At the end of my Thursday follow-up visit with my new optometrist, he announced “You’re officially post-cataract surgery now.” For the first time in 71 years, I have 20/20 vision and no need for glasses. It still seems unbelievable.
The first ophthalmologist, to whom I was referred for cataract surgery, would not meet with or talk directly to me about the two dozen lens choices presented to me. The lens I chose, called an interocular lense (IOLs), would be implanted into my eyes for the rest of my life. His “surgical coordinator,” when pressed, said the ophthalmologist would likely recommend the Alcon Clareon PanOptix, a trifocal IOL that promised a full range of vision. Some PanOptix wearers report vision challenges at night, so this seemed like a poor choice for me. I chose a monofocal IOL that would give me perfect distance vision, day and night, and resigned myself to wearing glasses for reading. I ended up cancelling the surgery. Too many surgery postponements and I lost trust in the surgeon.
After discussing lens options with the next ophthalmological surgeon, I mentioned my contact lens prescription was for monovision. This means the prescription for the lens in my right eye is for close up vision while that for my left eye is for distance vision. The vision centre in the brain puts the two different inputs together seamlessly for 50% of the population. When the surgeon heard this, he excitedly said that would be the ideal solution for IOL implantation, seeing as it had worked so well for years. It was an ideal solution for me.
How many hours I spent reading about cataract surgery and interocular lenses, I can’t estimate, but it paid off. Not only did the first surgeon, a chief of ophthalmology at a renown hospital, fob me off on his assistant, but he was okay with sending me home with a sub-optimal vision solution. And had I not read about the monovision option for IOLs and mentioned it to the second surgeon, I might not have the great vision I enjoy today. There is an attitude, among practitioners of cataract surgery, that any solution is a good solution for patients because their vision will be better than it was before they had their cataracts removed. Better vision is not the same as the best possible vision.
Cataract surgery is shared between the public healthcare and private medicine systems. While cataract surgery is covered by Ontario’s healthcare plan, this provincially-funded option is graphically presented as the worst available, short of doing nothing and going blind from the cataracts. My optometrist at the time referred me to his practice colleague. This ophthalmologist had an assembly-line, processing his patients and limiting his valuable time to the initial diagnosis, while his staff sold upgrades. He wasn’t even going to perform my surgery, it turned out. And when I found that out, that’s when I quit. I paid over $1,000 for enhanced testing because of my poor vision and prescription, and because I wasn’t satisfied with the funded option. And I still walked away. Instead, I went to a for-profit private clinic, paid with a credit card and not my Ontario health card, and received excellent care. I have no regrets about that decision and count myself fortunate to have the money to afford it; not everyone does.
Ontario needs equal access to the best possible vision and healthcare rather than a Swiss spa for its citizens located in Toronto.