LASIK

[mxlr650]

To give an idea of my current state, I've never had glasses and although my vision is definitely no longer 20/20 I get by. I can read. I can shoot and hit what I aim at but I do seem to be the last one in the group to be able to read a street sign. If I actually got glasses or contacts, it wouldn't be worth it to me to wear them, so that's why I still have "natural eyes". So that's the state of my vision. On the other hand, I do realize that my vision is not as clear as it could be. In that sense it is kinda silly to go through life in a slight blur.

Favorite tactic of most eye doctors is to prescribe stronger prescription since reading blurry text is not a natural tendency - one can train easily as it is a very useful visual habit to have. DW wears eye glasses only when absolutely needed and resorts to reading blurry text rest of the time – this has served her well and her prescription changes every 4 years or so. I have been fortunate to have good eyesight in spite of 20+ years of computer overuse. My eye doctor has been pushing me to wear glasses (selling me on how easy it is to read fine print, relaxed eye theory etc) – I finally gave up two years ago, and got glasses that insurance covers so I paid zero and never used it (he was happy to have made few bucks). He pushes it ever other year (he knows the insurance game) and I got glasses this year again and never used it. I hope to escape the cave with my eye sight hopefully intact in an year and might not touch computers for an year as a kind of rehab therapy.

IMO, LASIK is too drastic. If you can live with wearing glasses only when absolutely needed, you should be able to survive for many years. If you intend to read for rest of your life, it may be a good idea to save surgery for later. Here are some things that helped me to stay ahead of the game. I bought a projector 6 years ago that increased the viewing distance while I worked at home. These days HDMI TV are excellent option to drastically increase viewing distance. Most programs have large font settings so there is very little need for reading fine print. Touch pad and increased brightness of the monitor should help as well. If you can get used to reading while walking around, presentation remotes can be of great help to browse (I used to like Gyration mouse when they were the only game in town but now there are much better options).

I remember reading about Alaskan tribe where only one dude had eye issue and he was the bookkeeper

[Ian]

I considered it, but apparently given my vision I would likely still need glasses for many things, and so to me it's pointless. Plus, considering that I can probably get multiple pairs of glasses free or nearly free via health care, I probably won't need to pay anything for glasses until my eyes weaken of old age.

[theprincereturns]

I have between 20/30 and 20/40 vision (has been stable for the last 10 years, and is just good enough to pass the drivers test without glasses). I looked into LASIK but was basically told that they don't do it on people with vision as good as mine because the risks outweigh the benefits I would get.

If you want to try glasses (at a low cost), try www.zennioptical.com as they sell unbranded versions a lot of the popular styles for very good price (a pair of frames and lenses average me about $35 and last for 2-4 years before I or my kids scratch them up too much). They also don't require that you have an "updated" prescription in the last year or two which pretty much every retail place requires.

[wtjbatman]

I am scheduled to undergo LASIK this Thursday. As of right now, I am legally blind. My uncorrected vision is worse than 20/200. Without my glasses, I can't just "not see the E at the top of the chart", I don't know where the chart is. Literally, when that happened in my LASIK exam last week, my girlfriend gasped and said she didn't realize just how bad my vision was without glasses or contacts. Just to clear up a couple misconceptions in this thread, LASIK is not the same as some of the other procedures mentioned, such as PRK. LASIK heals a lot faster and is much less painful than PRK. Or so I'm told anyway, after all I haven't gotten the procedure done yet. But to give you an idea of how well they expect the procedure to work, like I pointed out I am legally blind. I am schedule to get LASIK Thursday afternoon. Friday morning I have an appointment to have my eyes checked out, and they told me I will be able to drive myself to that appointment, and with no need of glasses.

I'm getting my LASIK done through a major health organization. They told me their organization's satisfaction rate for LASIK is over 98% (the percentage of people who are happy with the results of their LASIK), and they have had exactly 0 accidents or failures. I didn't ask for proof, I took their word for it.

After my LASIK and during my recovery I will come back to this thread and post updates. Hopefully those updates are positive and eye opening (get it?).

[saving-10-years]

After my LASIK and during my recovery I will come back to this thread and post updates.

The very best of luck with this surgery. I will be crossing fingers and hoping for a great result as I am giving this serious consideration. I will be *fascinated* to hear the outcome. Before I retired I was so reliant upon sight that I felt that I could not take this risk, but this thread has opened up a little hope that I could have sight which only needs a little additional correction (e.g. simple inexpensive reading glasses vs. current expensive and restricted choice in high index complex prescriptions). Wow.

