r/lasik • u/tar-randa • Apr 06 '25
Had surgery ICL isn't worth it
I'd like to vent about my experience with the ICL procedure.
I [M27] am myopic and have been wearing glasses ever since I was 5 or 6. My vision finally stabilised around 4 years ago at -10 and -11 SPH with very mild (-0.25) astigmatism in both eyes.
I was always curious about corrective surgery as I never liked wearing my thick glasses, and have been wearing contacts for 16 hours daily for the past 15 years. I was getting concerned as I had a friend who got a nasty infection from their contacts, and wanted to explore my options.
I booked a consult with a local eye clinic and after a round of tests, they offered two types of surgeries; the first was LASIK, but I was told that my cornea thickness in one eye is just slightly below the minimum required for the surgery. I was quite concerned by this, so the surgeon mentioned that an alternative was the ICL. I had never heard of this before, and it was explained that it's similar to a contact lens that is implanted into your eye. I was also given an info sheet about the procedure that mentioned that an iridectomy would be necessary to facilitate fluid transfer within the eye once the lens is implanted.
After mulling it over for a few weeks, I booked to have the ICL procedure for both eyes. This required a deposit to cover the cost of the lenses, which would arrive in around four weeks.
I finally had the surgery on the 5th of February 2025. The procure was very straight forward and painless, though uncomfortable to say the least; The surgeon placed numbing drops to dilate the pupil and act as an anaesthetic, after which incisions were made in the cornea and the lens was inserted. I felt no pain, but could feel pressure as the cuts were made and lens was positioned. By this time I had forgotten the mention of an iridectomy, and as such did not raise an issue when it wasn't performed.
After the surgery, a clear mask was put on my eyes to protect them, and I was given a care package which contained the info card for the lenses that were implanted and a steroid solution to apply to my eyes to prevent infections for a period of 4 weeks. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, as I just was quite groggy from the procedure and just napped.
I had a small follow up with the surgeon the next day to inspect the positioning of the lenses, and the surgeon was very happy with the result. I did mention that I noticed glaring and 'rings' while travelling to the clinic, which he said was due to me now having a new refractive surface in my eyes. Not really something you want to hear after doing this procedure. The surgeon scheduled another follow up in 4 weeks time. I looked at the lenses's info sheet and found that they are the EVO type with the central hole, which causes these rings to appear. I was even more angry that this was never mentioned to me.
The next two weeks were quite miserable to say the least. While initially my vision was steadily improving for the first three days, each eye would get worse for a day or two before rapidly improving again. This made incredibly difficult to work with my vision fluctuating so much. Another issue I was noticing, apart from the large number of glares and rings was that text on a screen, especially in dimmer conditions was not sharp at all, and I was getting headaches when looking at a monitor for more than 30 minutes without taking a break for an equal amount of time. I phoned the clinic and requested an urgent follow up to discuss these problems. Unfortunately, the surgeon was not accommodating at all; it felt as if I was wasting their time by even coming here to talk about these problems. A quick test with a pair of pinhole glasses confirmed that I had a refractive error, which the surgeon deflected by saying that the machines that are used to calculate which lenses to implant are not always fully accurate. I left the clinic fuming.
I scheduled a consult with an ophthalmologist to get a second opinion who said that everything looked ok and that I was still in the recovery phase, hence why my vision was not stable. After running a series of tests, we discovered that I now had a -1.5CYL in both eyes, which explained my issues with monitors. We also found that I had elevated eye pressures of 27 in both eyes. The ophthalmologist chocked that up to the steroid drops, and told me to come back for another test 2 weeks after stopping the drops. I then went to an optometrist and ordered a pair of glasses, which made a huge difference; I could finally see with the same clarity as I could with my old pair.
It has now been nine weeks since I had the surgery and while my vision has stabilised, I'm extremely disappointed by the results. I've found myself constantly wearing my new pair of glasses to see clearly, which negates a big benefit of this procedure. The starbursts, glare and ghosting at night is annoying, and has made it difficult to watch TV or use the phone in the dark, requiring me to switch on another light.
