Halos And Starbursts - Vision

Do any of you see starbursts or halos looking at a bright light at night?

If you have had cataract surgery, did that change afterwards?

Halos from streetlights



Starbursts from headlights



I discovered I was getting cataracts when I took a picture of a Super Moon. The moon looked like it had a halo around it, but the halo was completely missing in the picture.

After cataract surgery the halos changed to starbursts. An eye surgeon told me starbursts that don't go away with normal eyeglass correction are due to "higher-order aberrations" and often can't be corrected. Anyone hear different?

 

One thing I was looking forward to after cataract surgery was NO MORE HALOS AND STARBURST!!! Instead, they were worse.

I went for the multi-focus lenses (and paid $2500 per eye over what medicare paid) because I wanted close to perfect vision. Unfortunately, I didn't do adequate "due diligence" or I would have found out that a lot of people had worse glare, halos, starbursts with them. I've pretty much given up driving at night because of that. Even in sunlight, stoplights have an aura around them.

Doctor says nothing can be done. I've tried those yellow "night vision" glasses......no improvement.

 

I'm sorry to hear you got bad results with the multi-vision, Mary. I don't blame you for being upset. I would be too.

I had the single vision lenses, and still see starbursts. I think the halos before were just blurry starbursts.

They recommended the astigmatism treatment at the same time (similar to Lasik surgery). Lasik still scares the heck out of me, so I declined, and have always wondered about that decision.

This came up because I was looking at a hummingbird feeder in the sunlight yesterday, and it looked like a hundred needles coming out from the glass part. That's the first I noticed it in the daytime.

I'm expecting that second stage thing to start any day now, where they have to blast out some membrane that gets cloudy. I forget what you call it. So far so good, but my mom had to have it done, just a few years after her cataract surgery.

 

This is why I’m waiting until I can’t wait any longer to have my cataracts done.

I have them but they aren’t that bad yet..

I’m also very anxious when it comes to anything related to my eyes or any health issue so I’m a lousy candidate anyway.

I also have high pressure which is controlled with prescription eye drops....I have to take half a Xanax every time I have an appointment with my opthamologist....

He was the dr that gave me the most anxiety until I was referred to the nephrologist in May.

Thankfully my kidney issues went away but my high eye pressure won’t....well he did suggest that if I have cataract surgery he can also put a drain in my eye for the high pressure.

I asked if that would eliminate my need for the drops and he said ....sometimes.

SO...I said no thanks.

I’m one of those people that if something goes wrong...it will be me it goes wrong on.

 

YAG (don't know what that stands for...) is the name of the procedure where they laser the membrane away from behind the lens some time (months to years) after cataract surgery. Some people never get the membrane. It's a very simple procedure.

 

My mother waited too long to have that YAG procedure done. .Well... I should say, she just never mentioned to me she was having any problems seeing, for as long as she could possibly avoid it.

Long story short, I had to almost drag her to the YAG surgery. She said there were HUGE chunks of floaters afterwards, but was so happy because of dramatic improvement in vision. The chunks eventually settled down, out of sight, after a few weeks (or so she said).

 

Chrissy, I hope this talk doesn't scare you, but I'm afraid it does, and I'm sorry about that. I don't blame you for being anxious. Vision is so precious. It worried me a lot too beforehand.

I think you will know when the time is right. In my case, and my mom's, it turned out well, and was a simple procedure.

 

I'm scheduled for eye surgery in late October and frankly, I'm terrified.

I have "macular pucker" in my right eye that had gotten a lot worse in the last year. It drives me crazy because all lines, both vertical and horizontal are very wavy, including lines of print (which makes reading with that eye hard......usually I keep it closed while reading). Worst of all, I see things closer with that eye, which means the brain has to decide which eye to believe. The brain doesn't always make the right decision. I miss steps a lot.

So, they'll go in through the back of the eye, deflate the eyeball, attempt to peel off the membrane that has shrunk, thus distorting the retina (which, unfortunately sometimes takes the retina with it causing blindness in that eye), pump the eyeball back up with saline solution and seal it back up. There's also always the chance the surgery won't change the damage.

See why I'm terrified? The best guy in town is doing it, but still...…...

 

Mary, the procedure sure sounds scary, but if he is the best guy in town, and he recommended it, I think that is the best circumstances you could possibly have, and you should not worry so much. (Hey, that's easy for me to say, isn't it?). I hope you will keep us updated when you have this done.

 

@Nancy Hart Until you have a weird vision problem, it always sounds like such a small thing. The truth is, it messes with just about everything you do or are used to doing. After my TIA, I went for 6 weeks with vertigo. Couldn't look up, down or sideways without feeling like the room was spinning or objects were moving away from me. I knew those things weren't really happening, but it didn't stop the dread of dealing with it.

I'm sorry you are going thru this. I checked online and saw there was nothing they could do about it, but since enough people are having the issue, I bet they will come up with a solution, hopefully in the near future.

 

I'm sorry, I must have given the wrong impression in the first post. I was just asking mostly out of curiosity to see if anyone else had the starbursts after cataract surgery. I suspect mine were there all along but I just never noticed them until all the cataract business made me pay closer attention. They have caused very little problems driving at night, compared to the halos/blurs before surgery, so far at least.

 

@Nancy Hart ".....where they have to blast out some membrane that gets cloudy. I forget what you call it. "

That might be "secondary cataracts". When my wife had the initial cataract surgery done, the Dr. told her secondary cataracts occur in about half of the patients, usually within 6 months or less. She lost the "draw": hers showed up just about 5 months after. She has had the laser repair surgery done for both eyes, the secondary cataracts seem to be gone, but they can't seem to get her "prism" lens correction right. Expecting new eyeglass lenses any day now, the fourth set, I believe.

Prism is the term they use to describe a "lazy eye", or eye muscles which do not work in collaboration with each other. Prism cannot be corrected by surgery.
Frank

 

Hope the new eyeglasses work out for your wife, Frank.

I think "secondary cataracts" are when the membrane, that separates the main part of your eyeball from the front part, becomes cloudy. That membrane forms a little pocket in the front of your eye in which the lens sits. At the time this was happening, I learned a lot of stuff about it, but forgot most of it now.

A bit of trivia I remember:.. The only downside with the YAG procedure is that you can't have your IOL's (new lenses from cataract surgery) replaced, if you are not satisfied with them, because there is no pocket to hold them until they become a permanent fixture.

 

@Nancy Hart
I read a description of the standard cataract surgery, and it terrified me! The cornea front is slit, the old, cloudy natural (human) lens is removed, and the new artificial one is inserted rolled up!

The outer fringe of the old lens which remains after the surgery is what clouds secondarily.
Frank