“Everything was muted and my glasses just were not cutting it anymore.”
This is what Linda told us when we asked her why she knew it was time to go in for an eye appointment.
Linda is not a Houston resident, she lives 2.5 hours away in Lake Charles, LA and she had gone to her local doctor in Louisiana who was helping her with her distance issues, her cataracts and her glaucoma.
She shared that when she went in to see him, he told her about the new Light Adjustable Lens technology and sent her to Dr. Stephen Slade at our office.
Linda had actually been to us years prior since she had previously had Radial Keratotomy (known as “RK”) 30 years ago and we had treated her for that.
What was the most annoying thing for her pre-cataract surgery? “I would have to take my glasses off to see the dashboard”. When we asked her how she defined that many objects were ‘muted’, she shared what SO many cataract patients tell us: as her cataracts worsened, “it came on so slowly, I didn’t realize it was part of the problem.”
In February, Linda had her initial consult for her cataract surgery. After her first Light Adjustable Lens implant, Linda said “Everything was overwhelmingly bright, and all the colors were so sharp” – something else we hear quite a bit! You don’t realize things are gray until you have cataract surgery, and you realize the flower in that painting was actually purple.
The day of her first LAL implant surgery, Linda recalls being incredibly nervous although she had spoken to another LAL patient that had given her hope. After the nerves subsided, “the procedure was fantastic, and it was really pretty quick. I am a rule follower, so I followed the drop schedule to a tee. The most difficult thing was the 2.5-hour ride back home!”
Linda said she saw so well with her first eye that could not wait to have her second LAL implanted. “My second procedure was easier because I knew what to expect so the nerves weren’t there.”
Due to her previous RK, there needed to be more time in between eyes so she had to wait until May to have that procedure. Both eyes were set for distance, so Linda wore “cheaters” or reading glasses for the first time until her first adjustment a couple of weeks later. At that adjustment, our doctors tweaked distance and reading and “they nailed it on the first try!”
Second adjustment they focused on her astigmatism. With a slight tweak, no more cheaters, no more glasses, no more anything. Linda had her ‘Final lock’ this past Monday on July 26th, 2021.
Linda shared that she was seen by 3 of our specialists, Dr. Slade who performed her first lock in, Dr. Essa who “truly was fantastic, went above and beyond evaluating my prescription and creating lenses to be able to visualize the outcome of the tweak before it happened!” and Dr. Walton who performed Linda’s final lock in.
“This practice is such a well-oiled machine. The doctors were fantastic, and the team would take me whenever I got there since my drive was so long and unpredictable.”
When we asked Linda the most impactful thing that came out of her LAL surgery, she shared it was threefold: her mid-range vision (she can now see her dashboard perfectly), the bright, vivid colors, and the clarity she got from the surgery in general! Her mid-range vision was very important to her because she does minute detailed mapping, but she also shared that her reading vision had been pretty good always since she had gotten used to monovision through her RK 30 years prior.
Color and clarity are definitely a common theme that we hear are impactful to most of our cataract patients, but the multiple ranges of vision are one of the incredible perks of the LAL!
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a cataract or are experiencing dull or blurry vision, please call us at 713-626-5544 or email us at info@visiontexas.com! Our specialists will examine your vision thoroughly and sit with you to determine whether the LAL is right for you and ultimately to share all your options! If you want to read a heartwarming patient account about how the LAL surgery at Slade & Baker Vision helped a patient see his grandchildren, see our recent blog!
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