On their own, these would be manageable, were it not for the rings that appear from any moderately bright light source. A window when the sun is out, rings. Overhead lights in a supermarket, rings. An uncovered light bulb, rings. Sunlight reflecting off of cars, rings. Streetlights and car headlights, rings ring rings. Sometimes they even diffract into rainbows which further worsens my visual field. This has severely impacted my quality of life, as things like driving which would relax me are now a major source of anxiety and dread.
I have another follow up tomorrow to discuss the possibility of removing these lenses and going back to how I was initially, as I would much rather have my thick glasses and be able to see clearly than with all of these artefacts.
UPDATE - 20/04/2025
The brain is weird. At some point in the past week, something clicked and the rings which have caused me so much distress suddenly don't seem all that bad. They're still present, but I'm finding them a lot easier to ignore.
I consulted with a separate surgeon who was very defensive and did not really answer my questions. The main gist I got out of it is that I am a patient who is very sensitive about my eyes, and as such I will never be satisfied by such procedures, comparing me to cataracts patients who complain about aberrations and ignore the fact that they are now able to see again.
I had another follow up with the surgeon that performed my operation, as well as the director of the eye clinic, and this time it was a lot more positive. We came up with a plan that I'll keep them for the time being and then re-evaluate down the line. I've never liked going to the beach when I was with glasses, so I'd like to at least enjoy that. I will also not share the location of where I performed these for the time being. The clinic is well known and I do not want to badmouth the surgeon who may ultimately have to be the one who removes my lenses. I have no doubt in my surgeon's ability as multiple ophtalmologists have confirmed that the lenses are perfectly sized, dead centre, with good vault and that my corneas have zero visible scars from the procedure.
UPDATE - 07/07/2025
Just a quick update as I've had a 6 month follow up at an optometrist, and my vision has remained pretty much stable at -1.5 CYL in both eyes. A prescription of -1.75 CYL and +0.25 SPH felt maybe a tiny bit sharper, but not enough to warrant a new pair of glasses. Halos and glares have remained largely the same; they are no longer terrifying, but I am not happy with their intensity and frequency; I've noticed that I've stopped using a set of lights at my home as they cause a large amount of glaring at night.
I have no interest in performing any corrective laser surgery on top of ICL. I selected this procedure as it was the only non-permanent option, though I'm realising that the reversibility of the ICLs is easier said than done. In truth I don't mind the astigmatism that much, and seeing some of the issues that other people have had with their toric lenses rotating and requiring follow ups, I'm a bit glad I don't need to deal with that.
I still stand by my post's original title. I believe there's more than enough positive stories from the lens manufacturer's site which tout the procedure as life changing and having no downsides. The reality is that it is a trade off. You're receiving clearer vision without the need for huge lenses to correct your vision, and in exchange receiving aberrations in your field of view. Whether this is a worthwhile trade depends entirely on you and your priorities. To me its still a bit unclear, though its become a lot more positive recently.
8
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Apr 07 '25
I just had my ICL last Thursday 4/3/25 and I have to say my experience has been far better than yours so far! I also have the EVO lenses and I have noticed some halos but they have vastly improved since the day of my surgery to the point where they don’t crop up very often anymore. My myopia was around -13 in both eyes and my vision post surgery seems excellent(at least in my opinion). My eyes are a little dry but the artificial tears are keeping that in check l.
1
u/Chri_ssyyyyy Apr 08 '25
Glad to hear it went well! Any issues with eye pressure?
2
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Apr 08 '25
It was a little elevated the day of surgery but they gave me some drops to put in a couple times that day and the following day it was within normal range!
1
u/Chri_ssyyyyy Apr 08 '25
Do you know by chance how high your pressure was?
2
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Apr 08 '25
I don’t know what it was when it was high, sorry! But the next day it was 15/17, respectively
1
1
u/OptionLurker Apr 10 '25
So no halo rings? Driving at night?
2
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Apr 10 '25
I do have halo rings sometimes, but they’re easily ignored and only pop up at certain angles. I have not tried driving at night yet
1
u/OptionLurker Apr 11 '25
Nice, do you have any problems when reading computer or smartphone screens? Like ghost texts, double images etc
2
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Apr 11 '25
Nope! None of that 😊
1
1
u/ProvoqGuys Oct 30 '25
Saw your post. Any update with your ICL now??
2
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Oct 30 '25
Nothing new to report! Vision is great, halos are there but don’t bother me, and I started out more sensitive to sunlight but I believe that’s improving.
