LASIK and motorsports

wbjones wrote:

clutchsmoke wrote: I've contemplated this quite a bit. I'm not sure I'd do it even if I was eligible. I've got astigmatism

even though my results aren't exactly what I had hoped for … I still glad I did it 10+ yrs of cheap sunglasses … plus to this day I can still pass my drivers test without the help of glasses … so while my results weren't the absolute greatest … I'm glad I did it and would do it again

If Acuvue Oasis didn't exist I would be much more inclined to roll the dice on surgically fixing my eyes.

A few years ago I had a new eye doc that wanted me to try out some other cheaper brands. I hated all of them. The other brands wouldn't stay put on my eye and float almost every time I blinked. That would have driven me to get my eyeballs fixed.

I was never able to tolerate contacts … and when my eye doc put me in progressive lenses … they nearly drove me crazy (and yes I DO realize that it would have been a short trip ) …

that's what made me get the surgery

I wear glasses. I berkeleying HATE glasses. But I can't put contacts in my eyes, and I can't get past the "eww" factor of having my eyeballs sliced up and/or burnt with a laser. You people are all nuts.

I wore contacts for probably 9 years, always the soft disposables. I never had halos at night. I do have some astigmatism which the contacts of the era would not correct, there are some out now that claim to. I went back to glasses for 3 reasons: 1) the contacts were getting maintenance intensive 2) they were getting uncomfortable, they'd be OK first thing in the AM but by about 3 pm they'd feel scratchy regardless of how I took care of them 3) I was going to need progressive lenses. I weighed the LASIK option but, as noted, I wasn't nuts about the possibility of it going bad (which can happen with ANY procedure) and having to live with the results the rest of my life. I am also not even faintly vain (have no reason to be) so I didn't give a tin E36 M3 what others thought of me with or without glasses, still don't.

They do have their drawbacks; for instance on the motorcycle I have to keep the face shield down a lot, because all it takes is turning my head to do a lane change check at 70 MPH to blow them right off my face. In the race car I keep the shield one click up from closed for air circulation reasons. They will fog in the right (wrong?) conditions, this typically means I just need to warm them up to prevent this (the anti fog coatings are useless).

I also clean them ONLY with a terrycloth towel, paper towels will scratch plastic lenses as will those slick little cloths sold just for the purpose. I think that's because if a particle etc gets stuck on the slick cloth there's no 'nap' for the particle to go down into. Regardless, they are less aggravation than contacts.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

I really don't mind glasses that much (I guess because I've been wearing them for 22 years?)

I started wearing glasses when I was 4. With the exception of a few years of contacts in HS I wore them for 40 years. They fog, when it rains they get wet, they scratch, they get broken, have to carry a 2nd pair for sunlight or get transitions lenses, and they made me lazy about proper eye safety, they were a constant pain in my ass. Contacts are worse.

There are risks with any procedure true but there are risks getting out of bed in the morning too. It's been a year now without glasses, my only regret is not having done it sooner.

My vision has been crap since I was a teenager, so a good 30 years now. In that time I've been about 80% contacts, 20% glasses. For me, disposable extended-wear contacts are the shizzle. I can wear them for days (including sleeping in them) without an issue. They correct me to a bit better than 20/20. I can see fine with glasses, but not quite as well, and of course there's the issues with fogging, peripheral vision, and just having something sitting on your face all the time. Only issue now is that I'm starting to lose my closeup vision when I have corrective lenses on. When I'm wearing my glasses, I have to take them off to read small text. When I'm in my contacts, I've been kinda screwed. So, the other day, I did a truly "old man" thing and bought a pair of reading glasses to use with my contacts.

