Lou, have you considered LASIK? I had it over five years ago and it's made a fantastic difference for me. No fiddly lenses, no glasses sliding down my nose in the heat or getting in the way of sport, just 24/7 perfect eysight.
I checked and my prescription in my left eye is too bad. My optician shook his head and tutted when I suggested it the other day :S But yeah if I could have it then I would.
I've thought about laser eye treatment as I'm sick of wearing glasses or having to wear lenses. I've forgotten what it's like to just wake up and just be able to see things in focus and without hunting around for my glasses. However, the boyfriend of my head of department at work works for a governing body overseeing laser eye treatment, and, although extremely, extremely rare, patients have lost their eye sight in one or both eyes. He did stress that it was EXTREMELY rare, but he did say a small, but significant number still have to wear some form of corrective lens - though obvious not as strong as prior to surgery. I'm still tempted...
Don't do it Chimpita... seriously... ignorance can be bliss. What you don't know can't freak you out... well as long as you don't roll over in the morning and caress stubble.
I was talking to my optician this morning who had a similar astigmatism to mine and he had it done but they could only correct a percentage of it, meaning he still has to wear glasses. The point of me doing it would be to stop wearing glasses and lenses, not to pay out for surgery AND still have to wear glasses and lenses! I just dont think it's an option right now. But my lenses alone cost me £200 this morning
A life without lenses is massively tempting but it's overshadowed by the chance (however small and remote it might be) that loss of sight might be on the cards... A friend of a friend had it done a few years back and it, apparently, affected his night vision so badly that he won't dare drive at night time...
After seeing my Mum go through hell with 3 detached retinas now, eye surgery for that and associated problems, which were nothing to do with laser eye surgery, I just really worry about what could go wrong myself.
What type of contact lenses do you wear? Do you swim with your lenses in? What type of conjunctivitis was it? - Bacterial/viral?
I wear toric monthly. Don't swim in them, not now I'm aware of that horrible horrible virus you can et that eats your eye. I had a biiiiig talk from the optician about that. It was viral conjunctivitis.
The horrible virus thing he mentioned was probably acanthamoeba (an animal) which is particularly nasty and painful. It is not advisable to wear even daily contact lenses for swimming. Viral conjuinctivitis is extremely contagious and you should take measures to prevent the spread to people you live with (not sharing towels etc.) and preventing the spread to your other eye.
Yeah that's the one. I have been really careful, using seperate towels, cleaning everything,extra hand washing etc. It's definitely calming down. I asked about goggles with prescription lenses, they dont do them for astigmatism but I may be able to get some with a prescription that at least helps my eyes a bit,as without contacts I really cant see where I am going and would really start annoying the other people in the pool
Yeah, the thought of the possibility of going blind, no matter how small, is a daunting one. I don't think I was told about that when I went for my LASIK. If I had been, I might still be a speccy git today. And Lou's right - it's got to be all or nothing. There's no point getting it done just to end up with slightly better eyesight that still needs some form of further correction. There's no point in spending a couple of grand and giong through the flap and zap unless you end up with 100% perfect eyesight at the end of it.
What is your full prescription. For the purposes of swimming it might be possible to correct "the best sphere" giving you fairly good vision, without correcting astigmatism. If you have a high level of astigmatism you can get prescription goggles made specifically for your prescription in each eye. However, these are obviously more expensive and will still not give you the level of vision you might expect from glasses (due to rotation of the lenses relative to your eyes).
I work in Glaucoma research and we deal quite a bit with the surgeons who do the laser eye surgery and none of them have had it done. So my outlook on this is that if the surgeons aren't having it done then neither am I. I have similar problems to you Lou, I'm incredibly short sighted, with a severe astigmatism, so contacts are my only hope for doing sport in. Laser surgery is not an option because I would still need glasses, so I pay a lot for both glasses and lenses, but I'd rather do that than risk losing my sight!
Yeah, exactly. I think my mind is definitely made up now, I'm not prepared to take the risk really .I'm looking into getting toric dailies which would be better for swimming but not sure if they do them for my prescription yet. Going back to opticians soon for lense check up so will see then
I wish I could get the toric monthly disposables in my prescription, they still only make my lenses in the 'renew every year or so' variety. Could you compromise for swimming and get some goggles made up that just correct the short sightedness and not the astigmastism? After all you only really need to be able to navigate from the changing rooms to the pool and in your lane.
What wrong with just wearing glasses for swimming, and take them out just before you hop in the pool. I do that, afterall, you have laneropes to guide you. Saying that the pool I go to isn't that busy. And I do wear the contacts when I am swimming in the surf at the beach but always dailys. I have to, otherwise I will never find my towel amonst the many lying on the sand. And I'm a -7, so don't feel so bad. Last year we had a bit of a plague of conjunctivitis going around. The thing is, they were all the microscope users. Surprise surprise.
Yeah, I'd look for custom made goggle Lou - let me know if you have any problems finding any. I personally would not have laser surgery. Having said that, it is a very individual/personal thing. I know plenty of people who say it's the best thing they've ever done. It would be safer to swim in dailies compared to lenses replaced less frequently, especially if you are disposing of them as soon as you leave the water - however, there is still an increased risk of infection. You could say that other factors greatly outweigh this risk (e.g. if you are very short sighted and may have trouble navigating on open water, or have children to supervise).
Looby could you not just wear your regular lenses and wear regular googles over them or is there still a risk of water seeping in? It's been decades since I've hit the pool...
