Cataract surgery and handguns

[BonnieB]

Folks,

This post is in the Women's Forum, although the topic is not especially about women. Gentlemen are welcome here, rabid OT'ers, not so much.

I'm having my second cataract surgery soon. I wanted to get some input and share my experiences. If you have direct experience of the surgery, jump in, please.

One question is the amount of time to heal before shooting. I've heard two weeks, three weeks and four weeks. My gut sense is "more is better". I waited six weeks the last time, but that seems like a lot. I'm talking handguns here, up to .45 caliber.

Another topic is "seeing the sights". That's how I even knew I had a cataract. In March last year, I could see the handgun sights AND the 3" target at 10 yards, without glasses, just fine. By September, the sights fuzzed out altogether, and I wasn't seeing the target well either. (This is on the right eye). Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. And had new glasses made the previous January. I got a little scared and saw my optometrist, wanting a better prescription. He looked and said "I think you should see a cataract specialist". Wow. So I went, and sure enough, a cataract that had been there a while, was accelerating, and they don't heal.

One of the features of cataract surgery is you get to pick your vision, but it's more or less one-or-the other. I chose good-vision-at-a-distance, since I can't function without driving and I'm willing to use readers for close work. Some people choose the close-vision option, and use glasses for distance. You can just choose. Hurrah.

(Progressive cataract lenses exist but they're god-awful expensive and my doc doesn't think they work all that well. Dunno.)

Coming out of the first surgery, I had 20/30 vision in my right eye, no need for distance glasses, did need readers. Again, seeing the target really well, not seeing the sights. So I splurged on some "progressive lens" glasses. So, by rocking my head slightly, I can see the gun sights AND the target at more or less the same time. Not everyone likes progressives, but I've never had a problem...

I haven't tried rifles with my new eye, but I'm thinking it will work ok.

So, what is your experience, how long do you think I should wait and what in the heck am I going to do about shooting-withdrawal while I wait?

Wish me luck, the surgery is tomorrow. It's out-patient and certainly no worse than having a tooth pulled. But surgery is surgery....

[BadKitty]

I don't have any advice on the cataracts issue; but, I wanted to wish you a successful procedure for tomorrow!

[movie zombie]

good luck and thanks for posting......had no idea you got to make a choice!

[ocabj]

I saw this thread on the forums main page, and even though I am male, I have some insight into this.

I had cataract surgery for my dominant eye back in 2002 (IIRC). I wasn't that much of a shooter (recreational) at the time and so I didn't really think too much about what the end result of cataract surgery meant, except that it would mean I would have clear (corrected) vision.

When I had the surgery, there really wasn't a choice given to me and my dominant eye was fixed focus about 2" away and I used corrective lenses to see infinity. I was mainly shooting scoped rifle in the couple years after the surgery.

I eventually went into competitive Service Rifle in 2006, and incidentally, I shot uncorrected even when shooting at 600 yards because I could see my front sight on the AR without glasses on, but used a small aperture in my rear sight in order to give me the focusing ability to see the target black at distance.

The big problem here is that I cannot shoot pistols very well because I don't have an aperture to look through (rear sight is a blade) and give me the focusing ability for distance. If I wear my corrective lenses, I can see distance, but I cannot focus on the front sight. If I don't wear glasses, then I can see my front sight, but can't see the target well.

I ended up trying a micro red dot sight (RMR) on my Glock and that was excellent because if you can see distance (infinity) the red dot will be in focus. So I was able to run the mRDS pistol with corrective glasses on and all was well. Unfortunately, I had issues with my RMR after going through three in a 14 month period and I ditched it. I still shoot pistol, but not well. I'm thinking about retrying a micro RDS via the Leupold Delta Point Pro. Of course, there are other red dot options out there that are frame mounted.

As far as modern cataract surgery, I was told by my current optometrist that they do have 'flexible' replacement lenses that can give some performance similar to the natural lens in the eye. This means it will give you the ability to change your focus, with the synthetic lens they're going to replace your damaged lens with. I am not sure how true this is, or how advanced the new replacement lenses are, but you should look into this.

[divingin]

Originally Posted by ocabj

The big problem here is that I cannot shoot pistols very well because I don't have an aperture to look through (rear sight is a blade) and give me the focusing ability for distance. If I wear my corrective lenses, I can see distance, but I cannot focus on the front sight. If I don't wear glasses, then I can see my front sight, but can't see the target well.

You're looking through one eye, at 3 points: the rear sight, the front sight and the target. You will never get all three crisp and clear. It's simple optics. Most serious pistol shooters over the age of about 35 to 40 or so find that the eye will no longer afford distance correction to easily focus on the front sight, and go to some form of correction.

In my case, it was a pair of dedicated shooting frames, with a lens for the dominant eye and a blinder for the other. The lens has what turned out to be my normal distance vision prescription, plus about 0.50 sphere (found by actually testing with an air pistol in the optometrists shop.) In practice, I add another half sphere with an additional lens stacked to the main (varies with lighting, and eye fatigue, I think.) This works for me from Standard pistol (shortish sight radius) to air pistol (fairly long) to free pistol (very long.) If I have a need to see the target a little more defined (which is rarely, to be honest), I have an adjustable iris that can be placed behind the lenses.

For scoped rifle, you will want you normal distance prescription. Not sure on peep or diopter sight rifle, but I suspect optimum will be focused at the front sight (a peep rear will give you greater depth of field, so that may be wrong. Dunno.) For open iron sighted rifle you will want to see the front sight clearly.

Note that a lot of this goes away when going to red dot sights. For those, I believe you want normal distance correction (I don't use red dots, and have had problems whenever I tried. Not that they're bad; to me, they're just weird.)

