near and intermediate vision is terrible. Everything is a blurr. I can't read anything unless its about 10 inches away and working at the computer is really difficult. Text on a white back ground looks as if someone has taken a light grey highlighter to it and white on black is almost painful. I work as a draftsperson for a busy engineering firm and if I can't see I can't work! My right eye is the worst as far as pain goes and I always have a dull headache which seems to be from eyestrain or bright lights.
What I need to know is:
Is this normal?
How long does it take for the lenses to "shrinkwrap" as they say to the where they're supposed to be?
Do most people have good results immediately or are they just as scarred as I am in the beginning?
I look forward to any advise you can give me.
Two weeks ago I had Restor Aspheric IOL lenses implanted into my eyes and small slits made to correct the astigmatism. I was told the lenses would give me almost perfect near & far vision and good intermediate vision. They did warn me that I may experience rings and halos around lights at night. (I had no idea how bad this would be)
Since I love to spend all my free time outside and on the waters fly fishing the thought of being rid of my progressive glasses was a dream come true.
Right now my distance isn't too bad but not nearly as clear as it was before with my glasses. My near and intermediate vision is terrible. Everything is a blurr. I can't read anything unless its about 10 inches away and working at the computer is really difficult. Text on a white back ground looks as if someone has taken a light grey highlighter to it and white on black is almost painful. I work as a draftsperson for a busy engineering firm and if I can't see I can't work! My right eye is the worst as far as pain goes and I always have a dull headache which seems to be from eyestrain or bright lights.
What I need to know is:
Is this normal?
How long does it take for the lenses to "shrinkwrap" as they say to the where they're supposed to be?
Do most people have good results immediately or are they just as scarred as I am in the beginning?
I look forward to any advise you can give me.
Sorry you are experiencing such distress and poor vision with Restor.
While some people do adapt and this can take a while, some of the problems you are experiencing are common with Restor lenses.
I had one Restor implanted and then explanted after six months last December. I replaced with a Toric Monofocal by Alcon and wear a contact lens in my natural eye.
Definitely check the forum both experts and patients in the archives.
You may find some relief with glasses over the Restors. Under no circumstances agree to a YAG lazer procedure until you are completely satisfied that you will keep your Restors. A Yag will make an opening in the back of the capsul and explant will be difficult to do and many doctors will not do this after a YAG.
Good luck and try not to lose hope. You will eventually find the Road to good vision.
londonbridge
While some people do adapt and this can take a while, some of the problems you are experiencing are common with Restor lenses.
I had one Restor implanted and then explanted after six months last December. I replaced with a Toric Monofocal by Alcon and wear a contact lens in my natural eye.
Definitely check the forum both experts and patients in the archives.
You may find some relief with glasses over the Restors. Under no circumstances agree to a YAG lazer procedure until you are completely satisfied that you will keep your Restors. A Yag will make an opening in the back of the capsul and explant will be difficult to do and many doctors will not do this after a YAG.
Good luck and try not to lose hope. You will eventually find the Road to good vision.
londonbridge
Dear Blurr,
If you check the archives of the Expert forum or click on my username, you will find a thread entitled "Which monofocal lens is best (after multi explant)". It documents my own experience, as a patient like yourself, with the Restor lens. I started the thread after I had made the decision to have both Restors removed and replaced with monofocal aspheric lenses. You will find quite a bit of info there, and my opinion of the Restor is also in some of my other posts.
From the moment I opened my eyes I felt absolutely stressed and dismayed with the horrible effects (and they are indeed horrible) that you describe. I just wanted to tear my head off my shoulders, and this went on for nearly 4 months. Some patients say they did not have these effects, or that they were minimal. Others suffer a much worse reaction. You are not alone. This I can tell you with certainty - the quality and clarity of *correctly inserted* monofocal lenses beats the Restor hands down, and you do not have the brutal and awful period of "adaption" (if you ever manage it) that noone ever seems to mention truthfully when touting the lens. There is no perfect solution, so with the monos people most likely need glasses for some things, or risk binocular imbalance with each eye set for a different focal point. There is no free lunch. I am totally delighted with the quality of one of my eyes set for distance, the other eye (also set for distance) is having complications unrelated to the lens, but I would be in heaven if it were as good.
Like you I am a very active person, and value my distance vision most, therefore I am more tolerant of needing glasses for close up such as print, computer, and on occasions to polish up the intermediate vision to about 3.5 feet such as when in bookshops. Once the glasses are on, the clarity of closer vision is excellent, no penumbral blur or bleeding of colours, no sense of strain - I had those same effects with the Restor. I see very well for all practical purposes, and find pulling glasses on and off my nose to read print, find coins, and get that extra bit texture occasionally to have mere nuisance value, just as it did pre-cataracts, and well worth it for the overall quality.
Because your eyes have their own unique configuration, I would not state that your vision would be the same as mine with monofocals, and there are different ways of setting them up. You might perhaps be more or less glasses-dependent, I don't know. However the downsides of multifocal lenses have been experienced by many other patients on this forum.
I was a cataract patient, half blind, but with very good pre-cataract vision, only a little middle-aged nearsightedness, so this may have helped my good outcome.
