Pulled my script off the wall.
OD -11.50
OS -12.50
I think it’s getting worse.
Mama Tiger, in Dallas the Carter Eye Center performs Lasik for $500 an eye (and they are reputable, I didn’t get my eyes done there but a lot of Dallas Cowboys did!) By MSA, I’m assuming you mean a flex spending plan offered by your employer; folks need to know they can save 30%+ (depending on tax bracket) by having the funds deducted from their paycheck, pre-tax.
Little known fact: if you sign up to put $1,200 per year in the flex plan, you could likely contribute $100 in January, get your surgery (cost of $1,200) - and then quit, never having to pay the remaining $1,100. Shhh!!
I can see the big E, but that’s about it. I don’t know the numbers on my prescription but I’m obviously very nearsighted. Also astigmatism, and then, as I started to get old, presbyopia. So now I need trifocals. One correction for distance, another for reading, and another in the middle for things like computer screens. Actually I use the Varilux lenses.
I don’t think with all that I could be a lasik candidate. If they fixed my nearsightedness and astigmatism, I’d still need to wear glasses to read anyway. Plus the very idea of somebody slicing away on my eyeball, I don’t care if it’s with a scalpel or a laser, gives me the creeps.
BTW, I am always amused by the term “lasik.” It’s so close to “lasix,” which is a drug they give race horses to somehow keep them from bleeding into their lungs when they run.
Well, now I have one more reason to detest horse racing.
MLS, do not assume you aren’t a candidate for lasik! I had astigmastism in both eyes. Forget about the “slicing away on my eyeball” fears, it takes all of 10 seconds. Please go get an opinion from your eye doctor. I am amazed at how many people are scared about this surgery, as the screw-up stats are so low. Go do it!
I guarantee y’all, in 50 years lasik will be performed routinely and safely at our neighborhood Albertson’s. :eek:
Eh, maybe Kroger.
R-7
L-8.5
May I just say how lovely it is with eyes this bad to finally not be the worse in any gathering, yay me!
I’m slowly working up the nerve and saving the money for the surgery, I’ve had corrective lenses since I was 5, but I’d like to actually see the O-face once before I die.
Blonde, it still wouldn’t take care of presbyopia. I’d still have to wear reading glasses. The eye doctor who tried to talk me into it admitted as much.
I’ve memorised the eye-charts…
The BEST ones are in my GP’s surgery, 'cos they spell out a lot of the eye-drop/diuretic medications. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that if the first four letters are P…I…L…O…, then the next one is going to be P (for Pilopt) or C (for Pilocarpine, the generic version). Same with Diamox and
That’s why I never bother getting my GP to check my vision…but I’m still too damned familiar with the charts at the ophth. clinic for my liking as well.
Oh, and just for the record, not all visual disorders can be remedied by glasses/laser/other corrective interventions. Some acuity problems (including total blindness of course) are resistant to treatments.
I had my eyes checked last week. I went down two diopters in under a year. I fear for how poorly I will see 10 years from now. I’m currently at OD -4.5 and OS -4.75. Then, when the doc tested my alignment, he actually said “Whoa”. He showed me where I was and where I should be. It was almost funny how far off it was.
I would love to have Lasik but it makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. The glaucoma test is bad enough. If I can’t stand a puff of air, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to handle a freaking scalpel touching my freaking eye, even if I wouldn’t feel it.
I’m -9 in both eyes.
The good news is that every opthamologist I’ve seen has said I’m a perfect candidate for laser surgery. The bad news is that every opthamologist I’ve seen has said that this will be when I turn 25. I’m 18 now.
Oh well, at least I have something to look forward to sigh.
Don’t know what diopter I am, but my eyes are something like 20/250. I can read without my glasses, but I don’t usually do that. One thing that I’ve learned the hard way is that I never “casually” set my glasses down before I go to bed. I always put them in the exact same spot before going to bed. If I were to put them down anywhere else, and not remember where I placed them the next morning, it’d be impossible for me to find them (without digging out my spare pair).
Lasik surgery is entirely less freaky than the “puff of air” thing, trust me. I have talked SO many paranoid people into this surgery. Lordy, it doesn’t hurt, is pretty affordable, and will offer you the ability to have perfect vision. Think about it - no fumbling for glasses, contacts – I know there’s a lot of people who have issues which prevent them from having the surgery, but for the rest of you: grow a backbone and go do it! I know it’s weird, it’s your EYES, but if you’re at a good doctor, you don’t have much to worry about. 10 seconds of minor discomfort, if any. 2 hours with eyes closed.
Then - 20/20.
I was considering that until a doctor friend of mine told me that all the optometrists he’s met (oculists? ophthalmologists? you know, eye doctors) wear glasses. I’m not doing any surgery that the doctors aren’t willing to do to themselves.
I would love to have the lasik surgery done! But I have only about 10% of normal vision in my right eye. If something went wrong in the surgery, I would be blind.
Besides, I’ve been wearing glasses since September 1944. After a while you kinda get used to these things.:eek:
I not only can’t see the big E, I can barely distinguish the chart itself. If the chart is on a light colored wall, I can’t see it. I can focus on things approximately 2 inches away from my eye in my right eye, 3 inches away from my left eye without glasses.
