quote:
Originally posted by blessedguy
What's your eyesight loss degree btw, if you don't bother to say it.
-1.25 on both eyes with 0.75 astigmatism in the left eye only. That doesn't warrant special contact lenses so I just get half of of it (rounded up) on the sphere, resulting in -1.25, -1.75 prescription.
For those who are not familiar with what the numbers mean, this is minor. Indoors, where few things are further away than 5-10 meters, I can easily forget whether I am wearing the contacts or glasses or not. I can drive fine without any correction in daylight, although it becomes a little more challenging in the dark.
Apparently, I was given a -0.75, -1.0 prescription for glasses when I was 6 years old, but my parents decided it wasn't necessary back then. They thought it would turn into a social issue, I could see well enough, and I didn't know anything different. I finally got some at 15, when it was starting to be more of a problem and I had more say in the matter.
quote:
Originally posted by Moh
Yes, wearing contacts is a sensible solution indeed. I know alot of people who do wear contacts and are very relieved about it. Problem is, I am always wearing glasses and still my eyesight is getting worse as time passes.
If your prescription is already bad enough (what we here call "coke bottles") that it can't be corrected with the convenient, disposable kind of contacts and you need custom-made hard gas-permeable type, the cost and the hassle of handling them correctly might be a problem. However, that would also make you a poor candidate for LASIC.
If you can use generic disposables and the only issue is that your prescription changes fairly quickly, that's less of a problem with contacts than it is with glasses. You go through them anyway. Once a year or so you might get a new prescription and you will just restock with that.
Something else that hasn't been mentioned in this thread so far is orthokeratology -- special contact lenses that you wear only while sleeping, which have a lasting effect of reshaping the cornea. You'd put them in before going to bed and I assume they probably make your vision (while wearing them) worse than it already is. However, the reshaping effect should last for the day after, and over time, the strength you need actually goes down, not up. This is actually a good non-surgical alternative to LASIC for some people.
Anyway, just get what you need. About 20% of the population require some sort of vision correction, so this is not anything to feel bad or handicapped about. Contrary to the beliefs of my moron parents, I've never seen a boy with glasses who didn't look fine with them -- if that is the only option for you, don't worry about it, just pick some good frames.
