Generally, the more nearsighted or myopic an eye is, the longer it is in the front-to-back direction. Sometimes very nearsighted eyes are stretched to the point that the retina is thinned or scars over, and these patients are also prone to bleeding in the back of the eye and the growth of new, aberrant blood vessels, of the sort That are seen in the eyes of some diabetics.
Myopia, or garden variety near- sightedness, is corrected via glasses, contacts, or refractive surgery. But if an eye is stretched to the point that the retina is thinned or damaged in some way, that is known as degenerative myopia. Someone with this condition might have vision that can’t be improved through glasses, contacts or refractive surgery. The reason I think lens implants will be of no use to the OP is that there currently are no lens implants that improve visual acuity beyond what’s achievable through glasses or contacts. ( Except, of course, in the case of cataracts, where removing the old lens will improve vision.) A number of patients with this condition honestly don’t understand why there are no glasses, contacts, or implantable lens that will help them see better. The reason is that degenerative myopia is a retinal condition, not a refractive one.
Thank you, I think, for explaining degenerative myopia. It sounds scary.
I am taking comfort in the fact that my vision has been stable for the last dozen years, and the next change I expect to have to deal with is bifocals.
I’d get another opinion, personally. And I’d ask for more info - why is it that your vision can’t be corrected any more than that?
I’m not much younger than you and am also very myopic (-13 and -14 last checkup). My eyes had been stable at -12 for many years and then began changing again the last couple. My doc hasn’t told me any such thing about my vision not being correctable. In fact, he agrees that I’m a great candidate for implanted lenses, if I’m interested. I’ve only been waiting because it looks like they’ve got some spiffy new stuff coming out, and I hate to be an early bird on medical stuff.
I am, of course, at risk for retinal detachment. And I’m going to have to ask him next visit about the myopic degeneration, because I’ve never heard of that.
But it sounds to me like you need to talk to the doc again and/or to another doc, because you’re not getting the full story.
If implantables will help, then I’d do 'em if I were you. Check around on prices - they’re not $10K each here in the U.S. last I looked. It may be about that for both eyes without insurance or discounts, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it for less. But lose my vision to afford a vacation? That’s just bizarre. Hell, I wouldn’t lose my vision to pay off my mortgage!
But if you truly can’t get any improvement, then you need to start planning how you’ll deal with your impaired vision. The problems you’re having are all surmountable, but not if you just pretend they don’t exist.
I’m wondering that myself. There’s no way they can be sure you’ll never get cataracts, but the site I linked to says that if you develop them you may need to have both your natural lens AND the implanted lens removed. And then … ?
Since cataracts are fairly common and they are recommending the implants for people aged 25-45 (before you’d know whether you were likely to develop cataracts), there is obviously more to it than just, “Sure, have this surgery, and maybe you’ll get cataracts and end up blind!”
That’s my understanding, but like I said, this really isn’t my area. Similarly, LASIK is just a reshaping of the cornea, so once you need cataract surgery, they just determine the appropriate lens and corrective power and insert that once they’ve removed the old lens.
They’d most likely just put in a different implant, same as they would when doing cataract surgery on someone who didn’t have implants.
Although it looks like in some cases they pretty much use the same procedure as cataract surgery–open up the outer layer of the lens, remove the inner layers, and put the implant in the resulting bag. In that case, I’d think your risk of getting age-related cataracts would be decreased, since the most common type happens in the central layer of the lens.