Hope that clears up some questions.

jky

p.s. Good luck with your surgery, Bonnie!

[ocabj]

Originally Posted by divingin

You're looking through one eye, at 3 points: the rear sight, the front sight and the target. You will never get all three crisp and clear. It's simple optics. Most serious pistol shooters over the age of about 35 to 40 or so find that the eye will no longer afford distance correction to easily focus on the front sight, and go to some form of correction.

I'm not saying I'm trying to get all three things in focus *at the same time*. What cataract surgery means is your eye can't even flex to change focus to attempt to adjust for different distances. The lens they replace your damaged lens with results in fixed focal range vision. The addition of corrective lenses (via glasses or lesser extent contacts) means you will lose the ability to see the near or far focal range that you are correcting against.

In my situation ~15 years post cataract surgery, uncorrected my dominant eye focus is fixed to approximately arms length away. With corrective glasses, I see infinity, but cannot change my focus down to see my front sight post clearly. If I were to shoot uncorrected, I would be able to have clear sight alignment and front sight focus, but my sight picture would not be effective at 25 yards and beyond because I wouldn't be able to get my front sight post placed on the target consistently. This is why at least for my specific condition, an RDS is ideal because I can get a crisp "sight post" (the dot) consistently on a target image.

[movie zombie]

thanks for the additional info, ocabj and divingin.

[BonnieB]

Cataract surgery went off without a hitch. My friend who drove me home from the surgery was laughing her butt off, when I demanded bacon and eggs as soon as I got in the car ! Not groggy at all, ready to rock. The new bionic eye was focusing pretty well within 36 hours. Amazing.

Regarding the lenses they use in cataract surgery, there are several types to choose from, depending on your optical needs, what you're willing to pay, and what you want to do. I selected 20/20 distance vision, because I don't mind using reading glasses. Some people who maybe don't drive or shoot might choose the opposite.

The modern ones I have are somewhat flexible, so I can fake close vision if my readers aren't handy, by squinting. They improve the technology all the time. But I have to say, if you hate the result of your cataract surgery, or any surgery, it's time to make your surgeon fix it. Insist, scream, yell, don't shut up and don't go away. It's just amazing what doctors will do if you're willing to make a scene. The main thing is not to take "no" for an answer. Remember who the customer is (that's you, the one who needs to be satisfied with the work you pay for). Predictably enough, I'm genetically incapable of taking "no" for an answer...

I know people who have had special prescription shooting glasses made up after cataract surgery, bifocals I think, that provide sharp vision at arms length and sharp vision at the distance of your choice (10 yards, 100 yards, whatever). You just tell your optometrist what you want. And having a shooting-sports-sympathetic optometrist really shortens the explanation.

Also, there's a guy at our range who is a competitive 25 yard (pistol) target shooter. I've seen him with little black stickers on his dominant eye shooting glasses. Stickers have little holes in them, that he says works like an aperture. I know nothing about that, but you rifle folks may be able to comment. I haven't tried them, but they're around. Here are some links. I can't endorse any of them, but how wrong can you go for $5.95 ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/080-Aperture...item2efc6e8aae

http://www.electronic-circuits-diagr...409372979.html

For Ocabi: one of the symptoms that led to the cataract surgery was that, as I got older, I couldn't flex my natural lenses any more, so couldn't see the sights and the target at the same time, by flexing my eye. Old natural lenses stiffen up with age and the muscles in the eye can't flex them anymore. Old age is a b***h !

But progressive eyeglass lenses have solved that problem for me. They're like infinite tri-focals, and I just rock my head up or down slightly to get all three points in focus. Works like a champ.

So, back to the original question, how long to wait before going to the range?: My bestie, ElDub was told to wait 4 weeks before shooting and he waited 5 weeks. I was told 6 weeks, which seems excessive. I think it's the jolt of the recoil that's the potential problem. I'm wondering if a smaller caliber might not be dangerous. You all who have had the surgery, what do you think? One week in and I'm already in withdrawal....

And while we're at it, if you know a shooting-friendly optometrist in your area, let us know. If there's a good selection, I'll get someone to make a sticky in the regional forums, just like the "good gunsmiths" one.

[Garv]

I went to Magic Mountain after about 4 weeks and ended up with 2 detached retina surgeries for the right eye.
Can't say they were directly related, but it would not be a surprise.

I'd go with better safe than sorry, but .22 should not be an issue.
Keep your .44 mag. in the safe.

[Socratic]

I shoot by Braille. It makes for exciting range time.

[sonofeugene]

No advice on the cataracts though my doc said I will likely need new lenses as I approach 80. Fortunately that's a long way off.

However, I can very, very highly recommend these particular progressive lenses. I've been wearing glasses since second grade and these are the very best by far. Good luck!

http://www.shamirlens.com/index.php?...iii&Itemid=249

[SonofWWIIDI]

Good luck with the surgery!!!

[rdtompki]

Very worthwhile thread. I've shoot steel challenge and at 70+ years old have cataracts developing, worse in my right (dominant) eye. I'm going to be able to get by for a while with a new prescription (single vision) and dark shooting glasses since with "posterior" cataracts your vision is a bit better when the pupil is larger. Fortunately, in steel challenge I don't need a sharp target focus and using fiber optics on both front and rear handgun sights I can align the sights more than adequately.

I can see the sights just fine with my left eye, but I'm not yet willing to make the switch. It's good to hear from folks the sucess they've had with surgery.

[rodblder]

I've had the surgery in both eyes several years apart. First time was my right eye for distance vision,second time was the left for close-up vision. My brain uses whichever eye is needed. My doctor said many folks can't have this as they get headachs. Many years ago I wore one contact for distance so I knew it would work for me. Love it cause I don't need glasses anymore!!! Btw I'm 72 now.....