I would also not be able to distinguish an optician's wall chart from any other white blur with random spots on it. My prescription is (from memory) -12 in one eye and -11 in the other. Impressed? In the UK this qualifies me for free eye tests because my sight is so poor.

Thanks for posting.

[Riggerjack]

Apparently indigenous people have zero eye problems and perfect vision. Hearing too.

sounds like natural selection at work, there.

I have 20/25 vision in one eye, 20/20 in the other, and I have glasses. I don't always wear them, but they are fairly nice. With them, I have easy 20/15 vision, I can see like when I was a kid, high definition eyes, why not?

With transitions coating, I even have sunglasses always with me.

I encourage all my friends with marginal vision to get glasses, just to see if you like em. I've had 1/2 a dozen pairs, and Costco has been the best place I've found for getting the fit right. My favorite pair are titanium frameless glasses. So light, all the others seem heavy.

If your eyesight isn't incentive enough for glasses, I'd certainly think it wouldn't be enough for surgery.

[Chad]

On a side note, one of my college friends and I joked that if we lived in caveman times we would have had to team up to survive. Me being virtually blind and him having asthma. He would have had to direct me as I ran through the grass at the standard herd animal and then yell which way to through the spear. It's funnier in person. And, yes, I realize he probably doesn't have asthma 10,000 years ago.

[WalletEngineers]

Hi all,
Long-time lurker. Signed up just to post.

Wallet Engineer #1 here - I got LASIK in January of 2013. I've been blind as a bat since third grade, so I had no recollection of what being sighted was like while growing up. I tried contacts on several occasions and hated them.

I can now see 20/20. I read 20/15 a few times, but I wouldn't say that's what my vision is.

When I wake up in the morning I can see. Everything. I couldn't read my clock three feet away. I couldn't see more than about 4" in front of me and had only met two people with worse eyes than myself (three now). My prescription was -6.25 diopters (nearsighted). I can fall asleep wherever I want to. I wear my sunglasses all the time now. I can wear ski goggles. I can enjoy being on the lake. The list goes on.

I spent a lot on my eyes and had them done by the best (I.E. the guy who trains others to do LASIK). It's not something I would ever risk. For example, my eyes cost more than my car (it's a cheap car, don't get me wrong).

My eyes do get dry. I use eyedrops at least once a day - usually when I wake up. Your vision is worse when your eyes are dry. The first 7-10 months or so you'll use a lot of drops until your eyes are healed up again.

I do have halos which makes night driving a little annoying.

All in all, I wouldn't trade it! I'd do it again for sure. I talked to my eye doctor in high school about Lasik and waited about 8 years to get it done.

[WalletEngineers]

I am scheduled to undergo LASIK this Thursday. As of right now, I am legally blind. My uncorrected vision is worse than 20/200. Without my glasses, I can't just "not see the E at the top of the chart", I don't know where the chart is. Literally, when that happened in my LASIK exam last week, my girlfriend gasped and said she didn't realize just how bad my vision was without glasses or contacts. Just to clear up a couple misconceptions in this thread, LASIK is not the same as some of the other procedures mentioned, such as PRK. LASIK heals a lot faster and is much less painful than PRK. Or so I'm told anyway, after all I haven't gotten the procedure done yet. But to give you an idea of how well they expect the procedure to work, like I pointed out I am legally blind. I am schedule to get LASIK Thursday afternoon. Friday morning I have an appointment to have my eyes checked out, and they told me I will be able to drive myself to that appointment, and with no need of glasses.

I'm getting my LASIK done through a major health organization. They told me their organization's satisfaction rate for LASIK is over 98% (the percentage of people who are happy with the results of their LASIK), and they have had exactly 0 accidents or failures. I didn't ask for proof, I took their word for it.

After my LASIK and during my recovery I will come back to this thread and post updates. Hopefully those updates are positive and eye opening (get it?).

I could read 20/15 the day after. You'll try to read everything, but you'll probably just feel like sleeping. It's friggin' amazing.

[BeyondtheWrap]

You could also just make a pinhole with your hand and look through it to read blurry signs.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04 ... t-glasses/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-em ... /?ALLSTEPS

[wtjbatman]

saving-10-years sent me a PM and reminded me I was supposed to come back here and post. Sorry for forgetting, I originally only registered here because the MMM forums were down for a few days.