My own choice (in Australia) was a bilateral explant, which is a *very* serious decision carrying it's own risks - and only the individual person can ***** if this is a risk worth taking. If you are so unhappy I would seriously suggest getting additional opinions from other surgeons who do monofocal lenses, and doing this *quickly*. The awful catch-22 with multi lenses is that they "supposedly" come good for most (but not all) people after 12 months, but the consensus of Dr's opinions to me was that if you want them out, the sooner the better. I didn't think I could live with them, and into the bargin the lens power was incorrect. Is your's correct? I would (and have) begged others not to get multis, but once they're in, the whole picture becomes much more complicated.
I hope this has helped you. Search this site on keywords such as Restor, explant, monofocal, modified monovision etc, but remember we are mostly just patients like you - so you do need the expert advice of an ethical surgeon who will try to give you the best possible results and will be able to advise what you could realistically expect. Be wary of recommendations to get YAG or Lasik until certain you want to keep the lenses, as this configures your eye to the Restor!
Best regards, Restornomore
If you check the archives of the Expert forum or click on my username, you will find a thread entitled "Which monofocal lens is best (after multi explant)". It documents my own experience, as a patient like yourself, with the Restor lens. I started the thread after I had made the decision to have both Restors removed and replaced with monofocal aspheric lenses. You will find quite a bit of info there, and my opinion of the Restor is also in some of my other posts.
From the moment I opened my eyes I felt absolutely stressed and dismayed with the horrible effects (and they are indeed horrible) that you describe. I just wanted to tear my head off my shoulders, and this went on for nearly 4 months. Some patients say they did not have these effects, or that they were minimal. Others suffer a much worse reaction. You are not alone. This I can tell you with certainty - the quality and clarity of *correctly inserted* monofocal lenses beats the Restor hands down, and you do not have the brutal and awful period of "adaption" (if you ever manage it) that noone ever seems to mention truthfully when touting the lens. There is no perfect solution, so with the monos people most likely need glasses for some things, or risk binocular imbalance with each eye set for a different focal point. There is no free lunch. I am totally delighted with the quality of one of my eyes set for distance, the other eye (also set for distance) is having complications unrelated to the lens, but I would be in heaven if it were as good.
Like you I am a very active person, and value my distance vision most, therefore I am more tolerant of needing glasses for close up such as print, computer, and on occasions to polish up the intermediate vision to about 3.5 feet such as when in bookshops. Once the glasses are on, the clarity of closer vision is excellent, no penumbral blur or bleeding of colours, no sense of strain - I had those same effects with the Restor. I see very well for all practical purposes, and find pulling glasses on and off my nose to read print, find coins, and get that extra bit texture occasionally to have mere nuisance value, just as it did pre-cataracts, and well worth it for the overall quality.
Because your eyes have their own unique configuration, I would not state that your vision would be the same as mine with monofocals, and there are different ways of setting them up. You might perhaps be more or less glasses-dependent, I don't know. However the downsides of multifocal lenses have been experienced by many other patients on this forum.
I was a cataract patient, half blind, but with very good pre-cataract vision, only a little middle-aged nearsightedness, so this may have helped my good outcome.
My own choice (in Australia) was a bilateral explant, which is a *very* serious decision carrying it's own risks - and only the individual person can ***** if this is a risk worth taking. If you are so unhappy I would seriously suggest getting additional opinions from other surgeons who do monofocal lenses, and doing this *quickly*. The awful catch-22 with multi lenses is that they "supposedly" come good for most (but not all) people after 12 months, but the consensus of Dr's opinions to me was that if you want them out, the sooner the better. I didn't think I could live with them, and into the bargin the lens power was incorrect. Is your's correct? I would (and have) begged others not to get multis, but once they're in, the whole picture becomes much more complicated.
I hope this has helped you. Search this site on keywords such as Restor, explant, monofocal, modified monovision etc, but remember we are mostly just patients like you - so you do need the expert advice of an ethical surgeon who will try to give you the best possible results and will be able to advise what you could realistically expect. Be wary of recommendations to get YAG or Lasik until certain you want to keep the lenses, as this configures your eye to the Restor!
Best regards, Restornomore
Thank you both for your help. I will definitely take your advice and do more research. Something I should have done in the first place. My doctor is supposed to be the best in town with a very good reputation. When they recommended the implants I had no concerns and believed I would come out of this with better eyesight than before because thats what I was told. I feel extremely stupid for going ahead with the surgery. I did not have cataracts and only wanted to be free of wearing glasses.
Stupid stupid stupid!
Blurrrrrrrrr
Stupid stupid stupid!
Blurrrrrrrrr
You are not stupid .I juimped at the chance not to have to wear glasses and my dr juimped at the chance to make money. It was up to the doctor to fully inform us. Maybe we were lax in asking more questions. If I was told more I never would have had that Restor implanted in the first place.I was told very little and I believed what I was told. I stopped at the first eye but the doctor was pushing me to have the other eye done right away.Thank goodness I found this forum I went to another surgeon for the explant. .Search the forum and you will see the post between me, londonbridge,restornomore and Jodie J. I got such encouragement from them. Good luck, There definitely is hope.for having good vision again.
Keep us posted disappointed66 (no more)
Keep us posted disappointed66 (no more)
