This thread made me look up the definition of legal blindness. (It’s 20/200 that cannot be corrected with lenses, by the way.) I was in the 5’s for diopters when I had the RK surgery in 1992. That was back when they used an actual scalpel, albeit a 70 micron thin diamond computer-guided scalpel. I thought I’d be freaked out by things Cutting! My! Eye! but it’s amazing the level of equanimity a good dose of Valium can bring. You also get special drops that numb your eye, plus a weird clampy thing to hold your eye open. With the lights shining in and your pupul diliated, you can’t see it coming.
Lasik is a completely different and much easier experience, from what I understand.
malaka, please do the rest of us a favor and go get some damn glasses, willya? I have trouble driving without my contacts just because of a lack of depth perception, though my right eye compensates for the left’s fuzziness. PLEASE, they’re not that expensive!
I don’t know my perscription right off, but I haven’t been able to read the top line (without lenses, of course) since third grade (nine years ago). Currently, without my glasses, I can’t make out that there ARE letters/numbers. I just did some experimentation: in order to read a single-spaced, font-size 12 page, without my glasses, my eyes need to be about 4 inches from the paper.
On a related note, I’m sort of getting contacts sometime soon. But due to my perscription (I’ve also got rediculously bad astigmatism), they’re mad expensive - soft lenses (good for about 2-4 months) will be about 500 bucks a pair. Right now, I’ve got a trial pair which aren’t totally fitted properly, and only correct my vision to about 20/50, and my parents can’t understand why I’m not being more enthusiastic.
I have fairly good vision, but my cousin has the worst vision of anyone I know. He recently switched from his childhood optometrist to one who deals with adults and might still have the letter detailing exactly what’s wrong with his eyes.
Off the top of my head, he doesn’t even have lenses in his eyes. If he takes off his thick glasses he’s near blind, and his eyes are milky-looking with oddly shaped pupils and eyeballs. Even with the glasses he doesn’t have peripheral vision. When he goes to the optometrist, other optometrists invariably enter the room to stare at my cousin’s eyes because they’ve never seen ones quite so bad. He probably has everything it’s possible to have without being blind. I really have to get ahold of the letter - the description of his eye problems is almost a page long, and my cousin was so proud when he got it.
I have keratoconus (KC). This means that my corneas are becoming progressively more conical. I, too, cannot see the big E on the eye chart. My eyesight is counted as CF (Counts Fingers, it’s not worth the trouble of measuring it in numbers) in my right eye, and about 20/600 in my left.
My prescription has been changing dramatically about every six months. My last one was
Spherical Cylindrical Axis
-6.25 +2.00 110
-5.75 +2.50 072
I really have no idea what those numbers mean, other than thicker glasses. The KC will probably continue to progress. Eventually I’ll wear hard contacts. If my vision isn’t sufficiently corrected by those, there’s the possibility of a cornea transplant (I know there are some other Dopers with KC. Beagledave had a transplant, I think?). LASIK is not an option, since the cornea thins significantly with KC.
Right now, my vision is corrected to about 20/50 in my right eye, and 20/30 in my left. I can still see ok, I just have a hard time making out things like price tags and street signs. My vision can literally change in the blink of an eye, as I have multiple focal points on my cornea. Something might be blurry one blink, and clearer the next, or vice versa.
It makes me feel better to see so many people in this thread that have worse vision than me, but continue to do normal everyday things like post to a message board.
I have no idea what the numbers on my prescription are, but the last time anyone bothered to convert it into a fraction my vision was 20/3000 in one eye and 20/4500 in the other. And that was almost 5 years ago.
My optometrist once told me that I have a slight astigmatism, but my myopia was so bad that the astigmatism didn’t affect my vision at all.
drafty_de, that optic neuritis sounds terrible. I hope your vision comes back okay.
I recently read an article about a girl who developed a similar condition. It was a rare side effect of a medication she was taking. I hope you can check out the side effects of any meds you might have been taking. This article I read was written by the girl’s mother - it was she who actually uncovered the cause of her daughter’s near blindness; the doctor overlooked it, then when it was brought to her attention, she prescribed a different drug that listed the same rare side effect.
You obviously haven’t seen my nose. I have a large, greek nose. I don’t even wear sunglasses. They make me look like I’m wearing those Groucho glasses.
I can’t even open my eyes underwater, so contacts are way out.
However, I am saving up my pennies for Lasik. I figure a couple hours of agony and I won’t have to worry about this anymore.
Sounds familiar. You know those electronic desktop charts, the kind the DMV has? When I got my license a couple of years ago, they first tested me without my glasses. I honestly asked the clerk, “What chart?”
At the clinic where I had mine done, both surgeons, the optometrist, and at least 2/3 of the support staff had had it done. And most of them did it 4 or 5 years ago.
Geez, nobody’s going to start chanting, “Four eyes! Four eyes!” at you if you get glasses. I think I’m glad I live a long ways away from you and the roads you drive on! Have you considered that there’s a REASON they want you to be able to SEE when you DRIVE???
I don’t recall my diopters, but I am 20/300 in one eye and 20/350 in the other. I am not a candidate for Lasix, but I was told there is a ring you can get implanted on the cornea for people with thin corneas and need major correction like me.
My sisters and brother all had Lasix. All swear by it.
I would dearly love to ditch the glasses I have worn since first grade and contacts (hard) I have worn since college.
Geez, nobody’s going to start chanting, “Four eyes! Four eyes!” at you if you get glasses. I think I’m glad I live a long ways away from you and the roads you drive on! Have you considered that there’s a REASON they want you to be able to SEE when you DRIVE???
If that’s your only reason, malaka, I don’t really know what to say to you.
After reading this thread, I’m never going to complain about my vision again. I may be a little off in recalling exact numbers, but I think I’m -5.00 in my right eye and -5.25 in my left (with a bonus astigmatism). I’ve been wearing glasses and/or contacts since I was 10 or so. I prefer wearing contacts mainly because I have little to no bridge on my nose and need legs on my glasses so they don’t sit directly on my cheekbones. Even with the reduced lenses (or whatever they’re called), they still get a little heavy. I’ve never considered Lasik, and probably never will. And after reading this thread, I will never consider my vision poor again. drafty_de, good luck on your second opinion.
I’m a bit wary of the lasik places around here. The main one uses the doctor’s wife for promotions. WTF? They’re so hard up for glowing reviews from patients that they have to use the guy’s wife?
Glasses at age 9, contacts at age 18. I remember the moment I realized my vision differed from others’. My older sister was in a play and I was sitting in the audience with my best friend Monica. She says “There’s your sister” and I thought we were too far back to see and then I heard my sister’s voice. I had always been clumsy and no good at sports but I didn’t think I couldn’t see well enough.
I’m still no good at sports.
Um…I’m nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. I have no numbers to back that up, but it makes for some blurry vision. It’s been thus for going on ten years.
No prescription glasses here. I can read the teeny-tiny lines on the wall chart like a champ. It’s the aspirin bottles, dictionary and food content labels I can’t read. Wish my arm would extend an extra foot or so.