I, too, have lousy vision. I'm slightly myopic at -11.75L, -12.50R. If you don't know what these numbers mean, imagine it this way: I can barely focus on my hand, when the palm of my hand is touching the tip of my nose.
I've been considering LASIK, and some of the more radical treatments, but I have developed this theory. Until my opthamologist is willing to have a procedure done on himself, I won't do it. He does several thousand LASIK procedures a year, and is very well known. However, he's still wearing glasses. And as long as I can wear contacts, I will, until he does a procedure himself.
SurgicalEyes is a resource for people that have had unsuccessful LASIK, RPK, RK, AK, ALK, etc procedures. This is the place to look for the 1% that you hear about that have problems. These include such problems as dry eyes, halos, starbursts, retinal tearing, etc. Another link with some good information about how eyesight is measured, how to read the prescription, etc is here.
That being said, LASIK DOES work for a lot of people. I know directly of 3 people that have had it done, and are thrilled with it. No problems, near perfect vision, etc. They were starting from a more middle ground than I would be however, and as such, were better candidates.
The new technology is pretty remarkable. Rather than just determining the overall correction factor, as they do for contacts or glasses, they actually map the eye from several hundred to several thousand points, producing a complete retina topology map. This allows them to adjust the correction so that even if the top of the eye is -2.0 diopters off, and the bottom is -2.3, it all comes out correctly. Pretty cool stuff...
But I may wait until Nikon comes out with Digital Eyes, and just skip this whole analog thing...
--Chris
e-mail jcwren | [reply] |
I don't wear glasses, although my most recent eye-test said
I'd probably benefit from some glasses for reading and
computer work (+1.00L/+1.25R).
But I have been doing some reading, and you may be selling
your opthamologist short. I'm apparantly far-sighted, and
my reading tells me that Lasik doesn't help far-sightedness,
just myopia. If your Dr. is far-sighted, then he may need
glasses, but can't benifit from Lasik.
I also have friends who have been told that Lasik likely
wouldn't provide enough correction to eliminate the need for
glasses. Based on that, they don't see a real benefit from
Lasik. Your Dr. could be in the same boat.
If you are concerned, you might want to ask him why he hasn't
gone for Lasik.
| [reply] |
I'm told that "clear lens replacement" is a lower risk/higher cost alternative to lasix, and is actually the same procedure as cataract surgery (where the mis-shaped lens is replaced with an artificial lens of correct proportions).
So... if you're an ooooollld geek with cataracts, insurance will pay for it. I don't think even our beloved merlyn is that old, though. ;^)
cheers,
Don
striving for Perl Adept | [reply] |
Maybe if the font size was one size bigger, maybe most of you guys wouldn't be blind. | [reply] |