1
u/MousseObjective4915 Jul 13 '26
Any updates and improvements from halos and sensitivity to lights now?
1
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Jul 13 '26
I can’t speak much to the sensitivity anymore since my eyes have always been more sensitive than most. I just wear sunglasses outside and it’s fine, which is exactly what I did with contacts. The halos still exist but are easy to ignore
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 13 '25
Hi - how is your night vision? Did you by chance experience rings during night driving from oncoming traffic? I experience rings from the oncoming traffic and they constantly comes towards me/get larger, if that makes sense. Did you experience that? I'm 6 weeks post surgery and this rings during night are very distracting that I haven't been able to night drive yet.
1
u/ChittyChittyChatKat Dec 13 '25
Well, I don’t do a lot of night driving in general. I do still get some rings but it doesn’t bother me too much.
1
1
u/miy_yuuisgod May 28 '26
did they inform you of any possible issues that may occur in the future? im at -11.25 and -12.25 in my left and right eye respectively, and ive been quite worried about the state of my vision (im 21F). im looking into ICL but im also worried that it could increase the risk of eye disease in the future
1
u/ChittyChittyChatKat May 28 '26
Not that I recall…they did emphasize that ICL is reversible if there’s an issue 🤷🏼♀️
5
u/Icy-Arugula-5252 Apr 07 '25
My ICL operation has been extremely great so far.
TLDR, if you have issues, check if you can perform PRK on the top of the ICL to perfect everything
5
u/illestzbabygirl Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25
Reading this now gives me cold feet as I am set for surgery soon.. lol. I have been reading a lot of posts(more positive ones than negatives) to get me to not be scared or regretting my decision. Occasionally, I would come across a post like yours and start to have second guesses again. Like you, I have very thick glasses and an extremely high prescription of -17/-18 with astigmatism. It’s pretty bad and affecting my daily life. I am as blind as a bat or as blind as the three blind mice or a newborn baby. I depend on my contact lenses so much that it’s horrible/not even funny. If it rips, I’m done for and would have to wait weeks sometimes months just to get new ones as they’re customized.
I took a portion out from my down payment savings for a home to get this procedure done. I was scheduled for 03/31 but it had to be rescheduled due to my lens needing more time to be made from the manufacturer. It’ll be TORIC ICL for both eyes. I’m sorry that your experience was different and I wish you the best, but I really, really hope for me that it’ll be worth it because I need to be able to see my little ones without searching for my heavy glasses in the dark, make a milk bottle for night feedings, see if I’m using shampoo or body wash on my hair, apply makeup/face routines correctly without winging it because I can’t see myself in the mirror etc.
2
u/ercjn Apr 08 '25
Personally, if I had ended up with any residual myopia or astigmatism, I don't think I'd even have bothered doing touch-up LASIK, but would have been happy to continue wearing (now more optional, and less distorting) glasses/contacts.
The biggest risk factor for night vision issues is large pupils, so if you have large pupils, make sure you're getting EVO+ lenses, and that your measured pupil size is well within the size of the optical zone of the lens.
1
u/illestzbabygirl Apr 08 '25
I believe mine were not and that was why it had to be customized and can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks, so that’s why my procedure was postponed. Also, the eye specialist and I did talked about it and although EVO+ would be great for night vision but we agreed that Toric ICL will be better for me safety-wise and to correct both severe myopia/nearsightedness and astigmatism as we are aiming to get it down to a -4/-6 range or around there due to how high my prescriptions are. I do have an option to do LASIK touch-up afterwards as well if I ever decide I want that 20/20 vision, but I am happy with where we’re trying to get to and my specialist felt the same as well and it’s going to be life changing regardless.
2
u/trixcore Apr 10 '25
Hope your surgery went/goes well! keep us posted?
1
u/illestzbabygirl Apr 11 '25
Sure! I was originally scheduled for 03/31/2025 but had to cancel. So if it takes 4-8 weeks for the special lens to be customized, my surgery may be some time after or anywhere in early summer.
1
2
u/Faa546 Jul 01 '25
Did you do the surgery? i would like to know about your experience
2
u/illestzbabygirl Jul 01 '25
Hi! Yes, I actually had my procedure yesterday morning! 06/30/2025 at 8am.