I consider the LASIK a huge success. But I'll get the negatives out of the way first. The surgery itself was pretty short, two hours at the facility in total. My eyes were very irritated and blurry for several hours after the surgery. I had to constantly use numbing drops to relieve the pain/irritation. I definitely understand why they have you come with a driver. I'm off the medicated eye drops (an anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic) now, but still need to use natural tear eye drops every few hours to combat eye dryness.

Now for the good parts. By the next morning, I was able to drive myself to the local eye clinic for my first checkup. Keep in mind that before the surgery my eyesight was worse than 20/200 in both eyes. I drove myself (no glasses or contacts!), and found out my vision was already 20/20. Guess I wasn't as lucky as you WalletEngineer Technically it's better than 20/20 in each eye, but due to some adjustments my brain is having to make to my "new" vision, I effectively see at 20/20 when using both eyes. 20/15 in just my left.

In the two weeks since the surgery, the little side effects have subsided. I barely get any night halos, and I'm not particularly light sensitive. Things that, as minor as they are, I'm told will fade even more over the next few months. Same with the eye dryness. It's definitely not as bad as it was just a week ago, and I'm told it will continue to get better over the next few months.

All in all I am 100% satisfied with my decision to get LASIK. It wasn't cheap, but over the long run not only will the cost even out, but I feel my quality of life will be loads better.

[saving-10-years]

@wtjbatman Thanks for dropping in in the first place and for coming back and telling us how it was for you. Glad that it went well and congratulations. Sounds wonderful.

I am getting more serious (brave) about this option for myself. As I pay a lot for my glasses (which need to be glass and very high index to not look like bottle glass lenses) I reckon that the payback on LASIK could be only a few years. With my eyes being not only very near sighted and quite severely aystigmatic and with some long sight issues as I get older I may not have the success that you have had. But I would count it a great success to be able to wear off-the-shelf reading glasses when I need them and be able to see to get around and drive without. I could try swimming again. To understand how embarassing swimming is you have to imagine that you are in a place where you cannot see anyone's features clearly until you are 12 inches from them meaning you end up smiling at the wrong person - complete stranger - while dressed in almost no clothes! Or worse, address a friend who swims towards you as 'Fiona' when his name is 'Martin'. Memorable moments I would have been happy to avoid.

[Rouva]

I got a form of LASIK called FEMTO two years ago. Basically a LASIK for worse sight, a bit more expensive and healing happened quicker compared to my friends who got basic version. My sight was really bad (-9,75 diopters, which meant I mostly saw blobs of different color instead of forms) and glasses cost around 500 - 600 euros. I hoped LASIK would get diopters to -2 or -3 so I wouldn't have to wear glasses in swimming hall shower or sauna to avoid sitting on other people. I can't use contacts.

The surgery was quick and easy. The smell of burning was unpleasant, and my eyes felt itchy for the first hour after surgery. I was able to drink the champagne clinic offered and eat their chocolates, so I felt quite good. After the required hour of waiting at the clinic, I went home on the bus without glasses. The difference was unbelievable. For the first time ever I realized the trees actually look like a collection of separate leaves instead of a green blob on the top of the trunk. I was able to watch TV on the first night after surgery. My husband got LASIK later and he spent the first night in bed, popping paracetamol so I think there might be some actual truth for femto being quicker to heal. I used eye drops for a month, but I didn't need them after that. I was very surprised when I went back to my six month test, and was told that my sight is perfect. No need to wear glasses for anything.

I was 29 when I got the surgery, so I think it actually saves me money in the long run. The cost of surgery was 3000€, so not needing to buy glasses for ten years will make it even. I will need glasses for reading when I get older, but I can buy those from grocery store for five euros. Quality of life is much better. I enjoy not wearing glasses on the gym or swimming. When I wake up at night, I don't need to find glasses to see what time it is.

However, I would not get LASIK done if your sight is only slightly bad. If you are only slightly myopic, the end result might be hyperopic. I know five people, including myself, who went through surgery and two of them didn't get results they hoped for.

[vvorm]

Hi, I haven't read the whole thread but I want to chime in with my experience on this subject. I was myopic for 5 years before it started to get worse. As I didn't know why it got worse I started doing some research on the internet, and got introduced with this website: http://www.iblindness.org/

I have read tons of content about the subject since then and I have been able to figure out a method that works for me, considering I'm a software developer therefore working on a screen pretty much all day. I have started about 3 months ago with -1.75 -1.5. I ditched the glasses except for driving on a bad weather. Nowadays I don't find any need to wear them at all. I have almost recovered 20/20 vision even though it fluctuates depending on environment conditions.

