I had cataract surgery on both eyes about a month ago. I had IOL’s implanted, 0.5 diopter in the right eye and 2.0 diopter in the left. Since then I have gotten two glasses proscriptions filled. The first prescription was
Right eye: +1.25 sphere, -.75 cyl, 060 axis
Left eye: +1.00 sphere, -.50 cyl, 155 axis
Add +2.25 in each eye for reading.
With this prescription (and with non-prescription 2.75D readers) I had double vision at reading distances. My left eye alone seems to see the letters distinctly smaller than my right eye alone (maybe 10% smaller, maybe more). It also looks like the line of print slopes upward from left to right with my left eye (perhaps 5 degrees). When I read with both eyes the left side of the image comes from my right eye and right side comes from my left eye, and the images overlap meaning the middle of the word in the center of my vision is missing. I usually cover my left eye if I have to read very much.
For the second prescription, I asked my optometrist to magnify the image on in my left lens. She ended up changing the base curve on the left lens to three instead of six (six what?, she didn’t know), which she said would magnify the image, but she admitted she was just taking a stab in the dark and didn’t know how much it would change the magnification. The new glasses don’t seem to have changed the picture as far as I can tell.
I have several questions:
Is it normal to have some distortion after cataract surgery and how is the distortion usually handled? (I complained to my surgeon about seeing double a week after surgery and he said my vision would change. I’ve considered going back to him but first I want to get my facts straight. Plus, if glasses can fix the problem, I want an optometrist to do it, not an MD.)
Can glasses correct this type of distortion? I’ve tried magnifying the left image with the lens from a pair of reading glasses (which I have to hold several inched from my eye) and I imagine that then the images fuse. However I may be deceiving myself.
Would most optometrists be able to diagnose and prescribe glasses for such a problem (apparently the mine couldn’t) or do I have to look for a specialist? How would I find such a specialist?
How much should the second prescription have magnified the image for the left lens?
What units is base curve expressed in?
Thanks for any info you can give me.
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