I had cataract surgery 18 months ago with the miserable outcome of becoming long sighted. My current optician has prescribed multifocal contact lenses, which give me some closer vision at the expense of distance vision, with varifocal glasses to try and give me enough depth of field to be able to read music clearly at different focal lengths. (I teach piano and flute, and do quite a lot of accompanying)

Has anyone had similar problems, and if so, what solutions have you and your optician come up with, please?

I had cataract surgery around 3 years ago, and asked to be made long-sighted in one eye and short-sighted in the other. My sight is complicated by astigmatism, so the wrong lens was used for the short-sighted eye, meaning I am not short-sighted enough to read etc without glasses or contact lenses. Then it transpired that right eye simply does not "work" as well as left eye, so I now have a lens to make me short-sighted in the long-sighted eye!



What I have found works best is:

Single contact lens for normal wear;

One pair of glasses + contact lens for music;

One pair of glasses + contact lens for driving;

One pair of glasses minus lens + magnifying glass for reading very small text.

It all sounds a bit complicated, but mostly works quite well. I would suggest experimenting some more to see what is going to give you the best sight for the most activities. OH has different contact lenses prescribed for each eye so he has both long and short sight, so maybe that could be an option for you?

Thank you so much for your reply! It's a comfort to know I'm not the only person struggling to get my focus sorted out. The contact lenses I have at the moment give me a degree of monovision, but my brain is refusing to adjust to it. The varifocal glasses almost bring things in for close focus, but not quite.

I've also got PCO developing in my right eye, which is easily treated (apparently) by laser treatment. The odds are 1000-1 for complications which doesn't sound too bad, but given my track record with surgery I don't want to risk it.

YAG laser capsulotomy is the operation you are talking about: (though it's not my specialty). Complications do occur but 1000-1 is pessimistic IMO: This is a common treatment for a common complication that has already occurred. Being a surgeon myself I would probably have regarded treatment of the common complications (and all the consequences thereof) as part and parcel of the original operation. Therefore, having had the original operation I would go for it without hesitation.

I had YAG laser capsulotomy this time last year, a great improvement in my vision! Over time my lenes would have continued to 'cloud over' so I really had no choice.