I promised an quick update on the progress of my refractive lens exchange surgery last month and the good news is everything has worked out extremely well.
The first eye was done right after Christmas and the second eye two weeks ago. They removed my perfectly good, but near-sighted, natural lens and replaced it with a trifocal artificial lens that supplants any need for me to wear glasses for distance, contact lenses, or ‘cheaters’ for up close work.
Related: Seeing A 20/20 End to 2020
Within just 24 hours of the 5 minute procedures, I was assessed at slightly better than 20/20 vision, with no discomfort, haziness, or loss of up-close vision. I do have some slight ‘halos’ around lights at night, but nothing that is problematic. My wife, who had the same surgery in the fall, said that her halos have gradually gone away over the last few months.
As I noted earlier, the surgery is quite expensive. It’s about $6K per eye – which is 2-3x the cost of lens exchange work done for people with cataracts. It’s purely elective, so insurance will not cover it. We weren’t budgeted for it, but saved enough on travel in 2020 to make it happen.
In the future, it will be nice to only pack my sunglasses!
Have a great weekend!
Image Credit: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
Wow, what a great outcome! I’ve had glasses since I was 8, very near sighted. You’ve got me thinking about doing this same procedure. I live in the twin cities, would you be willing to share your doctor’s info?
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Sure – Dr Vislisel at Associated Eye Care in Stillwater. I think he works out of the Woodbury office on some days too. He did my eyes, my wife’s eyes, and my sons. Definitely recommend.
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Glad your experience has been so positive!
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Wow, good to hear your outcome is so positive. Could you please give some details on the actual procedure. Did it hurt?
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Didn’t hurt at all and took just 5 minutes an eye. You get there early, they give you a bunch of eye drops, then they sedate you. That actual procedure has two parts: 1) about 45 seconds under a machine that applies light pressure to your eye as it breaks up your natural lens; and 2) they wheel you into another room where you look at a ring of 5 bright lights while they insert the new artificial lens. I was pretty loopy from the sedation for the second part and never even ‘felt’ anything going into my eye. Recovery is just resting from the sedation and waiting for the dilation to go down. For both eyes, I was up & around by 1pm that day – even working out (slowly) on the treadmill. By the next day, my vision was clear & 20/20+.
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I’ll be doing the same in the spring. Tennis is a big part of post work life & I want to optimize for distance vision & don’t mind wearing reading glasses. How did you make the decision on trifocal lenses?
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I wasn’t planning on getting the trifocals until my wife did it. Living with someone who has perfect vision and never has to pick up their cheaters becomes a reminder 25x a day what a pain poor eyesight is. It never bothered me until I was faced with it every day.
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