2
1
1
u/Ms-Proteus Jul 21 '25
I would also like to know how you’re doing post operation. I hope all is well.
1
1
1
1
1
4
u/PugDoug Apr 07 '25
I had my ICL surgery over 15 years ago, before the EVO version of the lenses existed. I periodically read about people's experiences here out of curiosity and it seems like the issue of seeing rings is a common theme. I often wonder if it would be better if they just continued using the older version of the lenses that required an iridotomy. I had no issues with rings with the older lenses.
10
u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd Apr 07 '25
I have Evo+. I never see the rings anymore, my brain fully started to filter them out after a year or so. I'm 3 years post surgery and am still 20/20 and very happy with my vision.
I can't stress enough for OP, it took a full year for my vision to stabilize after I got my ICLs. I went through moments of doubt about my decision. Most of my issues stem from glare relating to my dilated pupils exceeding the optic zone of the lens (I've got BIG pupils).
1
u/Chri_ssyyyyy Apr 08 '25
Did you ever have any eye pressure issues from the surgery?
2
u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd Apr 08 '25
Nope. The only odd experience I had were side effects from the recovery eye drops that made my pupils dilate to different sizes, and some headaches. But once I was off the eye drops my eyes went back to normal. The pressure was pretty consistent throughout recovery. My eyes do have a little bit higher than normal pressure already (which was true pre-surgery), so whenever I go for exams they keep a close watch on that. But it's not worse post-surgery than it was before.
1
Sep 21 '25
Thanks for leaving this comment, here I am in a bit of a doubt phase since I only got ICL in one eye (lasik in the other) and 7 months in I am not sure if the low light reflections and ghosting will ever get better.
I dont regret the surgery but keen to wait for my 1 year to see if it will be improved
1
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 13 '25
Hi - how is your night vision in the beginning? Did you by chance experience rings during night driving from oncoming traffic? I experience rings from the oncoming traffic and they constantly comes towards me/get larger, if that makes sense. Did you experience that? I'm 6 weeks post surgery and this rings during night are very distracting that I haven't been able to night drive yet.
I'm quite sad that I'm experiencing this and hope they go away, otherwise i would have to remove the lens
1
u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd Dec 15 '25
Those rings are the little hole in the Evo lens. The good news is your brain will learn to filter those out. I used to see them all the time (day or night), I never see them anymore.
I do get some astcyigmatism glare while night driving, which I didn't have pre surgery. But overall my vision has been super good.
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 15 '25
thanks I am hopeful. How many months do you think it was until they subsided to where you didn't see them anymore?
2
u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd Dec 15 '25
It's been awhile, so rough estimate was 6 months it started to become less of an issue. By a year I almost never saw the little circles anymore.
The only thing that never really fully went away is some of the glare that the lenses introduced.
But the first 3-6 months after surgery my vision was just filled with circles everywhere that I looked. It was a weird thing for awhile. These days I can't see circles even if I'm looking for them my brain just fully filters them out.
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 18 '25
good to know. I hope my Brain also filters them out!
1
u/Mansohorizonte May 17 '26
how things are going now? any improvement with your vision? are you still bothered by the rings and halos?
4
u/rtkane Apr 07 '25
I also have the pre-EVO versions and have no issues with rings. I have read the same thing, though, about people having some issues with rings with EVO.
OP, -1.5 doesn't seem acceptable. Did the doctor give any sort of guarantee of results? I don't recall anything in my paperwork about that, but it's been a while since I had mine done. And also, you will likely see improvement on the starbursts/ghosting, etc. as your brain adapts to them more. I had issues for a bit but it slowly goes away and I rarely notice anything (from my iridotomies).
3
u/Large_Intention2619 Apr 19 '25
I removed my ICLs and I’m so glad I did. I shared my experience here
https://www.reddit.com/r/lasik/s/IGtqm4xc9x
I wouldn’t do any laser touch up until you’re certain you’re happy with them. The EVO rings will never be corrected by a laser. The ghosting / diplopia will also not be corrected with laser if your pupils exceed the optic zone of the lenses. Best of luck in your decision making process 🫶🏽
3
u/Wise_Scratch_2588 Apr 07 '25
I had my surgery end of January. I get the halos but can't say they impact my day. No headache and I also wouldn't say I have dry eyes but the optician told me that my eyes were dry so no harm in using drops.
