This morning I woke up and I could read on my phone without any reading glasses at all. I was quite surprised by this. I would not want to read without any reading glasses at all, though, as that feels a little stressful. I was also reading a food box and realized that I could read all but the smallest print.
The good part about this was that if I was at the computer, say, and needed to read something quickly on my desk I could do it without glasses. Extended reading I would need reading glass.
Pre-surgery I was wearing +3 reading glasses. Today I went and bought a pair of +1.25 drugstore reader which were totally adequate for me.
If my vision stays at this level, I will be extremely happy as it is giving me better reading vision than I expected. And, I am hopeful that in the long run the left eye will give my some more help since I plan to set it to help on the intermediate/near vision end. Of course, how much it helps depends in part of how well my vision comes back after my macular peel. I may not really know on that until January or so. I may still improve after that but most will come by the end of January.
I haven't been able to find out whether the monovision reader lenses cover the intermediate distance well but hope to do so before DW gets her cataracts removed. She will opt for monovision if she can read her phone and ipad.
One thing I read up on was defocus curves.
As I understand it a standard monofocal lens will have good vision for about 1 diopter from the lens power selected. So, let's say you are shooting for plano vision (neither nearsighted nor farsighted). You can focus well to about -1 diopters from that focal point. So, you should see pretty clearly from about 3' out.
The problem is that intermediate tasks are a little closer than 3'. My computer monitors are located in that range from about 22" to 34".
So with a purely monofocal lens set for "plano", I would need glasses to see my computer monitors. Other tasks which might fit in the intermediate range would include things like looking at the dashboard of a car or cooking.
Near vision is the vision that is more about 12" and 24".
The Vivity lens extends the depth of focus over a monofocal lens to 1.5 D. So, if set at plano I should be able to focus to about -1.5 diopters. Theoretically, I should be able to see in focus to 2' rather than 3'. That is a big difference for me since intermediate distance is so important to me.
But the Vivity lens won't give me that near vision range. Hence, my buying 1.25 readers as opposed to my old 3.0 readers.
My understanding is the PanOptix lens will focus to 2.5 D. So that can cover the full range from near to far.
With monovision, they achieve the ability to see by where they set the focal point. So, for distance vision you might set it for plano which is great distance vision. On the other eye, they might set it for -1.0 D and then the person could see well to -2 D. So that person gets more near vision.
There is also mini monovision and even micro monovision that set the differences of the 2 eyes differently.
The Light Adjustable Lens is a monofocal lens like a "traditional" monofocal lens. The difference is that you can adjust the power after surgery. So, if you need a little more near vision they can just adjust it for that or vice versa. Of course, this lens requires specific equipment for the adjustment so a lot of doctors don't have the ability to use that lens.
This is a link to an article talking about defocus curves and a link to a video that analyzes the Vivity lens. You might find it interesting:
https://cataractcoach.com/2021/01/07/extended-depth-of-focus-alcon-vivity/
