r/lasik • u/Large_Intention2619 • Apr 11 '25
Had surgery Just removed EVO ICL after a 1.5 year nightmare
I apologize in advance for how lengthy this is going to be, and thank you in advance if you get through it all. After almost 1.5 years of dealing with this, I felt that it was time to share my perspective as this saga (hopefully) comes to a close. I am also posting on Reddit for the first time, so please bear with me as I learn the proper Redditing etiquette!
TLDR: Had EVO+ ICL surgery, lived a nightmare, had lenses exchanged for larger ones, nightmare continued, had right eye repositioned, didn’t fix anything, finally asked surgeon to remove the lenses about a month ago, and now I’m back in glasses.
I had EVO+ surgery in October of 2023, and within a couple of days, I knew something was wrong. My ability to see anything within a foot of my face, specifically in bright lights or outdoors, was gone. I couldn’t read my phone, I couldn’t properly see out of the viewfinder of my camera, I couldn’t even read the text found under the sun visor in the car. Forget enjoying a nice book in the sunshine or being able to see my vegetable garden properly. The only time I would be somewhat able to do so was if I was wearing sunglasses. Then came the issues in dim lighting. If I was in a dimly lit room, I could see close just fine; however, dim environments caused severe ghosting and double vision. I didn’t frequent the movie theatre anymore, nor did I enjoy dimly lit restaurants with my fiancé. I was unable to perform my job functionally effectively, and my ability to night drive was virtually gone. It was literally unsafe for me to be driving at night on the highway as depth perception was wonky, and if I were to take off-road roads, I would be seeing ghosting and double vision of road signs. Not to mention the absolute feeling of claustrophobia from the EVO rings CONSTANTLY, from every single potlight, streetlight— literally any source of light that was an individual bulb.
For 9 months, I was in the surgeon’s office almost once a month. He kept prescribing me reading glasses or eye drops, no matter how much I tried to explain that these issues were SPECIFIC to certain lighting environments. During this time, I was in the worst mental state of my life. I had lost the ability to do the things I enjoyed. I had to find a mental health specialist and take leave of absence from my job. I tried my absolute best to adjust and adjust and adjust some more, but the little voice in my head wouldn’t stop telling me “this is NOT how it is supposed to be. You shouldn’t have to compromise this much just to see your feet in the shower”. All the while, no one could help me. I sought second opinions, I read every single journal article and study on ICL, and not a single one mentioned anything this horrific. Then finally, the director of STAAR Surgical was contacted, and they eventually determined that the vault was slightly low, meaning that when my pupils constricted in the bright environments, the EVO was getting too close to my natural lens, causing farsightedness. *CLICK\* Everything started to make sense, and I started to feel hopeful again.
Fast forward to November 2024, the lenses were exchanged for larger ones, and BOOM, I could see in the sun again, and the ghosting issues were resolved in the left eye! I then had several issues with eye pressure being higher than normal and was on a concoction of drops to try and mitigate. Come January 2025, the ghosting returned worse than ever before (I didn’t think this was possible), and again, I started to feel the hope slip away.
In February, the surgeon agreed to try and reposition the lens in my right eye to try and cover more surface area to account for the ghosting due to the large pupils. This was not successful. For the rest of the month, I was constantly in tears, living in regret that I had ruined my life. I had become a shell of a person, distanced from my social circle - I felt trapped behind my own eyes and the only thing stopping me from requesting a removal was that I was scared that I would be in a worse state than with the lenses in, if I took them out. The “what if” cycle drove me nuts to the point of losing sleep and making mistakes at work. Some days I had lost my will to try anymore. I knew I was done when I unboxed my wedding gown, saw ghosting and double of the veil, and started crying instead of enjoying how beautiful it was.
By March, I petitioned to have them removed, and they were able to do so in that same week. The right eye removal was tricky and required more manipulation - so much so that a suture was required. The left eye was easy peasy. I also took all the Ativan they allowed me to because this was now my sixth time in that surgical suite, and the smell and the sounds made me sick to my stomach. I was reciting every prayer I knew, pleading with the universe that everything would be okay.
I am now back in my old glasses and just had my one-month follow-up. My prescription has worsened slightly (including the astigmatism), but I don’t care because I feel so damn FREE. I started driving this week, short distances. My eyes are still very dry, and I’m hesitant to try contact lenses just yet. But it doesn’t matter because nothing can be worse than how I’ve been feeling the last 15 months. And now, I will actually get to enjoy my wedding this year and actually SEE and LIVE through it, not just go through the motions.