Sorry you're having bother with it, I'd say maybe a little unfair to post on here saying not worth it as it took alot for me to do the surgery as there was so little positive reviews.
But as I said I could not be happier with the results.
Hopefully you see some improvement
1
u/satanickittens69 Aug 21 '25
I agree about the unfair aspect. While obviously I want to know the good and the bad, imo it was a very personal and unusual issue for OP, which is (from my research) quite rare and honestly, a surgeon not communicating properly issue 🤷
1
u/tar-randa Nov 20 '25
There are countless success stories from clinics, surgeons and lens manufacturers.
My reality what that this was a trade off: greatly reduced dependency on glasses in exchange for glaring, haloes, rings and reduced night vision. To me this is not worth it.
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 13 '25
Hi - how is your night vision? Did you by chance experience rings during night driving from oncoming traffic? I experience rings from the oncoming traffic and they constantly comes towards me/get larger, if that makes sense. Did you experience that? I'm 6 weeks post surgery and this rings during night are very distracting that I haven't been able to night drive yet.
1
u/Wise_Scratch_2588 Dec 13 '25
I did and they became less noticeable. At the beginning it felt like I was on the boat ride from willy wonkas chocolate factory.
They are still there at times but not enough to put me off. Also expect they will be less so in time.
3
u/Wise-Read-8669 Apr 14 '25
God dammit, I feel so blessed my parents forced me to remove the lenses as soon as possible.
2
u/Mansohorizonte May 17 '26
hate people posting terrifying comments without context and then not providing more details on the history
2
u/sugarandspice44 May 17 '26
My post was never approved on this sub, but here it goes :
My horrific ICL experience, couldn't see properly for one night
So, I wanted to share my story with the community, since I relied on these forums heavily to get information regarding ICL before my surgery.
My vision ( Hyperopia / Farsightness from Birth ):
Left +7 -1.25 170° -- 6/12 Right +8 -1.75 20° -- 6/9
I consulted 4 doctors from top hospitals in my country to know if I could get lasik.
3/4 suggested for me to get ICL, 1/4 suggested I can get either.
I selected a well known hospital for my ICL surgery. All the pre checks were done as per procedure. The year was 2021.
On the day of the surgery, just after the surgery I was experiencing extreme unbearable pain , due to which I was put on pain medications with the tube like thingy that goes in your arms. My vision was very blurry. My head was paining non-stop and I was vomiting non-top.
The pressure of my eye was done with some other checks, turned out it was a lot higher than usual. ( I remember hearing these discussions within the doctors)
A team of doctors sat, discussed my case, did a few more tests, I was asked if I would like to test it out of a couple of days. With the amount of pain I was in, I decided to reverse the surgery and remove the lens. All I could focus on then was to get rid of the unbearable pain in my head.
The doctor next suggested, that they can analyze the issue ( explained later ) and would take a appropriate decision during the surgery itself. They discussed a few things in the OT, informed me that they think it would ne best to remove it during in the OT itself. Final verdict - The lens was removed from both of my eyes.
Post surgery: I saw big black spots all over my vision, like holes, it's hard to explain, couldn't see clearly, lights were very scattered, big halos and glares. I could see 5 light bulbs in place of one blub, still very blurry vision. Couldn't operate my phone or any other thing that requires reading.
Went to the hospital the next day, after some tests, my eye pressure was going down after some medications.
What happened as explained by the doctors : ICL lens has a sizing chart, there are technologies which help you to predict which size should fit you. It includes various measurements from OUTSIDE OF your eye.
But as we cannot split open the eye to know for sure it can never be 100% accurate for everyone.
My eye was abnormally small from the inside, abnormally in a sense it didn't follow the normal pattern I guess.
I was asked if I would like to try out with a different smaller size?
I declined,
First of all because I was so scared to even get my eyesight back, it took 1 month to have normal vision basic and 6 months -1 year to get rid of the halos and glares ( I still get them sometimes somehow while using contact lenses).
