Cataracts and other visual concerns!

[JESSE1]

My eye is rapidly improving. Distance vision is good, near vision is getting better. Went for my follow up appointment this morning with the doctor and everything checks out good. I have another appointment next week to see if the surgery for the following week is still on.

 

[Torvy]

Wife survived her first eye. Originally doc wanted to do her good eye 1st. She convinced him to start with bad eye (20/400).

Back tomorrow for follow up.

 

[newbury]

Well now I can see well enough to respond to this thread......"Seeing computer & typing is difficult for me"

I've been getting "shots" since 2017,,,,,at first in one eye....and finally in both eye.
As a newbie back then I didn't know what the Retina doc was injecting.....
As time went on I found that he was using Avastin but had switch to Eylea (sp?).
But after a while he switched back to Avastin as the eyes were "stable" ...every six weeks.....
Today, one eye is worse and he is switch me back to Eylea in 4 weeks.
The Avastin is billed at $200/shot.....but the Eylea is $2000 per shot....each eye. My medicare and other insurance pays for it along with all the testing.....

The goal is to keep me from going blind but not a cure. I can still drive in the day time on local roads. My central vision is gone which makes all kind of chores difficult....e.g. seeing and holding my grease gun on a zerk that I can hardly see or notice if the grease is goin in where it belongs. My Kubota MMM/lifts have about 15 zerks....some really hard to even reach...........
But at 91+ YO I shouldn't complain. I was 89 before they did the cataract surgery first time.
Cheers,
Mike

Big thanks for the share.
My MIL (RIP) was about 93 before she finally got cataract surgery in about 2021. It wasn't the cost, it was fear of "flaps", one of our relatives had gotten the surgery (probably 10 years ago) and virtually lost sight in 1 eye because a flap had come loose.
She had needed the surgery for at least 4 years.
My wife's doctor gave her Avastin to start with because of the cost, it took us about a month to get it confirmed that our insurance would pay for about anything.
Now I'm going to start a separate thread about TV's with magnify features because she really needs one.

 

[Torvy]

Back from follow up. Her eye is 20/20 for the first time since she was 12...think Carter Admin...haha

 

[JESSE1]

Heading in today to get my left eye done. Right eye has 20/25 as of last week, near vision not quite as good as I'd like but may get better.

 

[workinonit]

I have a habit of neglecting my eyes. Went for a checkup Friday and I have a bad cataract and a early stage one. He is removing the bad one on Oct 23. Will do the other one when it deteriorates more.

 

[ponytug]

I have a habit of neglecting my eyes. Went for a checkup Friday and I have a bad cataract and an early stage one. He is removing the bad one on Oct 23. Will do the other one when it deteriorates more.

Good luck!

All the best, Peter

 

[workinonit]

Thanks.

 

[JESSE1]

Got it done, no problems. Vision is blurry but starting to improve. They give you enough anesthesia to keep you settled down but not out completely. I was aware they were working on me but didn't care.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Does Medicare cover cataract surgery? - East Idaho News

This is a Medicare question most have asked or will be asking.

This past Spring at the age of 73 I had the left then right lens replaced with mono focus lens. A 19.5+ diopter IOL lens replacement in the left eye gives me comfort 20/20 vision for reading and more like 20/60 or 20/80 at far uncorrected but 20/20 with glasses.

The 18+ diopter spheric IOL used in the right eye gives me 20/20 vision from my finger tips to infinity.

In January at my annual vision exam I may get a low end set of glasses just in case the right eye should need to be patched for any reason but for years I have been using the left eye for reading and the right eye for driving.

 

[IXLR8]

Not without checking…

Most but not all opt for the ORA as it is an extra cost.

Some have what is called a dense cataract which can influence options and makes pre-op cataract evaluation a challenge for precise biometric measurement.

I'm late to this thread. Wife is going for cataract surgery in 4 weeks. She opted for the middle type of lens. She was thinking about getting the top line lens that would give her near and distance vision. But her doc said too many people had the halo rings when driving at night and he didn't recommend it. He felt that technology was not ready yet.
She saw an optometrist last fall to get a new script for her glasses, he said nothing about cataracts at that time. Liz went to a different optometrist in May as she had lost trust in the first optometrist, and that one said Liz had cataracts bad enough she would not write a prescription for new glasses. Liz says she sees fine, doesn't see any issue that cataracts might cause. She saw an eye doc last Thursday and he said she bad cataracts in both eyes and she is now scheduled to get one eye done the end of Sept, and the other mid-October.
My question, what is ORA? I did a search and none of the results had anything related to a medical field.