Eye surgery scares me silly. Plus, I’ve talked with opthamologists (I see them, not optometrists, because I’m diabetic), and I’d STILL have to wear corrective lenses after surgery.
Mr. BlueSky and Booker- I believe I am in your league as well. I had this one opthamologist try to bully me into Lasik by saying she would refuse to scribe any more lenses lest she contribute to the further degeneration of my sight. I called her partner the next day and got my lenses. Never went back again.
Well here’s my story. About a month ago I get a little pain in my right eye. Well I was due for new glasses anyway and call the eye doc. Sure, he says. Come in on wednessday and we will check you out (2 days later). By that time I have a serious grey spot in my vision. He checks it out, sends me to another doc in town for a second opinion. Then the second doc sends me the next morning to the clinic for an MRI. A week later I have about 5% vision REMAINING in my right eye!!!
Turns out I have Optic Neuritis. … or Swollen optic nerve. Yeah!
Try looking that up on Google and you get about a bizzillion sites talking about MS. Thats the Big MS… Multiple Sclerosis (sp).
So I get pretty freaked out about that.
After that week when I get down to the 5% vision deal I go to yet another eye doc. The doc assistant starts giving me the big “E” test and I can hardly see the wall that the chart is on. She is visibly upset by this and grabbs something off a shelf along the wall and holds it right in front of my right eye (about 12 inches away). “What am i holding?”, she says.
All I can see is the wrist cuff on her smock and a bit of the wall in the backround. I cant see her hand at all let alone what ever she is holding.
She is now even more visibly shaken.
“what happens when i do this?”, she says. She starts moving her hand up and down. This literaly looks like she is sliding her hand into a grey paper bag! Its like her hand is dissappearing in front of my eyes (well, eye anyway). I tell her this and she gasps, then promptly leaves the room. Returns with the doc who’s name is on the clinics big sign out front. The Big Doc! (btw, he is a lasik expert and actual eye surgeon)
Now…
I have since been put on IV steroids for 4 days, oral steroids for 6 days after that…(doc: take all the pills as prescribed or you might go crazy. Me: ok.)
I have about 50% of my vision back (guessing). I have seen a neurologist (sp) and she says its unlikely that i have MS but I am going to MAYO Clinic for a second opinion.
My vision is sucky to say the least.
Right eye: At about 50% and the vision in that eye is like looking into a steamed up mirror after a shower.
Left eye: near sighted, not sure on the numbers but I am sure glad I have it.
Prognosis: docs not sure how much right eye vision i will regain. Maybe full vision, or I maybe i stay at 50%.
How i got this optic neuroitis: Nobody knows yet. they even checked me for vitamin B12 deficiency and lymes disease plus about a krillion other tests.
Sorry folks, got a little long winded there. But it feels good to vent a little, in fact i feel a bit better having now written it all down.
Ok that was odd. After posting that looooong story about my eye i get 3 pop up adds for contacts and eye supplies. hmmm me thinks something is amiss here.
I have really, really bad vision. And I don’t wear glasses or contacts.
Last year I went to the BMV to get a new sticker for my license plate. The girl behind the counter asked if I wanted to renew my license as well. I said “no” as it would require an eye exam and I hadn’t yet figured out how to get around that problem. Then she informed me that my license was already expired and I had to renew it or I couldn’t get the sticker. sigh
So, I start sweating. I place my head into that little contraption where your forehead depresses a bar and lights come on with the eye charts on them. I can’t even read the top line.
She says, “Read the 3rd line from the bottom”. I start guessing, “B…G…4…A…” when she stops me. “What line are you reading?”, she asks.
I said I misunderstood her and tried again. Failure.
I then explained to her that I use computers daily and I was on my lunch hour and my eyes were stressed. Somehow I thought she might let me off the hook with this lame excuse. Instead, she allowed me a couple minutes to “relax and rest my eyes”. I stepped back from the counter, rubbing my eyes, and thinking, “How on earth am I going to pass this?!”.
After a couple minutes I try again. This time, I suinted, used one eye, then the other, blinked…anything to make the characters clearer. Finally, I was able to slowly, logically determine each character. If I saw a “blob” that was kind of circular and had a bit more “blob” in the lower right, I’d guess “Q”. If I saw a “blob” that was darker on the left than right, I’d guess “E”. This went on until I somehow passed.
See ya on the roads…
checks the location field Right, good. Just don’t drive in Chicago please. 
Is it bad if I don’t know my prescription and work in an ophthalmology department? Thought so. My vision’s bad enough that I need glasses to read, just because I can’t see all the way to the page - that’s how nearsighted I am. I’m also astigmatic, and have progressive bifocals simply to reduce the strain on my eyes from the prescription while doing close-up work.
Hah! I got you all beat. I don’t have the exact numbers handy but -15 something in my left and -9 something in my right. Bad astigmatism also. Lasik is not an option. Checked it out with Emory Clinic here and my left eye would require an implant which I find too oogy and my right does not have enough cornea left to mess with. What do I win? 