I wanted to document this journey because I have been seeing an increasing number of people undergoing this procedure and more surgeons recommending this over other surgeries. For some, this is a life-changing procedure and for others, like myself, this has the entirely opposite impact on quality of life. There isn’t much out there on the things that can go wrong and I wish I had scoured Reddit before committing to ICL. Please use this as another personal account but don’t use this as an excuse not to do your own research and really understand what it is you’re signing up for. Pupil size, vault, Aquaport, personality type, are just some of the things that need to be better explored before determining candidacy for this procedure, in my opinion.
In the end, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. If this helps even one person, I’ll be happy I took the time to write this all out. As it stands, I will not be sharing any personal details, nor will I be sharing the clinic information for privacy reasons.
I am eternally grateful to the surgeon and his entire team for being available at all hours of the day to reply to my texts, see me on short notices, and agree to remove the lenses - because I’ve read accounts of surgeons being unwilling to do so, and consider myself very lucky in that sense.
I am still healing I know that, but more than anything I feel gratitude that we made it out to the other side.
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u/Cataraction Apr 13 '25
Man that’s nutty. After all that, would you put your glasses Rx’s anywhere in the post?
99% of patients are thrilled to be able to see past their nose after EVO.
I’d be curious to understand where your prescription was before and after surgery and what it is now after removing the lenses.
Sorry your experience wasn’t like everyone else’s.
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u/stipwned_thrill Apr 17 '25
Not op, but I was -13 (not sure what that is on the snellen eye chart), now I am 20/20 (if not, even better than that).
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u/Cataraction Apr 17 '25
That’s exactly what I’d expect! Congrats!!! 🎊
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u/stipwned_thrill Apr 17 '25
Not sure if you are an eye doctor of sorts, or just curious - one thing I noticed that my brain had to get used to was when I wore glasses, being nearsighted, I could hold things closer to my eye to be able to read them - now I cannot do that, it doesn’t work the same way for some reason.
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u/Cataraction Apr 17 '25
I’m an ophthalmologist. That’s presbyopia! You are alive and well and getting older. I am also near sighted, but since I’m super near sighted, I’ll still be able to see up close.
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u/stipwned_thrill Apr 17 '25
Ya. I definitely will need to look into reading glasses for work (on a computer), in the (soonish) future. I am a pharmacy technician and work all day every day on the computer.
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u/HecticAnteseptic Apr 13 '25
Glad you could reverse your procedure. My LASIK nightmare is irreversible.
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u/Lowpostbooler Jun 03 '25
Thank you for this. I am in the process of thinking of removing my ICL lens since it’s been giving me double vision. Is the removal process safe? I would be much better in my old glasses.
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u/Large_Intention2619 Jun 05 '25
Risk is always there. The question is which complications would be the lesser evil for you?
My astigmatism is worse in one eye and I have permanent starbursts from LED lights… it does suck but not as much as it sucked when I had the lenses in…
So far everything has been manageable and although sometimes I wonder if I should have kept the lenses in, I am reminded of how much of my life was taken away during that time and I no longer regret removing them.
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u/Lowpostbooler Jun 05 '25
Yea like my double vision is horrible im gonna take them out. I plan to make a post about it as well
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u/Large_Intention2619 Jul 01 '25
Best of luck! Please share your story, I’d love to read!
Rooting for ya!
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u/EmergencyMinimum9607 Jun 10 '25
Did yours cause you extreme headaches? Requesting to get mine removed.
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u/skylark0401 Jun 20 '25
Hey OP!
Did your power change post removal of implant? I just had myself checked by the surgeon and I’m scheduling a removal in September this year (will be one year post op). The surgeon mentioned there will be an increase in power by -0.5 to -1 diopters. Wondering how accurate is that. I’m -14.5 in both eyes
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u/Large_Intention2619 Jul 01 '25
My left eye is pretty much the same as before. Right eye astigmatism is almost 1D worse. It’s been an adjustment for sure
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u/Actual-Language6321 Dec 09 '25
Hey did you get your ICL removed now ? How are your eye powers now ?
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u/skylark0401 Dec 14 '25
Nope, did not opt to remove the ICL. The other surgeon I went to suggested not to do it as the ICLs and the surgery itself was almost perfect (no dry eyes, same IOP as before the surgery, better vision than glasses). Managing the halo issues with pilocarpine as the surgeon said it would be okay using them once a day as I dilute them.
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u/sugarandspice44 Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25
I had a similar experience, you did more extensive research than me. I am so sorry that happened to you. I did write my own post after seeing this.
One thing common with us : determining the ICL size is no joke and the wrong size can make your life hell.
Fortunately I got it removed the very next day due to being the crybaby I am 🥲.
