JayDee

For years I had better than 20 - 20 vision - and now I have to wear specs to read and view screen (mercifully not elsewise yet although that may come)

Wearing glasses and having to carry them about everywhere is a REAL PAIN

£1000 seems like damn good value if it is for both eyes and lasts for six years. I heard it was about £5,000 though?

JD

editted for spelling - where's me damn glasses?

[This message has been edited by JayDee (edited 08 September 2001).]

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

JD,

There are different ways of doing the laser treatment, and with different costs, you can get them done for around a grand, the kind used by Boots is £2,500, I don't know if there are any which are more expensive than that, but there probably are.

I keep on plan on getting it done, but can never afford it

GM

I gave up on specs and wear contact lenses (and my optician doesn't mind me wearing 'em for 16 hours at a time ). Knowing how often my prescription changes, I'm not even contemplating laser surgery .

matt d

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by chelsie_uk:
<B>Hi
Well I think your find I T workers might ware glasses,
because I used to be a VDU operator years ago and it put me in glasses.
NOW I don't ware them because I paid 1,000 pounds and had them lazed.
Well worth it

chel[/quote]

Who did you use btw?

EvoDevo

Q.What happens when you go to buy a stylish sportscar without your glasses?
A.You end up with a scooby.
hahahahahaha

SecretAgentMan

Naah, it's the other way round mate, without them even the Evo (aka Halfords special)looks smooth and stylish.



/J

EvoDevo

Hah!! Swedish.
You know all about style don't you?

chelsie_uk

1) it don't hurt
2) its quick
3) 1 eyes done at a time so you can still carry on life, then when you can see fine then they do other eye
4) yes your eye is clamped open
5) no needles are used just drops
6) it will sting afterwards for a while, but they give you stuff to take.
7) they look after your eyes, checking them etc for a bout 1 year.

hope in short this helps

chel

johnfelstead

how do you go on driving whilst your eye is getting better? driving with one functioning eye stops you judgeing distance properly.

how long does it take to become normal vison again?

David Lock

Reminds me of Ernie Wise saying to Eric who wore fairly heavyweight specs.. "You must have good eyes to see through them"...

And yep I wear glasses for driving - keep leaving them on the top of the car after opening door and driving off!! DL

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Robertio:
<B>a).
Used to wear contacts, but the opticians kept getting upset when asking how long I wore them for:
'15-16 hours a day'
'that's not good, but how long do you wear them for on an average day?'
'that's an average day'
'you can't do that, no more than 8-10 hours'

I guess opticians have short days [/quote]

On a more serious note, I wear mine for up to 14-16 hours a day, and the opticians haven't said a thing! Maybe because I use hard gas permeable ones!

Soft ones killed my eyes, and I couldn't wear them for more than 10-12 hours, without my eyes feeling like they were being suffocated!

Been wearing lenses since I was 15, which is 13 years now!! I've been wearing glasses since I was 8, and I was that fat, speccy kid that got picked last for football!

Andy

[This message has been edited by Andy Tang (edited 10 September 2001).]

WREXY

Cheers Et the dead and Tonybooth.

Top info there. I wear contacts but one ripped the other day as I was cleaning them. They lasted 2 years. I need new ones and was considering the laser "opo" but after reading the info, I'll order new contacts and think about laser, or rather, I'll try and find the courage to get it done. Wearing my glasses at the mo. My eyesite also went downhill after I started wearing my aids full time. I can't do without them now, where as before I could.

Regards,

Wrexy.

ed the dead

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by WREXY:
<B>Do you feel any sensation while they are operating, like when they slice that top layer, or when they are using the laser? How long does the stinging last? Is there a chance you can lose your eyesight?

Wrexy[/quote]

Can I jump in Chel??

I depends where you go and what you have done. I had one eye done at a time a week apart, this meant just over a week with no driving. There are 2 main types of surgery, PRK & Lasik. With PRK they burn the surface of your eye with the laser, this is the older type and is generally seen as more risky (infection) and the pain afterwards can last for a few days. Lasik is the new version where basically they cut a flap in your eye, laser under the flap, and then put it back. Your eye is anitheatised (spelling???) using drops during the op, which lasts about 5 minutes. I did feel a slight sensation when they cut the flap... it wasn't painfull, but I wouldn't say it was pleasant!!

Afterwards on one eye I felt like a had a bit of grit in it for a couple of hours and the other didn't hurt afterwards at all.

There is a danger that you maybe long sighted afterward if they over correct (at the moments they can only correct short sightedness). I guess there is a danger that you could lose you sight, but then you could get run over by a bus tomorrow!!

I would recommend it to anyone...

tonybooth

I have worn glasses since I was 7. Really hated those NHS one’s, especially the tortoise-shell brown one’s.

I now only wear them for driving, reading etc. and the thought of contact lenses makes me squirm – touching my eyeball. No thanks.

I looked into laser surgery last January at Ultralase in Leeds. They scared the **** out of me. It seems to be a simple no-fuss affair if you are short-sighted, but I am long-sighted.

They told me it would cost £2,500 would last a max. of 10 years, and that I would be in much discomfort post-op, and that I would not be able to drive for 4 weeks. Yeah right. She also told me about the ‘burning smell’ as they lasered my eyes. There was also every chance that I would still need reading glasses in a few years as that is down to a different, in-operable, part of the eye. This seemed to defeat the whole object to me, and besides glasses are quite stylish these days!!!