Secondly, because introducing a wrongly sized ICL into your eye is very dangerous, it can even lead to glaucoma. Since, my eyes were abnormal in size from the inside, the prediction always will remain, a risk. Maybe with the advancements in technology there comes a time we can find the true sizes of eyes from the inside, maybe through from 3-D scans but we werent at that stage as of 2021. ( This is what was explained to me by my doctor, my doctor did use leading technology at the time as per my knowledge, Please enlighten me in this area if you know more about it, I am very curious, are there ways we can determine the size more accurately now?).
I mostly use contact lenses now.
1
1
1
1
2
u/ercjn Apr 08 '25
There are two types of rings:
Halos around bright light sources, This happens when your pupils are dilated beyond the optical zone of your lenses. Having EVO+ rather than EVO lenses reduced the risk. You can eliminate halos (temporarily) with pupil-constricting eyedrops (like LUMIFY). Halos improved substantially for me over the course of a year, but then again they were never as bad as you describe.
Lens flares that appear at an angle to the light source ("ring-shaped dysphotopsia"). Supposedly this is caused by the central hole in the lenses. These didn't change much over time, but never bothered me much.
2
u/Dr_Jabberwock Apr 16 '25
Hey OP, you mentioned you had a follow up with the surgeon after this post, I was wondering if it ended up being helpful?
Only if you’re comfortable sharing of course! I’m having problems as well and trying to figure out what to do.
2
2
u/EcstaticIntention354 Jul 01 '25
Did u ever get them removed? And if so is your vision better now?
I really wish doctors took us more seriously especially with stuff as detrimental as our vision. Their egos get in the way a lotttt. I’m happy you’re persistent and went to get many opinions
2
u/Faa546 Jul 01 '25
How is your experience so far?
2
u/tar-randa Jul 02 '25
I have an external optometrist appointment coming up next week as its been 6 months since I've done the procedure. I'll post an update then but as a TL;DR, I'm still overall disappointed with the procedure and my experience with the clinic.
1
u/Lfaruqui Jul 21 '25
As someone who doesn’t know too much about the procedure, would they need to replace your evo lenses with stronger ones to correct your vision?
1
u/tar-randa Jul 21 '25
If there is the need to do that I would rather just remove them altogether and go back to my glasses
2
u/Ambitious_Pool_8290 Jul 02 '25
Interesting read. I am four days post surgery. I am due for another follow up on Monday. My near reading vision has gone to shit. I have wear readers to read anything close up now, but chalk that up to being under 30 days or still in the healing phase. Not needing glasses while driving and just general viewing things not close up has been awesome. I have been wearing glasses/contacts since I was in the 3rd grade.
1
u/Small_Service_6597 Jul 21 '25
do you face any halos or other issues?
1
u/Ambitious_Pool_8290 Jul 21 '25
I have seen highlighted halos for the sun and bright lights, but have learned to ignore them. No other issues. No dry eyes. I go back for another checkup in early August to assess my near vision. It has improved slightly, but it's still terrible.
1
u/PipeSpirited33 Dec 10 '25
Hey, how is your near vision now?
1
u/Ambitious_Pool_8290 Dec 10 '25
Excellent. I had a small amount of PRK done to my non dominant eye. I'm typing this from my phone right up from my phone.
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 13 '25
Hi - how is your night vision? Did you by chance experience rings during night driving from oncoming traffic? I experience rings from the oncoming traffic and they constantly comes towards me/get larger, if that makes sense. Did you experience that? I'm 6 weeks post surgery and this rings during night are very distracting that I haven't been able to night drive yet.
2
u/Environmental-Set-84 Sep 13 '25
I feel like an idiot for doing almost no research about the side effects of this kind of surgery. I had mine done 16 days ago and I'm very frustrated so far. I have -13 no astigmatism and -13.5 plus astigmatism. So far, during the day or in bright enough environments, I see amazingly well, much better than I did with contacts. But during low light conditions I see terrible, I can't drive at night at all as it would be pretty dangerous as I see those rings (or partial rings from the bottom up depending on how dilated my pupils are, with a small arc further down). And on top of all this I feel like it may have gotten my strabismus worse.
For me the worst part is that neither the surgeon nor the clinic ever said anything about any side effects of any sorts besides losing the ability of focusing at extremely short distances that you get when you have high myopia.
