In a previous post, I detailed my experience with cataract surgery, lens implants, and the ruinous results I was left with. I also said that I would provide an update if anything changed, so here it is.
After visits with several other eye doctors, I was referred to a Dr. Tipperman, who is a Will’s Eye Hospital associate, and who specializes in removing and inserting intraocular lens implants. I went to see Dr. Tipperman at one of his branch offices in Philadelpha, and within 10 minutes, he determined why my left implant was causing me so much trouble. It so happens that the implant ( a Technis multifocal) installed by the original surgeon was not centered in my eye correctly, and I was always looking through the line in the bifocal of the lens. He offered to realign the lens, or explant it and install a new lens of my choice.
I chose to have a toric lens implanted. A toric lens is one which corrects for far vision, and astigmatism (it has a spherical and a cylinder correction but no near vision correction). Dr. Tipperman set up a schedule for the surgery on my left eye, and offered to contact the lens manufacturer to ask that the lens be donated to save me the $1800 cost of the lens.
The surgery itself was uneventful. I was awake during the procedure, which only took a few minutes. Dr. Tipperman inserted the new lens underneath the old one, and then cut the old one into pieces with very tiny scissors and removed it. During my checkup the next day, he found that my intraocular pressure had increased quite a bit, and so he drained a little fluid from my eye to relieve it. I had no further trouble with it, and the next day had very good distant vision in my left eye.
At my 3 week checkup, I made an appointment to have my right lens explanted and a new toric lens installed. Again, the surgery was uneventful, and the outcome was even better than with the left eye. It is now 3 weeks since I had the surgery in my right eye, and my far vision is nearly perfect. Of course, I need reading glasses for near work, but I do not have any of the ghosting, starburst, multiple images, and pain which plagued me after my first set of surgeries.
The difference in the quality of care I received is truly amazing. Dr. Tipperman has given me my vision back.
If you want to watch the kind of surgery I had with Dr. Tipperman, you can watch him do a similar surgery with a different patient. WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!