Crystalens

[afdgf]

My left eye had a -10 dopter and my right eye a -8.5 diopter so I was using the Aqualung Look 2 mask which had the prescription lenses that the lds could put in. I am now 67 and needed cataract surgery and had the crystalens put in. My left eye had a Central Retinal Artery Occlusion which is basically an eye stroke. I was hospitalized for three days and had 10 hyperbaric treatments. My left eye started at 20:1000 and is now about 20:100 or 20:70 on a good day which is about -1.5 diopter. I finally had the right eye done and the surgery went much better and my right eye is now 20:15 and my distance vision is excellent. The problem is the reading/ close up vision. It takes a 12-week training program that you start 2 weeks after the second surgery to train the ciliary muscles to work the crystalens well. I also need more light to see well. Even though I may not need a prescription mask, or only a very weak correction, I am worried about seeing my gauges. I will be in Roatan after 5-6 weeks post second eye surgery. If you had the crystalens, please post what happend when you dove again. Thanks.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

afdgf,

I would make sure that your surgeon knows that the eye will be subject to pressure changes inside the mask, and ask him/her how it will affect the surgery 5-6 weeks out.

Glad to hear the hyperbaric oxygen worked for the CRAO! What was the time period between your vision loss and your first treatment?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[gert7to3]

You are very lucky that your vision has recovered as much as it has from a central retinal artery occlusion. The underlying issues which culminated in your CRAO are now resolved, correct? As to the Crystalens accommodation period, one factor in your favor is the magnification effect of water. A work around if you aren't fully able to accommodate would be to carry a small magnifying glass on your dives to help read the gauges.

 

[afdgf]

In answer to your questions, yes my opthalmologist knows about pressure changes. He is a diver and I gave him a copy of the 1995 review paper by Frank Butler. I hope he read it. He knows I am going scuba diving and when I am going.
When I had the CRAO I was admitted to the hospital and in the hyperbaric chamber within 60 minutes of the end of the surgery. I had the CRAO sometime during the surgery so I assume I was within the 97 minutes before damage as indicated by the studies on the Rhesus Monkeys in Iowa. If I had not been at a hospital with a hyperbaric chamber, I would probably be blind in that eye right now. The prognosis is usually very bad when starting out the CRAO episode with only being able to detect electric light and everything else being black. We are thinking of writing it up as a case study. At the end of surgery, they just had me switch gurneys and took me to the elevator and brought me from ground floor to the 6th floor where the hyperbaric chamber is.
Using a magnifying glass is a good idea.
Thank both of you for your comments.

 

[afdgf]

I wanted to report on what happened now that I have returned from 2 weeks at CoCoView. It turns out that I did not need to use magnifying glass. My Vyper Air was fine and I could see it very well. I had a new mask with no correction that fit well instead of leaking so now I encountered mask squeeze which caused my eyes to get bloodshot until I figured it out. Vigamox is what I used after diving as per my opthalmologist. What was a problem was trying to read in the room. I am now much more sensitive to not having enough light to read by. I just wanted to put this out there for the record for anyone else who had the crystalens and is going diving. Most other people would probably find this boring.