Just to say that you'll find a lot of controversy about the subject of reversing myopia in a natural form but I assure you it works if you apply the correct techniques with the right amount of discipline. As everyone's different, I won't go into the specifics of how I achieved this so feel free to contact me if you feel my story is relevant to yours. I'll probably write a summary on the iblindness forum soon though.

[arebelspy]

I got a form of LASIK called FEMTO two years ago. Basically a LASIK for worse sight, a bit more expensive and healing happened quicker compared to my friends who got basic version. My sight was really bad (-9,75 diopters, which meant I mostly saw blobs of different color instead of forms)

Thanks for the info! My eyesight is around -9.5 to -10, depending on the eye.

For those others with terrible eyesight looking for info on this, apparently it's most commonly called IntraLASIK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IntraLASIK

[saving-10-years]

I recently (March '16) had refractive lens exchange (i.e. cataract style) surgery on both eyes rather than the laser treatment talked about here back in 2014. This seems to be something that is offered more often to myopics (Optical Express in the UK has an offer on currently - although I did not use them). It may be something that others are considering but as it carries a risk of retinal detachment when there is high level of myopia its something that needs careful consideration.

Some context:
* My prescription was pretty extreme (-13 left eye and -10 right eye) plus some long-sightedness (c. +1 correction by glasses)
* I already had early symptoms of cataracts
* My left eye was found to have lost its central field of vision in Aug 2015 because of bleeds in that eye and resultant clots and scars (this happens with high levels of myopia but left eye compensated so not spotted until they covered the good eye for the eye test).
* Post surgery eyes work pretty well and I now am now -3 in left (bad) eye and -1 on the right eye. Borderline good enough to drive without glasses. I find that I can now do without glasses for most social purposes.
* However due to some over-correction I am now less 'short-sighted' than intended so reading requires +1.5 correction. (My surgeon explained that its easier to get it exactly right when its not such a large adjustment (he used a golf putting analogy)).
* Cost was just below £5000. My glasses now cost (at most) less than half previously. If I am being frugal (now that I have wider range of choice in lenses/glasses) its probably going to be less than a quarter the usual cost so payback within 10 years. I also have pre-empted cataract surgery in the future.

[chenda]

Apparently indigenous people have zero eye problems and perfect vision. Hearing too.

sounds like natural selection at work, there.

I expect indigenous people are not exposed to industrial sounds which cause noise-induced hearing loss, which is often overlooked. Its advisable to protect your hearing whenever you're in a noisy environment like a music venue, for its long term retention.

[tommytebco]

One more data point.
I was also gifted with great vision. In my 20's it measured 20/13 or so in both eyes.

In my middle to late 40's I noticed my arms were getting too short, as I would squint to read invoices. So I bought non prescription reading glasses (in the $10 range) I wore them on a string around my neck and popped them on as needed. Strength started at 1.25 and increased to 3.5 or 4.0 by my early 60's. At that time, the high magnification caused some eye strain and distance stuff, without glasses, was getting real foggy.

So, I got prescription bifocal glasses. The prescription has not changed much during the last 13 years.

My philosophy has always been to avoid the knife in all situations where there is an option. Thus, I've never had an operation of any kind.

It's worked well for me.

[saving-10-years]

It must be great to have good vision - mine has been poor since age 8. From what I understand now (ah hindsight!) I'd have been better trying my hardest to avoid relying on glasses - although I would have been classified as having a high level of myopia even then, (the UK Royal National Institute of the Blind classifies as High as anything beyond -6). I ended with vision where I could see clearly at 10cm and things got blurred soon after that.

As someone with extremely high myopia my chance of developing cataracts also goes up (winning all the way) as does the danger of losing sight though damage to the retina. As I have early cataracts I will have to go under the knife at some stage. This way I have had that surgery early and its making quite a difference to my life.

Its made me reflect on how much my preference since childhood for activities which did not require good distance vision (I am a reader and craftswoman and computer user for most of my leisure) has shaped all sorts of aspects of my life. I pretty much gave up swimming in late teens when I could not recognize the people that I was swimming with and could not find my clothes on the beach. Wandering around in a bikini smiling (in error) at strange men was not a great experience.

[BRUTE]

anyone familiar with that theory whereby most vision can be "trained" by basically exercising the eye muscles, instead of using glasses? brute hasn't really investigated it, but keeps stumbling over websites making such claims. also something about indigenous populations not having bad vision.