Corrective Lenses

[Britt]

Originally Posted by Mike Brewer

Oh. I was just curious, because I know there can be some weird side effects from all sorts of surgeries. I know of a guy who almost damaged his eye irreparably when he went scuba diving several weeks after his lasik. It was within the safe zone as far as recovery, but he got a squeeze from failing to equalize his mask and it "unflapped" his eye. It was not a cheap fix.

Good God! How scary would that be? one minute you're at depth enjoying yourself, the next your eye is coming apart! I don't think I could have the presence of mind to do a safety stop with part of my eye hanging off. Was he at least somewhere he could get to good medical attention?

[martialartspeon]

I find that I fight much better when I have sharper vision I also find that I will get my contacts knocked out in 1 out of 5 sparing matches

Anyone try lasik?

[eXcessiveForce]

I have lasik in one eye, hopefully will soon have the other one done.

I have no problems with the lasik eye. I had it done about 6 years ago. In fact it's vision is probably a bit better distance wise than the eye with a contact lens,

I do however think some of my detailed vision is not quite as good but that could be my imagination.

[Paul-M]

Originally Posted by eXcessiveForce

I have lasik in one eye, hopefully will soon have the other one done.

I have no problems with the lasik eye. I had it done about 6 years ago. In fact it's vision is probably a bit better distance wise than the eye with a contact lens,.

Do you get hit in the face often? I've been planning on laser surgery since I was like 15, I'm now 17 and want to get it done as soon as I'm 18 but this whole flap slip thing is worrying me.

[Shoot]

Yeah, apparently the flap that gets cut in Lasik is always there. I know that it is re-used for repeated Lasik. I think Ortho-K is approved for people up to a -6. I've actually done it with great success. The break in period was absolutely terrible. I had abrasions on both my eyes for about a week which were very painful and caused me to not be able to see well at all--like looking through fog. This is partly because my vision is around a -5, so I had a lot of cornea to reshape. I almost gave up but then it just seemed to snap my eyes into shape and I loved it. I couldn't even feel them at night when I slept and I had perfect vision all day long. I might go back to it in the near future. I did it for a year and then developed an allergy to pollen. After being outside during a bad time of the year for allergies my eyes got all swollen (from the allergies). When I put the contacts in at night I woke up with very bad abrasions. So, I had to quit using them for several days. During that several days my eyes slipped back into close to their old shape (after a year without Ortho-K my eyes are still about a +.5 better!). I just didn't want to go through with the break in period again. One of my complaints with Ortho-K was night vision--the field of correction is only about 4 or 5 mm whereas your pupil might dilate to 7-8 mm in low light situations. So this can cause glares, starburts, and hallows around lights. I mainly got used to it, but it did annoy me. Also, if you drink alcohol it will interfere with your nightly vision correction (at least it did with me) and then you're slightly blurry the next day. Also, if you don't sleep 7-8 hours your vision correction might not be 100% for the next day.

I wear extended wear Night and Day contacts. These are the future of contacts. They are a "soft" lense that can be worn continuously (even while sleeping) 30 days without removal. They have a much lower water content than normal contacts and allow as much oxygen to your eye as not wearing any contact at all. so, you cannot feel them at all--they don't dry out and they don't starve your eye for oxygen which causes redness. they are as comfortable on day 30 as day 1. They also seem to suck onto the eye much better, so they don't shift when you blink and I've never had one get knocked out through sparring, wrestling, mountain biking or anything else I do.

[martialartspeon]

Originally Posted by Shoot

I wear extended wear Night and Day contacts. These are the future of contacts. They are a "soft" lense that can be worn continuously (even while sleeping) 30 days without removal.

Man I have to look into that.

[eXcessiveForce]

extended wear have been a around for 20 years. And they increase the risks of developing eye problems from contact use.

[Shoot]

Originally Posted by Mike Brewer

Hey Shoot:
My eyes are about -2.75 to -3.0. I have looked at laser surgery or PRK before, but enjoy skydiving and scuba so much, it just hasn't seemed worth it. With the lenses you're talking about, how long do they last? I only get around 4-5 hours of sleep a night (look at what time I'm posting this!), and I work long days. Would they last me all day, or would I need to switch to glasses in the evenings?

Thanks for your input, even if it's just opinion.

Complete edit. You're talking about the Ortho-k lenses! Ok, that makes sense. You're an ideal candidate with that prescription. I'm not sure with the amount of sleep question. I can speak from my experience, and keep in mind that my eyes are almost twice as bad as yours. In fact, my eye doctor warned me that I'd likely have some blur at the end of the work day since my prescription was so high. I never did. I sleep 8 hours a night though/ The nights that I got less than that I didn't notice any problems with blur. The lenses work incredibly fast once your eye has been adjusted. The thing that made my eyes the blurriest the next day was alcohol. 2 beers and my eyes were slightly off the next day. I could put the lenses in for like one hour, however, and it would often sharpen my eyes up.

Oh, and you have to find an eye doctor certified in the procedure. You can find the network online.

[Paul-M]

what does it feel like when the Ortho K are actually in? Can you see? Are they breathable?