One eye done and my glasses now give me a headache. New pair now, or wait for the second op?

Had my right eye done just over two weeks ago and honestly the vision in it is lovely, sharp and bright, no complaints there at all. The problem is my GLASSES.

The second I put them on I get this pulling, off balance feeling, and by early afternoon a proper headache sitting right behind my eyes. But if I take them off, the operated eye is fine and my left eye (still waiting, still cloudy with its cataract) is a foggy mess for anything far away. So I am stuck either way. Glasses on, headache. Glasses off, half blind on the left.

My second op is not booked until the end of June and I cannot face six weeks of this. Do I go to the optical shop and get a whole new pair made up now, or is that just money down the drain because it all changes again after the second eye? Please tell me I am not the only one who ended up in this mess.

You are absolutely not the only one, this caught me out too.

What worked for me: I took my old glasses back and asked them to just take the lens out of the operated side, so I had a frame with the one lens still in for my un-done eye and nothing on the other. Cost me nothing, done in a few minutes, and the headache was gone that same day. A cheap pair of readers from the pharmacy got me through the crossword and the mail.

I would not spend real money on a full new prescription until both eyes are sorted, but wait and see what the mod says, he will know the proper reason it happens.

I did the opposite and regretted it, so learn from me.

After my first eye came out so well I convinced myself I was finished with glasses for good, and I actually threw my old pair in the bin. Big mistake. The operated eye was set for distance so I still needed readers for anything close, and my second eye was still weeks off and useless without its correction. So there I was with no glasses at all and one working eye.

Do not throw anything out until you are well past the second op and things have settled down. I found that out the expensive way.

Quick tag on question for whoever answers this one. Is it actually safe to be driving like this in the gap? I have got one crisp new eye and one cloudy old one and I keep wondering whether I am even legal, or whether that big difference between the two eyes is going to catch me out on the highway after dark.

Short version first: in most cases it is not worth paying for a full new prescription during the gap between the two eyes, because those numbers will change again once the second eye is done and has settled, usually around 4 to 6 weeks after that second operation. Buying a temporary pair now often means paying twice.

The headache several of you describe has a name. After one eye is corrected and the other still carries its cataract and its old prescription, the two eyes can be left several diopters apart. That mismatch is called anisometropia, and when the two eyes also form images of noticeably different sizes it is called aniseikonia. As a rough guide, each diopter of difference shifts the image size by roughly 1 to 2 percent, and once the gap passes about 2 to 3 diopters many people can no longer comfortably fuse the two pictures. The brain pays for that effort with eye strain and exactly the behind-the-eyes ache by early afternoon that started this thread.

The cheap fixes already mentioned are the sensible ones: have the lens taken out of the operated side of your existing frame, or use an inexpensive pair of off the shelf readers for close work. Some people who already wear contact lenses bridge the gap with a single lens in the un-operated eye instead, which sidesteps the image-size problem better than spectacles do, though that is a conversation for your own optometrist. There is more on the eyewear side of it in the piece on glasses after cataract surgery.

On the driving question: the thing that matters is the legal vision standard where you live and whether you meet it, not how your two eyes compare against each other. If your operated eye on its own comfortably clears the standard you may well be fine, but a large imbalance, heavy glare at night, or any real doubt is a reason to get checked rather than guess, and to hold off on night driving until you feel steady.

The exceptions worth naming: if your second operation is a long way off, if you only ever plan to have the one eye done, or if the imbalance is genuinely disabling day to day, then a proper temporary correction (sometimes with a prism built in, sometimes a contact lens) can earn its cost. Your surgeon can also often bring the second date forward when the gap is causing real trouble, which the article on having the second eye done covers. None of this replaces someone measuring your actual eyes, so take the specifics to your own optometrist or surgeon.

june1949 said:

take the lens out of the operated side

Update for anyone who lands here later. I did exactly what june1949 suggested and had them pop the lens out of the operated side of my old frame, free, five minutes, and the headache is honestly gone.

I also called the clinic and once I explained how much the imbalance was throwing me off, they managed to move my second eye up by nearly three weeks. So no new glasses bought, no money wasted, and an earlier date into the bargain. Thank you all, this thread genuinely talked me down off the ledge.