Not completely sure where to post this. Ironically
Have any of you undergone laser eye correction? I wonder whether it's worth spending $$ on.
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.
Any experiences/opinions? Is it worth the 5% risk of not being completely satisfied with the outcome?
I could have had a reasonable % paid for by the company I work for under our benefit plan.
I naturally have dry eyes and if you do get the procedure done, I have learned that it may interfere with the eyes being able to produce natural tears, resulting in a temporary to long term need of eye drops to maintain eye moisture and reduce discomfort. I have heard one man experienced this so badly years ago that he committed suicide over it because it made him gravely depressed and he could not tolerate the condition.
I did try contacts again not too long ago and even though I could see like a hawk, I felt my eye muscles getting tired and it was a big distraction for me and I didn't want to move my eyes unless I absolutely had to. All I could think about all day were my dry eyes and fighting with the discomfort. I didn't have the mindfulness to think at all during the day, I was just basically present with the condition of my eyes all day (not a fun mental space to be in.)
I do have a couple pairs of glasses with a new prescription and I can see like a hawk with these too, but it's almost too strong. I like wearing my 5 year old glasses where I can still see very close to 20/20 but not 20/15 like with the new glasses. I think living in a world with softer edges instead of very sharp edges is okay, it leaves more brain processing room to enjoy my thoughts and not be burdened with the very strong intensity of very strong and almost overpowering lenses.
Also, if you do get the procedure done, they say you may still need reading glasses anyway and your eyes can adjust as you age, requiring "touch ups" if you get lasik, or other corrective lens assistance.
Best of Luck. Anecdotally, I know of several people who were pleased with it. Personally I don't mind glasses, I think they add character!
Almost thirty years of staring at a monitor 15" away has made me myopic. I've read that myopia (the eye-kind, not the mental kind which gets worse ;-P ) corrects itself through middle age as humans naturally gets long-sighted. I've also read that despite LASIK people might still need reading glasses and in fact that people who have NOT had lasik might delay their need for reading glasses. I wouldn't want to fry my eyes and risk side-effects for some temporary solution.
Interesting enough, when I was RE (not staring at a monitor 9-5) my vision did improve slightly. Maybe the alternative solution is just to spend a lot of quality time in the woods. Apparently indigenous people have zero eye problems and perfect vision. Hearing too.
Yes, I have had it. I was almost legally blind before I had it -- could not see the "E" on the top of the chart. My distance vision is about 20/30 now. Good enough to pass the drivers test.
But I'm losing it on the short end, so I've been resorting to the drug store reading glasses. That would have happened anyway.
I had mine over ten years ago -- procedures are better now. If you get it, get the procedure that is all lasers and no cutting. My healing took longer than most, but I needed more lasering than most.
Honestly, I'm not sure your vision is bad enough to make it worthwhile yet.
I understand that your eyes don't change much after you are 45-55. May want to wait. Also, they can do one eye near sighted and one eye far sighted to avoid reading glasses.
On the other hand, have you been to get your eyes checked? I always think I shouldn't bother and a little blurriness is nothing, but when I get my new glasses all I can think is DETAILS! GLORIOUS DETAILS!!! Frames don't go bad, and if one eye changes, you don't have to buy both lenses. Also, friends of mine have had a lot of success buying glasses online. Mark up is pretty huge in store, but having someone to adjust the frames and make sure the lenses are in the right spot are worth it, at least for my level of prescription.
I have thought a lot about getting LASIK as I can't even see the clock from my bed and it would be nice to not be so dependent on my glasses. I am just too scared that if I have surgery, something may go wrong. I can't get new eyes if something happens. So glasses are my choice for now.
I would not do it, and I almost did 6 years ago. You've obviously done your research, as you are aware of the 5% risk. That said, I will say if you wear contacts, change to glasses. They are even riskier than LASIK due to the potential of you to infect your eye even if you clean your hands and contacts properly when putting them in/taking them out.
What did it for me was reading some of the horror stories of the 5% that had complications, one of which was a police officer who committed suicide and cited in his note that LASIK ruined his life and was the reason for the suicide. Seriously, read up on some of the horror stories if you have not already; 5% is an awful high risk for an elective surgery...and you will eventually end up with reading glasses as you get older anyway, and LASIK can only correct some vision problems and only so many times...considering the risks for an elective surgery on what I would consider to be my most important body parts and the fact that I would end up with glasses again eventually, I decided to 1) skip LASIK, 2) stop wearing contacts (even more risky than LASIK) 3) buy some designer glasses online that are stylish and last a long time due to the quality. I have a 6 year old pair of Prada's for example...
@Dragline - Ha! Yeah, mine is on the edge of the table. I lift my head up, lean over and squint and I can figure out the time by the shape of the light. I've learned to compensate!
@jacob - Why not try glasses to see if there is a large improvement in vision due to correction? The whole thing from check up to glasses in hand would cost under $500 (depending on frame choice) and you can ask the optometrist about their opinion about LASIK while you are there.