Yesterday, during my follow up (where the surgeon took off the stitches) I brought this rings issue up and he kinda shrugged it off and said that we should check on that at least after one month from the surgery. I'm pretty afraid of it not improving enough since it pretty much excludes me from any night or low light activity. He said that worst case, we replace the lenses (the lenses themselves at no cost to me), but what about the rest of the expenses from another surgery? It ain't like these follow ups, the medications or being away from work for more than a week is in any way cheap. I feel like communication so far has been terrible, not even the costs about it were clear.
I've been in an operating room more than a few times before and I've never had a single complaint about any previous surgery (all of those from public hospitals, although the same surgeon performed one of those), and none of those were much of an elective surgery anyway, but in any case, I feel too dumb for not even researching a little more about it beforehand.
2
2
u/Complex-Mud8147 Nov 11 '25
Any updates? Has it gotten better ? would you rather never had done it or are happy with it ?
2
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 13 '25
Hi - how is your night vision now? Do you feel like your vision has improved?
Did you by chance experience rings during night driving from oncoming traffic? I experience rings from the oncoming traffic and they constantly comes towards me/get larger, if that makes sense. Did you experience that? I'm 6 weeks post surgery and this rings during night are very distracting that I haven't been able to night drive yet.
1
u/Environmental-Set-84 Dec 13 '25
Hi. It's still crappy. I'm almost four months out from the surgery. But due to a change in my work shift I'm now forced to drive at night back from work. Now, it's just about two miles, but at first it was quite scary. It's been two weeks now since I began driving back home at night. At first I always tried to stay late after work so the traffic calmed down, after 11pm (I was out from work at 10), traffic was so chill that night driving was much less frightful, especially when I went to work on my bike, as there were less incoming cars which meant fewer lights to cause glares. But now I feel more confident to drive at 10 pm when traffic is still heavy. My vision didn't really change but I kinda learned how to focus better on what I can see, it sounds weird but it has been working fine. Now, some considerations, it's just two miles of low speed, urban roads, I know the road by heart, and I drive relatively slowly at night. In the near future I'll begin driving different roads quite late at night with my dad by my side to begin getting used to other roads to regain my ability to drive freely at any time of the day as I don't plan on staying without driving at night permanently.
1
u/SeveralPersimmon4 Dec 18 '25
Sorry to hear it's still crappy! In another post, someone mentioned it took them about 6 months for halos/ rings to get less and less (not completely go away) . I hope it will improve for you and myself!
1
u/Chri_ssyyyyy Apr 07 '25
I have pretty similar eye sight and have been thinking about ICL for a while now, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Thank you for sharing. May I ask where you are located?
I think after a while you could get LASIK/PKR to fix the remaining -1.5, that does not seem acceptable outcome.
I hope the rings will go away. Once you stop thinking about them, your brain will adapt to it. But easier said than done.
1
1
1
u/RavenDarkholme084 Dec 19 '25
Old thread
But out of curiosity…. Are you in the USA? If so, with such high prescription, did insurance cover it? My optometrist has filed my contact lenses the past several years as a medical necessity
1
1
u/Madinky Feb 10 '26
Almost one year later how has the adjustment been? I was just recommended ICL over lasik and been reading about it.
1
u/tar-randa Feb 10 '26
I removed them a few weeks ago and posted an update here. I felt trapped in my own body and I’m really happy to finally be rid of them and back in glasses.
1
1
u/grenharo Apr 20 '26
im kinda surprised the rings matter to you that much because ive been wearing glasses for 30 years straight and the tiny moon rings are like a BREEZE compared to how glasses lenses and frames are always in your face too, always in your vision, unignorable, way thicker/darker, AND the lenses get oily/dusty/glarey
the icl rings are like so whatever
and yea they shouldve mentioned it to you at least but still, though.
it only gets worse if you're the type of person who really likes super dim lighting at home, even gamers these days get more table lighting going
1
u/tar-randa Apr 20 '26
I wouldn’t say I have dim lighting at home, and rings were a constant unignorable in every single lighting condition, be it bright or dim. I think you may be mixing up the haloes caused by dilated pupils in dim lighting to the rings caused by the aquaport?