During the consultation they performed various tests on me, prodding my eyeballs with machines and putting yellow dye in my eyes as well. I still have not recovered from the trauma of the consultation, never mind going all the way. I was unable to drive for 48 hours after due to being temporary blinded by the dye, though this is quite normal I was told. “I can think of better things to spend £2,500 on”, I thought to myself. And I did. Fantastic holiday BTW

TONY

BobaFett

What a great discussion thread.

I have worn specs since 11, started on contacts at about 20 and have worn them for 9 years, much prefer them to glassed, I used to be a 'not touching my eyeball' bloke until the opticien put a set in and i thought my god, it was the closest thing to perfect vision again!

I am seriously considering lazer surgery, but i am scared witless by it, i mean your awake for christ sake and theres someone firing a laser into your eye, err no thanks i wanna be out stone cold if they're gonna do that!!!

ChrisB

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>The difference is you only need laser surgery once, and I presume you have/are intending to purchase more than one pair of glasses in your life? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope, still on the tortoise-shell brown NHS ones from circa 1990.

I think I'll stick the spec's after reading the operations!

ChrisB.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Yeuch - I'm feeling quite sick reading the details of laser surgery. Anything remotely to do with eyes turns my stomach

After years of 20-20 vision I had to start wearing glasses this year for reading, pc stuff and night driving. Six months down the line and I'm now wearing them for watching tv too. It seems that once I started wearing them my eyesight went downhill really quickly.

I actually enjoy wearing my glasses but I find it a pain in the bum cleaning them, I think they make me look more intelligent

It's definately easier if you wear them all the time and not part-time like I do 'cos I'm always losing them

Sal

wall

wore glasses since age 10, and disposable contacts when playing sports, since age 17.

I've recently made friends with a guy who happens to be a leading optical surgeon, and obviously decided to speak to him about laser surgery. A premise: he wears glasses!

This is what he had to say:
IF your sight is so bad you are wearing 1" lenses which distort everything, IF you have an allergicsensitive condition preventing you from using contacts, IF you are very very short sighted but with little astigmatism and no long sightedness.... THEN laser surgery is a great thing that can really improve your quality of life with little risk. But if you can get good-looking thin-lensed non-distorting glasses (say anything up to -7.0), you can wear disposable contacts if you want to play footy or do martial arts or go swimming (with goggles on top), then it is absolutely not worth the risk and youd be crazy to get it done. The increase in quality of life would be minimal, way offset by the risk of anything from minor complications to scarring to blindness.

After that feedback, thank you I'm happy with my very stylish Oakley prescription glasses and my disposable acuvue lenses when I go swimmingskiingecc.

wall

WREXY

Do you feel any sensation while they are operating, like when they slice that top layer, or when they are using the laser? How long does the stinging last? Is there a chance you can lose your eyesight?

Wrexy

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Andy Tang:
<B>I've been wearing glasses since I was 8, and I was that fat, speccy kid that got picked last for football! [/quote]

ROTF

Tim Skerry

Both the laser and sharp surgery are OK for some people, but it is worth mentioning that they can cause scarring. That may manifest itself as nasty glare at night, where the refraction of light through the cornea makes points of light look like starry headlights through a dirty windscreen. The other issue is that all those methods make your cornea thinner. If you have a condition where you have thin corneas already, it would be very foolish indeed to go for this sort of correction. While I am sure the ethics of the people doing the corrections are generally high, I think I might be tempted to get a medical opinion before letting anyone do that. For info normal corneas are about 500 microns (half a mm) thick, and conditions like keratoconus (which give serious short sight and astigmatism) cause thinning and bulging of the cornea so it can be half that.

chelsie_uk

These clinics are normally privet so kept nice and clean.
When you go in your made to fill a form out and sign it,
also if you phone they will send you a pack with a video in all about it.
When you go into the room you lie down and they open your eye and put a clamp on it,
this don't hurt then they put a drop in it,then they tell you what they will do nexted witch is to take the eyes top layer off, not sure what with but I didn't feel a thing.
Then he says look at the red light for 30 seconds and don't move if you move the Lazar will stop.
after that they put cream in your eye and drops and give you pain killers and other stuff to put in your eye.
he them covers it up and send you home with a sick note for work,1/2 weeks and no driving for a week.
you go home, and after about 1 hour the stinging starts but its not all the time it comes and goes,
you are encouraged to try to look through the eye little and often and not keep it covered up to much.
You go back for checks then when there eye test says its ok then they will do other eye,
what you need to do is ware 1 contact lens or put plain glass in your glasses on the side where your first eyes been done.
The pain only last the day you have it done and the sight gets better every day.

hope this has helped all them interested

carl

Can I point out it's laser, not lazer or lazar. It stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Cheers,

Carl (I might be short-sighted, but I can still read a dictionary )

WREXY

Tim,

Good points there. I remember watching "A Current Affair" in OZ and those downside points were mentioned by a few doctors concerning the cornea, which on some people is thin.

Chelsie_UK,

Thanks for that detailed description of how they perform the "opo" and what happens after.

Cheers,

Wrexy

M Hutton

I wore glasses from 7 to 20, then moved on to disposible lenses. Good move in IMHO.

My Aunt had the laser surgery and never regretted it.

My sister is now considering it as her prescription is getting stonger... the optiocian the family use is careful in his recommendations but has been supportive and told her exactly what to expect. There is pain, blasting bits of the lens off is not natural!

With the eyes nothing is going to last forever, they change shape with age, the little tinkers, which means someone who is short sighted can become long sighted in time.

I still have a back up pair of specs but prefer contacts as you get peripheral vision, with glasses you need to turn you head. It might not seem a great deal but moving yours yes takes a fraction of a second and has saved me on more than one occasion.

In the end it all comes down to personal choice - you pay you money...