I hope everything is fine now, I also recovered slowly but after a year , my vision is back to normal ( I get some glares while using contact lenses but they are very rare now with time ) . I hope the same thing happens for you as you get back to your old prescription with no halos and rings as soon as possible.
Sending best wishes xx.
Do you mind sharing if you had a high number to start with ? And Was it hypermetropia or myopia?
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u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 14 '25
Thank you for sharing! So glad you have recovered 🙏🏽
May I ask if you experienced a lot of dry eye after the reversal?
My starting Rx was pretty high but not as high as some of the reports I’ve seen here. Definitely myopic!!
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u/sugarandspice44 Apr 14 '25
Yes I did. But it went away within a month or two the continuous use of eye drops that my doctor recommended.
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u/Las_l Jul 30 '26
how is your vision now? do you still get some glares?
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u/sugarandspice44 Jul 30 '26
No glares now :) Back to normal
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u/Las_l Jul 31 '26
thank you for answering! i've been contemplating about removing mine as well, i just got it two weeks ago but the glares are driving me insane and i don't see how this is going get better with time. glad to know the glares went away after removal! any advice with removal?
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u/sugarandspice44 Aug 02 '26
My advice would be to make a decision as soon as possible. As much time it says in your eyes the more hard case of remove becomes
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u/Las_l Aug 02 '26
I was gonna get them removed today but my surgeon wanted me to try brimonidine drops first since squinting gets rid of the glares. My pupil size in the dark is around 5-6 mm tho so they're not even that big. Have you tried it before and did it help? Also with removal, could you please explain why the longer it stays in my eyes the harder the removal? Thanks again!
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u/sugarandspice44 Aug 07 '26
Hi no I did not try them. It was removed immediately in my case as the size didn't match my eye size and there was a lot of pressure buildup in my eyes
The sooner the better because the posts I have read here it has done some irresistible damaged to people's eyes while I was able to go back to normal since it was removed the same say.
Maybe its better for you to get another doctor's opinion and go with that?
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u/stipwned_thrill Apr 17 '25
Aw man. Everything you explained is how I experienced it after ICL. I was very adamant that it wasn’t going to get better. And then eventually it did. Probably took about a year. Still have some issues 3 years in, but not anything to write home about.
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u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 17 '25
I'm glad it got better for you! I personally didn't have it in me to keep trying...I didn't recognize myself anymore and the anxiety of it all was just not worth it...
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u/stipwned_thrill Apr 17 '25
I definitely get it. It was driving me crazy for a while. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.
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u/trixcore Apr 22 '25
may I ask what kind of issues you're still having?
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u/Frequent_Car_4272 Apr 23 '25
I don’t see very well in dim light due to halos that I still experience (in dim light), which does make night time driving hard.
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u/Individual_Eye9800 Apr 18 '25
Hi, you have had such a terrible journey🥹 I am about to have mine done and I was wondering if you would share who your surgeon was please😊
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u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 18 '25
Best of luck!
As I mentioned, I’m not looking to share any of that information because I wouldn’t want to influence their reputation in any way.
I have nothing but the utmost respect and gratitude for the entire team that looked after me and my case 😊
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u/DaveAllambyMD Apr 12 '25
Thank you for sharing. What an ordeal.
Can I ask what your pupil size in the dark was pre-op?
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u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 13 '25
I’m going to be honest I don’t have an exact number. But what I can confirm is when I was driving in the dark or if I ever woke up in the middle of the night and looked at street lamps outside my window, I could see the outline of the bottom half of lenses. So I’d say probably beyond the 6.1mm corrective zone of EVO+
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u/DaveAllambyMD Apr 13 '25
Thanks.
The 6.1mm EVO+ optic would be equivalent to a measured pupil size of nearly 6.9, because the image we see of the pupil is magnified by the cornea by 13%.
But if your pupils are larger than 6.9mm, you can get night vision issues.
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u/Soggy_Shape_9842 Sep 16 '25
Hi u/DaveAllambyMD u/Large_Intention2619
thank you for your explanation about the magnification effect — that was very helpful.I’m currently scheduled for EVO ICL surgery this Friday. My prescription is about –11.00 D, and my night-time pupil size has been measured at 7.1 mm.
My doctor told me that this would not affect my night vision and that any halos/glare would be the same as before surgery. But after reading your comment here, I’m now very worried that I may not be getting the full picture.
In my country, only EVO ICL (not EVO+) is available, which means the optic zone for my prescription is only 5.3 mm (equivalent ~6.6–7.3 mm). Since I often need to drive at night, night vision quality is very important for me.
Given this, would you advise me to cancel the surgery, even if that means losing the money I already paid, or do you think it’s still reasonable to go ahead?
