OT cataract surgery choices

[palincss]

Originally Posted by eddief

the US healthcare system is still a ridiculous mess and this conversation is the perfect evidence.

These choices are driven by what medicare will pay for. The insurance companies match medicare. And medicare won't pay for anything but single focus lenses.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by DHallerman

Somebody earlier in the thread said he wished he had gotten more info about astigmatism related lens choices, and I believe somebody else said they have astigmatism and the regular, no-extra-cost lens was fine for them. And so far, with eyes not perfectly healed yet, I’m super happy. I s’pose one idea here is if you have astigmatism, do a bunch of research before cataract surgery.

In my case it was a question of how bad the astigmatism was. In one eye, it was pretty serious, so I got the up-charge lenses that fix it. The alternative would have been honest to god corrective lenses instead of drug store readers after the cataract surgery.

And unlike the correction during surgery, this wouldn't be a one-time charge.

You'd pay it every time you scratched a sunglass lens and had to replace it.

I dropped mine onto the gravel surface on the Great Allegheny Passage, right at the Mason Dixon Line, when I was taking out my camera. I messed up and all of a sudden I needed three hands I grabbed for the camera and down they went. Rock / plastic / lens tissue and rock won.

You'd pay it every time you decided just for the sake of style you wanted a new fancy dancy pair of sunglasses. I haven't done that, still using the Ray Ban Aviators I bought in 1985. Must be 20 pairs of lenses have been in those frames by now -- and guess what, they're stylish again (thank you, Mr. President!)

If you left your sunglasses at home and didn't realize that until you were halfway to the ride start, you wouldn't be able to stop in at the nearest CVS and buy yourself a cheap pair just for the day, like I did.

(I decided to leave them in the car for future occasions when I forget and leave them home. I've lent them to friends who did the same and showed up at the ride start without theirs.)

You'd pay it every time you scratched or broke your reading glasses.

There are some really good reasons why you want that correction inside your eye, rather than on every pair of lenses you own.

In the other eye, the astigmatism was present but less than the minimum the corrective lens would have corrected and it would have over-corrected, inducing just as much blur as leaving the small amount of astigmatism uncorrected. No sense paying extra for that.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Timely…I’m going to get my right eye done in the next month or so. My question is whether or not to do both eyes(minor cataract in LH eye, right eye some pretty noticeable double/ghost imaging) and which lenses. I don’t mind reading glasses, and $ isn’t a factor. No astigmatism, just old age eyes. Didn’t wear glasses until I was about 55 or so….

Probably both eyes so I don’t have to do the glasses/sunglasses prescription drill.
$20 reading glasses…

Sit down with ophthalmologist I guess.

Chances are you've got yellowing and discoloration you haven't noticed because you've been seeing it everywhere for so long. But once you get the first eye done, suddenly when you close one eye you can see how much of a color shift those cataracts are causing, and will want to get the other eye done just to fix the color issue. At least, that is how it was for me.

Don't forget the folding readers for your tool bag, it's damn near impossible to find the sharps that cause flats without them.

[Ralph]

I opted for the standard lenses my insurance pays for. Because I wasn't sure what, if anything, my other eye needed. Believe I made the best decision. Don't mind occasionally using some readers. And also.....I don't like being upsold. My view is that if it's necessary or useful, most likely my insurance will pay on it.