Dim light and night vision problems

[Ida]

Hello ds24a3,

Thanks for your input.

My doctor said they would just relift the flap, i.e. not cut a new flap, so I don't think there would be additional scarring....?

It's good to hear you are getting used to your new vision. For me it's a bit harder to adjust. It's been 4 years now and I still notice halos every day. Not just at night. It's also bothering me when I'm indoors in artificial light for instance. So that's why I started looking into options to correct it. I was hoping for a long time that it would go away with time as my eyes healed, but now it's been 4 years I don't think there will be much change from now.

Do anyone else have experience with having an enhancement to fix halos? And how was the outcome?

Best regards,

Ida

[ds24a3]

Hi Ida,

I'm not an expert but, logic suggest that after 4 years scars on an eye would be totally healed, I mean they would be there but to lift the flap I am thinking that new cuts will be needed, but again you better check with a doctor.

I know how hard it is for you to see this light distortions. I just don't bother anymore to think much about it. Great thing is that I can't really compare it to the vision from before, I think this helps.

I have an open option for free re treatment, but I'll wait until there will be some new procedure as the wavefront gave me the best it could and there is not much more to improve upon.

Good luck if you decide to do it, let us know how it went

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Hi,

An update. Unfortunately I don't see significant improvement since my lasy post. Looks like I am astigmatic in the left eye. It is a problem especially in worse light conditions, but it makes me little frustrated also in quite good lighting like in a office. My reading ability from computer screen or newspaper is worse with these eye. Especially when reading white subscriptions on dark background. Everything brighter than surroundings looks strange (vision is doubling or tripling). On the other hand my distance vision in the left eye is better than in the right one. I am thinking what are my options now. Another surgery is out of question I think. So there are glasses or contact lenses. I've heard that rgp or toric lenses maybe a good solution for solving astigmatism. What do You think Glenn? Regards.

[LasikExpert]

Astigmatism simply means that the cornea is not spherical like the top of a ball, but is elliptical like the back of a spoon. Contacts, glasses, and laser vision correction surgery all can resolve simple astigmatism. I'm not sure why you believe enhancement would not be an option.

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

I just thought that third surgery is to risky option. Isn't it? My vision is around 0.00 D with astigmatism of 0.75 or 1.00 D. I'm not sure if my doctor would consider another re-treatment. Some days I think my vision is not that bad, but on the other hand there are days when it is frustrating to me. Generally I can't stop compering left eye to the right one, because quality of the vision in the right eye is better. What do You think about toric or RGP lenses? May they reduce my astigmatism permanently? I'm going to visit clinic in London on Friday the 12th October.

[LasikExpert]

You are doing the "LASIK Salute" covering one eye and then the other, comparing vision between the two!

Contacts provide only temporary relief from astigmatisim. RGP's might have a more lasting effect, but that too will dissapate within hours.

Let us know what the London clinic suggests.

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Ok, I understand that compering vision between two eyes is not always good idea, but the difference is quite easily noticable. The most frustrating thing are visual effects I notice (tv diods, car lights, electric clocks etc. are tripling and for example tv diode looks like triangle instead of point) and my reading ability is worse (especially in worse lighting). My doctor said that he saw vision improvement even 1 year after T-CAT correction, when neural adaptation is complete, but for me it sounds like a miracle...

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Hi Glenn,

Some time ago I told my doctor that I am thinking more and more about getting a pair of glasses for myself, because my vision is frustrating to me. He answered that glasses won't help me as much as think they will and that he would allow neural adaptation to take care of small residual Rx over time. He also said that I always have an option once the eye has completely settled down to consider a simple top up for the residual astigmatism. He said that it is possible only after 1 year of last procedure. What do You think? I don't really understand what "simple top up" means? What is the difference for the patient between a "simple top up" and normal laser treatment? The risks of such a treatment are probably the same as normally or even bigger (it would be 3rd treatment for me). Would there be shorter recovery time? Please remember that I had surface treatment (EPI-LASIK) not LASIK.

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Glenn what do you think?

[Win1989]

Hey Jazzy_Jeff,

I am terribly sorry to hear about the astigmatism in your eye and hope it has gotten better but, I wanted to ask you some questions about your retreatment as I also have issues with night vision in both my eyes after PRK quadrupled my HOAs.

Did you get topography guided epi-lasik? And do you know what the intention of the surgery was? Was it to widen the optical zone to treat spherical aberrations?

Also, how's your night vision now? I know you have astigmatism but did you see an improvement in your original night vision problems? Was the improvement enough so that it was worth the surgery?

Sorry for all the questions but I have been thinking about maybe going to a surgeon in Europe to get this topography guided procedure (I'm from the US and it's not FDA approved here).

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Hey,

Yes it was topography guided epi-lasik. Aim of the surgery was to enlarge my optical zone like You said. Talking about night vision I have to say that starbursts are smaller for sure, but because of astigmatism it is not that good as it should be. Generally it is better. The thing that bothers me more is my daily vision. My reading ability from the computer screen or newspaper is worse. I also notice visual effects of double or triple vision (especially with shinning objects) which makes me frustrated. I have to tell You that I am driving a car during night quite much and it is no longer a problem for me. On the other hand I am disappointed with the result of the surgery and thinking of doing "top up" to resolve residual astigmatism.

[Win1989]

That's good to hear. So the surgery improved your night vision but it caused astigmatism? Have you tried correcting your astigmatism with glasses? Is it just the astigmatism that's giving you problems now?

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

No I didn't tried glasses. My English doc said that glasses won't help as much as I think, but in the end of December i'm going to visit my previous clinic in Warsaw and I am curious about opinion of my Polish doc. Yes, the astigmatism is my only problem now.

[LasikExpert]

If only astigmatism remains, Orthokeratologyor toric contact lenses may be an option. It depends upon the amount of astigmatism.

[jazzy_jeff_1986]

Glenn what do You think about this "simple top up" option? (post from Nov 22)