Your Cataract Isn’t Causing Straight Lines to Be Wavy

Has an optometrist said your cataract is causing your warped vision, seeing straight lines bent or wavy? Get a second opinion! I was misdiagnosed.

I was told by the optometrist that I had a cataract in my left eye.

When asked if this was the cause of my “warped vision,” she said yes.

I had wanted to see an ophthalmologist, due to my vision being hazy and slightly distorted lately.

I was also seeing ghost images of objects that were slightly offset from them.

These symptoms were only in my left eye.

My health plan told me that the standard procedure for an eye health exam was to be seen by an optometrist. So I made the appointment.

ChatGPT Gave Wrong Information, Too

Prior to the eye appointment, I had asked ChatGPT if cataracts could cause warped vision, to see straight lines or objects (such as a door frame) as bent or curving. It said yes. And it said it with a long sentence.

For example, if I covered my right eye, I’d see lines of text as wavy rather than in a straight horizontal line. The letters would also be blurry.

However, when this was combined with vision from my right eye, the waviness was not visible. Instead, objects would have ghost images slightly offset from them.

This happened prevalently with text on a computer screen and small objects such as a spray bottle, desk lamp base, top of a pen in a jar, a bowl or glass, etc.

I Had a Cataract, but the Optometrist Missed Something Else

I was diagnosed with a mild to moderate cataract in the left eye. As mentioned, the optometrist attributed my warped vision to this cloudy area on my lens.

She said I’d eventually need cataract surgery: removal of the lens; replaced with an artificial lens, which would restore normal vision.

Fast-forward three years, when I decided it was time for another eye exam. This time, my PCP put in a referral for an ophthalmologist.

Eye Doctor Got Suspicious When I Mentioned “Warped”

I asked if the cataract could cause “warped” vision, and explained that this was when something that should be straight looked bent.

He clearly stated that a cataract wouldn’t do this; that cataracts only cause haziness or blurriness.

He suspected it could be something related to the macula, and arranged to have a scan of my eyes done.

I was taken to a small room and sat before the scanner. The imaging was brief.

I simply looked into a screen while the tech told me to keep my eye (one at a time) on the center of a glowing star while images were taken.

There were times I was told not to blink, then to blink.

The diagnosis was epiretinal membrane or ERM. It’s pronounced “epi-retinal.”

Why hadn’t the optometrist suspected this?

Once I learned more about ERM, I realized what a no-brainer it should’ve been for the optometrist to suspect.

Anyone with junior high school level awareness could easily suspect ERM after reading a simple pamphlet about it.

All along I had thought the warped vision would disappear with cataract surgery (which I’d been told by the optometrist I’d need within five years).

• Now I know that cataract surgery won’t affect the ERM.
• I’ll need a separate surgery for the ERM – IF it gets worse. The doctor said it may just stay the way it is; there’s no way to predict, though the visual distortion is about the same as it was three years ago.

Right now, it’s tolerable, but annoying. However, I’d actually go for the surgery (local anesthesia, outpatient) if it was absent its very small risk to the optic nerve.

The ophthalmologist sent a referral to my PCP to get me going with the next step: a consultation with a retinal surgeon (the ophthalmologist specializes only in the front of the eye, which excludes the retina).

Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.