@lo - My concern about glasses is (perhaps erroneously) that my eyes will adapt to the correction so that if I take the glasses off my vision will be worse and irrecoverable [in terms of not wearing glasses]. I'm afraid of getting glasses that have a slight correction; then in one year, I'd need more correction, and so on...
@jacob - The hippy lady at work told me this while not wearing her glasses. The next time I saw my eye doc, I asked her what she thought about "exercises to improve eyesight" etc, and she got a slightly amused look on her face and told me, "Anything was possible, but most likely, the hippy lady had grown accustom to her blurry vision and her brain had compensated in other ways."
Anecdotally, I believe her, because that's how I do things when I can't find my glasses. I know the approximate location and colours of things in my house, so my brain fills in the rest when I can't find my glasses. (I also have a great memory for where I put things because if I lose my glasses; I won't be able to see them to find them! On the other hand, if someone in my family moves them, I'm screwed.)
Your eye changes shape to focus and like the rest of your body, aging makes it less agile then it once was. For instance, I can tell I will need bifocals at some point, because at 33, I need to remove my glasses to sew as the prescription makes everything too small to focus that close. The next thing is holding a menu at arms length, I suppose!
Personally, I would go to an eye doctor before a LASIK doctor because the eye doctor is not in the business of upselling you the procedure (or maybe that is my Canada showing). They also see long term effects and could probably give you a better idea of what you are getting in to.
I guess I don't believe in the ocular equivalent to Big Pharma. If eye exercises could make my eyes see better, why isn't someone out there trying to sell it to me? Where are the trials I can sign up for? I would pay a lot of money to ditch my glasses and not have to go through surgery and it's risks.
No, I wouldn't recommend them in particular. Although I do understand that spending time outdoors with longer focus distances usually accomplishes as much.
My short-sightedness eye prescription didn't change for about 10 years whilst wearing glasses for driving, long distance whatever, and not wearing them for daily monitor usage. I had the dry eye issues with contacts and gave them up. The worst thing about glasses is losing them, but I have two cheap pairs as back-ups. Lasik sounds too risky for me, given vision is so key to my life.
This may sound crazy, but I like my blurry vision. I'm easily overwhelmed, and one of my coping mechanisms for overstimulation is to remove my glasses. If I can't see something clearly, I tend not to focus on it anymore (no pun intended). For me it's like the occular version of using earplugs.
@dragline Really interested to hear about your experience. I am very short-sighted (since about 10 and too much screen time has made it even more severe in recent years. Since late 40s I have also been long sighted. Alas I thought it would balance out but seems you can get so you can't see long and far. Nice.
In order for me to keep track of time in the bathroom (i.e. when not wearing glasses in the shower in the morning) we have resorted to a very very large wall clock. Certainly can't see the alarm clock without bringing it up to near my face or without reaching for glasses.
One problem for me is that I am also astigmatic so I have tried special toric lenses but ended up opting for lenss which corrected short sight and wearing reading glasses for close work. Laser surgery is increasingly sounding like a risk worth taking. Now that I am not so reliant on focusing on a computer all day I suspect I could get by with a less corrected vision. It would be so nice to go swimming and still recognise people.
I would be very interested in hearing further stories of LASIK surgery, especially for people with really dreadful vision.
@Jacob, a friend has slight vision problems (sound like yours) and he had Lasik and ended up with dry eyes. It sorted itself out in the end (a return bout) but his initial reaction was that he wished he had not bothered.
jacob wrote:@lo - My concern about glasses is (perhaps erroneously) that my eyes will adapt to the correction so that if I take the glasses off my vision will be worse and irrecoverable [in terms of not wearing glasses]. I'm afraid of getting glasses that have a slight correction; then in one year, I'd need more correction, and so on...
Maybe that's not how eyes work ...
In my experience this is not how it works. I needed new glasses a couple times between when I got them 12-13 years old and around 20 years of age, as I grew. After that I think my prescription only changed once in twenty years.
Also, contacts are perfectly safe. Yes, you might get an eye infection, but it's rather rare if you wash your hands before you handle the contacts and use the proper solution to store and clean them. It's been years, probably over ten, since I had an eye infection and I wear contacts every day because my eye sight is terrible.
I would like to see the evidence that non-modern people don't have bad eye sight. I'm highly highly dubious.
I know Jacob that you do your job because it gives you satisfaction. But is it not time to change, and save your eyes from 9-5 screen staring? Instead of a risky "repair"?
I had LASIK nine years ago at age 45, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I'd been researching lasik for a few years and waited until all the enhancements (like eye tracking) were implemented and proven before having it done.
I had something called "monovision", where one eye is corrected for distance and the other slighly undercorrected, for reading. It took my brain a couple of uncomfortable weeks to figure this out, but now at age 54 I still don't need glasses for either distance or reading. My vision has started to deteriorate a bit lately, and I plan to look into the possibility of getting an enhancement procedure in the next couple of years.
