Did you correct strong myopia with laser? Beware of premature cataracts

In my late 20s, I had my myopic eyes lasered to correct my short-sightedness of -8 degrees. If you’re not acquainted with eye measurements, that meant I couldn’t find my spectacles using my eyes unless they were right in front of them, at 1 cm of distance, the furthest. That means I couldn’t count on my vision unless I had my spectacles on my nose.

It was a dependency that led to my decision of correcting the problem permanently without the use of contact lenses. I was a young girl when hard contact lenses became popular and at the age of thirteen, I started using soft contact lenses.

What it means to be a young contact lenses adopter

When I took my son for contact lenses at 13, the doctors told me that he was too young. Studies on the long-term use of contact lenses showed that you should be at least 15 to start using contact lenses on regular basis. This was information given to me by specialists in 2012.

From my experience as a regular contact lenses user since the age of 13, I had to stop wearing them at 23. And this is exactly what those later studies suggested. Ten years was the maximum time your eyes could bear having contact lenses on if you started before you were 15. Well, it was too late for me, so at 23 I had to go back to wearing spectacles on daily basis and I would wear my contacts when occasionally going out at night or for special events.

The thought of being able to see well again as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning made laser surgery extremely tempting. By 1998 the procedure was mostly automated and the probability of a full recovery was very high.

I was warned

I remember being warned of how I wouldn’t be able to undergo cataract operation in the future if I had the laser surgery. In my late 20s, cataract sounded like a very far away possibility for me. “I might not even make it to such old age when my eyes will be affected by cataracts”, I thought.

I was determined to eliminate my myopia or shortsightedness with this simple procedure I had the opportunity to go through, so I did. And I saw clearly for 15 years with just a little bit of astigmatism that couldn’t be corrected then via laser.

What happened next

In my 40s I needed reading glasses, as this is the age when your eye lens (the one inside the eyeball we cannot see) loses its ability to focus at closer distances. I started using multifocal lenses on my spectacles to be able to see crystal clear when needed. I was very dependent on the Sydney road maps, with very small letters, so I made sure that I could see properly both near and far.

Sixteen years after the laser procedure

In 2014 it started to become difficult for my optician to find the right prescription for my lenses. He suggested I visited an Ophthalmologist and I did but there was no improvement. It seems she didn’t consider the possibility of cataracts in my eyes then or they were not yet obvious.

Fast forward three years and I recently visited the best eye clinic on the island. Modern technology and the most ethical and professional personnel diagnosed premature cataract.

What is premature eye cataract?

I was asked if I had hit my right eye or if I suffered any injuries in that area of my head. No, I hadn’t. The optician found a huge increase in my shortsightedness over a period of two years. He suspected and checked my eye’s lens. There it was: deposits that interfered with the passage of light made my vision blurry. My new Myopia was caused by the cataract. But I’m only 50. Isn’t eye cataract supposed to appear at an older age like 60-65?

The eye doctor who performed my laser procedure in 1998 is still active and I went to his clinic to get the map of my cornea before the laser procedure. He told me that you can get premature cataract when you have corrected a strong myopia with laser. The cornea (the layer that causes refraction of the light for the formation of the image on your retina) is hit by the laser to make it thinner and that is a traumatism on that tissue, thus I had an eye injured by the laser procedure. Actually, I have both eyes injured.

Almost 20 years after my laser procedure I could have my intraocular lens replaced and the cataract removed. I can now see bright and clear and am very grateful for technology and the hard-working doctors and nurses who dedicate their lives to make our life quality better than it would be without them.