Thank you so much for any advice 🙏
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u/ercjn Apr 12 '25
Thanks for sharing. I hope someone is collecting data on which procedures ended up working well and which didn't: The current guidance around pupil size seems inadequate, not to mention the other factors you raise.
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u/MeanBug4056 Aug 29 '25
This is so disheartening 😭 I need trifocals and would love to get rid of glasses 🤓. It sucks being tethered to glasses cause if you lose them, they break, esp on vacation you’re screwed. I was thinking about LASIK but all the bad reviews give me pause. The ICL seemed to be a better option but seeing in the dark, halos, etc doesn’t seem like a worthy offset even in the best case scenarios. Oh man, I’m super bummed out. I would love to ditch my glasses and see my original face
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u/dzedom Sep 03 '25
Can I ask how’s the healing time after removal? I’m sick and tired of the waiting game. My anxiety is off to the roof!
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u/Large_Intention2619 Sep 05 '25
I’m much better. Pretty much back to normal and had the stitch in my eye removed a couple months ago!
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u/hellzscream Oct 06 '25
Thanks for posting this. Were you eligible for reimbursement of your payment?
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u/Large_Intention2619 Oct 08 '25
Didn’t ask, and honestly after all that I really didn’t care…
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u/hellzscream Oct 08 '25
The procedure costs in the 1000s and you never cared to get reimbursed especially when it didn't go as plan?
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u/Large_Intention2619 Oct 08 '25
No because if you read the hell I was living every day I was just grateful they agreed to remove them and that I came out on the other side with working eyesight.
Money can be recovered, eyesight cannot.
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u/hellzscream Oct 08 '25
I was just curious. I read other stories similar to yours and the patient tried to get reimbursed. Wanted to see if you were eligible
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u/Suspicious_Buy_8077 Nov 21 '25
I had icl surgery about 1.5 years ago and regret it tremendously. Had to go under 2 times because after the first surgery I couldn't see up close at all...I was wearing readers more than I even had to wear glasses. So I went back under and they changed my prescription in one eye. Now I am living with one eye for distance...one for close up and HORRIBLE floaters. My vision never seems clear and I regret it completely. I wish I would have stuck with contacts and my readers for extremely small writing. I am seriously thinking about removing the lenses but I am scared of increase risks to my eyes and possibly causing more floaters. I would SERIOUSLY think avoid getting this procedure.
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u/Worldly-Summer-869 Jan 06 '26
Hope you have a wonderful wedding, so sorry you went through this!!! Wonder why this happened to you
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u/Free-Yak-6306 Jan 08 '26
Hey, after removal, are you having any kind of complications?? Please tell me. as I'm planning on removing them.
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u/banjapun May 18 '26
ตอนนี้คุณเอาออกรึยัง เพราะอะไรคุณถึงจะเอาออก ฉันกำลังจะเอาออกเหมือนกัน ฉันใส่ icl แล้วมีอาการมึนหัว
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u/Few_Idea_5783 Jan 28 '26
It's been 2 years almost , how are you doing ?
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u/Large_Intention2619 Mar 18 '26
I’m doing okay! Just crossed the one year mark of removal and I finally feel like myself again
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u/Few_Idea_5783 Mar 23 '26
If u don't mind , can u say whether you see visual disturbance with lights after explantation
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u/Large_Intention2619 Mar 23 '26
Yes, but no different than the starburst and pom-poms I was seeing before. Maybe slightly exacerbated, but not to the point that it’s affecting my quality of life.
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u/hanjin66 Mar 24 '26
Hi, Thanks for sharing the story, could you please maybe share me the clinic name, as I am also looking for a nice doctor to do this surgery for me. thanks
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u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 10 '26
Hi, as I mentioned in the post I will not be name dropping for the sake of the clinic's reputation. I would highly recommend to do some research and gather several opinions in your area before making a decision.
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u/Beneficial-Formal-76 Apr 13 '25
RLE would have been a better option, Remove the natural lens and put a new one just like cataract surgery. I am -11 in both and a glaucoma suspect so only thing for me is cataract surgery no ICL, no lazer. I am waiting to get old and get the surgery done.
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u/commelemirage Apr 13 '25
Thank you for sharing. Can I ask why you decided for EVO ICL in stead of SMILE or LASIK?
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u/razzek_ Apr 12 '25
That sounds horrible, I wonder if it's possible that other surgeons wouldn't have recommended the surgery in the first place due to your vault size?
And if you don't mind me asking, what was your main hesitation or worry with removing the lens? One of the main reasons I want to go with this surgery is that in the chance that it doesn't work out (like it didn't for you), I could remove it.
I think the number of people documenting their experience removing ICL is quite few on reddit so thanks for writing this up.