 

[ultrarunner]

ORA is a not covered back check that measures/calculates optimal diopter in the operating room at the time of the procedure.

We charge $50 for this and the information confirms or may suggest a slight up or down diopter as optimal.

Not all docs use nor do all patients opt to have ORA.

We have a massive amount of lenses in house… thousands of them.

Each patient has in duplicate several sizes up and down in the room at the ready.

Is there an ORA charge for your wife’s procedure?

 

[deserteagle71]

Liz went to a different optometrist in May as she had lost trust in the first optometrist, and that one said Liz had cataracts bad enough she would not write a prescription for new glasses. Liz says she sees fine, doesn't see any issue that cataracts might cause. She saw an eye doc last Thursday and he said she bad cataracts in both eyes and she is now scheduled to get one eye done the end of Sept, and the other mid-October.

Thing about cataracts is that they come on so gradually most people can't see a difference in their vision. Then, when they do get cataract surgery the improvement in their vision - the clarity, the absence of flare at night - is amazing and that's when a person realizes how the cataracts were affecting their vision.

 

[ultrarunner]

It’s often life changing in all the good ways… seniors able to return home with improved vision from care facilities or pass driving license test, etc…

Drivers license for patients in their 60’s-70’s are our largest segment but we have had 49 year olds and a patient 99

 

[ultrarunner]

I will add that many are quite apprehensive for the first eye and then two to three weeks later anxious to have the second one done…

I greet the early arrivals between 5 and 7 am… and we have 60 to 90 cataract in a typical week with 2 of our 6 operating rooms dedicated to eyes.

Doors open at 5:30 am but many seniors are at the front door before opening saying they couldn’t sleep and a surprising number will make a dry run a few days prior just to make sure they are in the right place and confirm everything.

 

[dfkrug]

I am now scheduled for my one eye on 10-31. I did get my 3 prescriptions filled for eyedrops. They were $90 total, and that is with Part D and Medicare Advantage supplemental. I will have no other co-pay, I am told, since I am having the basic lens. Kaiser Permanente.

 

[IXLR8]

ORA is a not covered back check that measures/calculates optimal diopter in the operating room at the time of the procedure.

We charge $50 for this and the information confirms or may suggest a slight up or down diopter as optimal.

Not all docs use nor do all patients opt to have ORA.

We have a massive amount of lenses in house… thousands of them.

Each patient has in duplicate several sizes up and down in the room at the ready.

Is there an ORA charge for your wife’s procedure?

This is the first I have heard of an ORA, I don't remember her mentioning it. I will discuss it with her and with her doc before surgery. Thank for this info.

 

[ultrarunner]

ORA SYSTEM® Intraoperative Aberrometer | Alcon Professional

The one and only intraoperative aberrometer to bring precise, real-time confirmation to every case. Learn more about the ORA System® with Verifeye® technology.

www.myalcon.com

 

[ponytug]

ORA falls into my personal "trust, but verify" category. I can't see doing the surgery without using ORA. My vote would be to get it right the first time...

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

Only a guess but 2/3 opt for ORA is my guess from what I am seeing.

Morning check in doesn’t always go seamless with language issues and collecting payment at time of service.

Every week someone will insist they are paid in full but it always turns out the patient paid the surgeon fee in office which is different than the facility fee plus add on’s like premium lens, ORA, etc.

Also many practices are going cashless and not everyone is able to use a credit card or write a check or bring a money order.

I like the older system where it was all bundled but not as transparent as having the costs broken out as to who is paid and for what.

We still do some no
ORA and no laser assisted without premium lens which is the least expensive and 100% covered in just about every case.

In full disclosure… I’m not a doctor or vision specialists… just work around them for decades.

At one time I was LensEx trained and certified by ALCON for laser assisted cataract removal…

Enterprise wide a few years ago it was decided only RN’s would perform this function and thus ending my foray into the direct patient care side of things… dialating pupils, numbing drops, dialing in the laser parameters, positioning patient, etc.