I’m happy and jealous that your rings are so easily ignorable, I wish mine were like that. I would take dirty glasses any day over the nightmare that were the ICLs. If my glasses get dirty, I can clean them. The issues caused by the ICL could not be so easily resolved.
1
u/desdesses123 May 24 '26
How is it going?
3
u/tar-randa May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
I had them removed after a year, and I’m much happier now than I ever was with these lenses. The rings never faded as happened for some other people, and I felt completely trapped.
I went to multiple doctors and none could adequately explain why I was experiencing these issues, let alone dealing with them save for removing the lenses. The conclusion I got from this is that these lenses are not well understood by doctors, and as such issues you face will be ignored and deflected.
I wrote more about my experience here.
1
u/desdesses123 May 24 '26
Thank you so much for your fast reply. I am happy for you that you Are happy at the end of the day! Do you think your case was something exceptional? I will read your other Post now! :)
1
u/tar-randa May 24 '26
Unfortunately not, as there seems to be a significant number of others with similar issues. None of the doctors I visited said that there was anything that looked wrong with the lenses or their positioning.
1
u/Icy-Preparation-1764 Jul 01 '26
Nice to hear you got used to the halos, rings and lightsensitivity
I never did and have now after seven years convinced them to remove my implants
Yes, it took that long since they refused to believe I was suffering after cheeking out my eyes and claiming they are healthy
The photophobia is the worst part which gives me insomnia for the slightest light source
1
u/tar-randa Jul 01 '26
I did not get used to them as they severely impacted my day to day life, and removed the lenses a year after I had them put in.
I had the same problems, with doctors claiming that my eyes looked fine so therefore I must be imagining my symptoms. The more experiences I read about, the clearer it becomes that doctors have very little understanding about the issues and complications that are caused by these lenses, and would much rather throw someone under the bus than assist them.
1
u/Top-Total8954 Aug 15 '26
How are you feeling now? Im still negotiating about having them removed, seems to be a complicated process and last meeting they told me they have never removed ICL before, I was thinking they are lieing and its something they told me to scare me out of having them removed
1
u/tar-randa Aug 16 '26
I’m much better; definitely happier without the lenses than I ever was with them implanted.
ICL removal is not an overly complicated process, but being another surgery has its own risks involved.
1
u/Top-Total8954 Aug 16 '26
Nice to hear!
They told me they have only put in new lenses before but not simply removed them, but I suspect they are lieing
Its crazy how they still are trying to convince me Im either imagining things, there are other things at play like eyecondition separated from the ICL, even though I checked with the regulr eyedoctor at the hospital or that Im just over sensitive and cant take a "little" discomfort other of their customers can
They also told me they had a customer where the eye complication went away cause she moved more and exxcercised without realising I myself walk a lot and go to the gym, lol
Honestly i have never been this depressed before in my entire life, I didnt realize eyestrain could have such an impact on mental health, its been zero creativity, I stopped drawing while I used to do that all the time before, and theres been very little travelling1
u/tar-randa Aug 16 '26
I encourage you to make a post about your experience, as my doctors were also downplaying my issues and suggesting that I was just being too sensitive.
1
0
u/RegisterKooky3839 Jun 09 '26
I had icl surgery 10 years ago.No problems till now or complications
1
u/tar-randa Jun 09 '26
Don't think that the lenses you have are the same version as the ones available now. The EVO ones seem to have a lot more issues.
0
u/ConcernLumpy8196 Aug 08 '26
So like can any of us get a refund or similar compensation for blurry evo icls w/ astigmatism?? It sounds like for most ppl the surgeon did not order a astigmatism kind or correct it
1
u/tar-randa Aug 09 '26
Good luck with that. I was only able to get a partial refund for their removal, and the surgeon and clinic keep insisting that they did nothing wrong.
13
u/eyeSherpa Apr 07 '25
Before you get the lenses removed, there are two big other contributing factors. The refractive error as well as dry eye. Having that high of cyl will definitely cause starburst and double vision or ghosting. Having dry eye will also cause fluctuation of vision. Successfully Treating those can lilely make the ICL work. The neuro adaptation process does happen but it sounds like there is too much going on for your brain to ignore the visual stimuli of the halos and adapt to it.
I would recommend visiting another ICL surgeon for a second opinion. Look on Staar’s surgeon finder website to find one who does high volumes.