I've strongly considered LASIK, in fact I almost had it done about 10 years ago. But in the end, considering how well contacts work for me, I decided it wasn't worth the expense and risk. That doesn't mean I won't do it some day, though. The technology is constantly improving, after all.

keep in mind that if you'd had it done 10 yrs ago, you could well be needing reading glasses by now anyway … your eyes will continue to age and your near vision (at least for most folk) will continue to deteriorate … whether you've had Lasik surgery or not …

Yeah, that was another reason for not doing it. As I understand it, once you've had LASIK, its companion PRK or any sort of corrective vision surgery you are no longer a good candidate for it. That means you get your peepers zapped and wind up with glasses anyway. There were also some studies which linked them to a larger chance of cataracts later on, although it's not a solid connection. Probably not the most unbiased web site out there but they do have the possible side effects straight:

http://www.lasikcomplications.com/TopTenReasons.htm

http://www.lasikcomplications.com/PRK-complications.htm

It's a dice roll, like anything. The only problem is (and this is what stopped me) the dice roll is with vision, which is the most important of the five senses.

There was an older surgery called RK which had a whole host of side effects, some of which weren't apparent for several years.

http://www.lasikcomplications.com/RK-radial-keratotomy.html

That was no longer being performed in the States when my bud had his done with LASIK. He said, numerous times, that he wished he'd never had it done. His original reason was so he wouldn't have to wear glasses while racing dirt bikes. Since the corneal incision never heals (all that holds it in place is eye moisture, much the same way a contact lens sticks) knocking the 'flap' loose is a very real possibility!

Curmudgeon wrote: That was no longer being performed in the States when my bud had his done with LASIK. He said, numerous times, that he wished he'd never had it done. His original reason was so he wouldn't have to wear glasses while racing dirt bikes. Since the corneal incision never heals (all that holds it in place is eye moisture, much the same way a contact lens sticks) knocking the 'flap' loose is a very real possibility!

Speaking of RK and this thread title, I'm pretty sure I remember Al Unser Jr. getting it some time in the 90s. He continued to race successfully for years afterward. I mean, I fully understand the drawbacks and why it isn't done anymore, but still, it apparently worked for him.

I guess his 'dice roll' came up sixes. Mine would probably come up snake eyes...

I've heard one of the long-term negative effect of LASIK it it makes blue/black dresses appear to be white/gold dresses.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

That website is chock full of misleading information. I didn't bother reading all of it but the bits about corneal incisions never healing is patently untrue.

RK had serious problems, that much is absolutely true but LASIK and to a lesser extent PRK have a very well proven track record. My experience has been great and so has that of at least a dozen people I know. The only bad corrective surgery case I know of personally was my mother getting RK back in '94. And even in her case the problem is that at 62 she has to wear glasses.

Ian F wrote: Do you have to be awake during the procedure? I have a really bad bluffer's spasm (contacts are but a dream for me), so I'm not sure there is any way possible I could keep my eyes still for a long enough period of time. The few seconds it takes the eye doctor every few years is hard enough.

You do have to be awake, but they give you some good sedatives to relax you - sufficiently enough so that they won't let you drive yourself home afterwards. They also put some sort of ring that clamps against your eye around the iris to restrain it. Your head sits in an indentation in the table, so unless you really want to, it's not easy to move it inadvertently. The surgeon also puts some eyelid retracting pieces in place, and the surgeon drops eye drops onto your eye every few seconds to keep it from drying out as you can no longer blink.

The lens ablation part is done by a laser and the amount that it changes your lens is based on the measurements they do beforehand. So it knows how much to remove on each little spot. The machine uses some sort of tracking technology to follow your eye around, so even if you move it slightly, it will correct pretty much instantly to ensure it's always aimed at the right spot. It cuts out if your eye moves excessively too.

JG Pasterjak wrote: I've heard one of the long-term negative effect of LASIK it it makes blue/black dresses appear to be white/gold dresses.

I see what you did there, but you have it backwards. It actually is white and gold.

In reply to KyAllroad: I guess it depends on what 'healing' is defined as. Does the cornea stick down? Yes. Does it generate scar tissue? Yes. Does it become as it was before? No. That is straight from the eye doc who did my mom's cataract surgery. A hard enough knock at the wrong angle... yep you have a problem.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

I refuse to get drawn into that!

I held off LASIK for years because my eye doctor thought I'd want one nearsighted eye when my close vision started to go. But even though I was 20:20 without my contact lens (as posted earlier, I had one eye that flipped to about 20:100 when I was 16 and never changed again, and one eye at 20:20), it wasn't comfortable to go with such a mismatched set of peepers. I tried. So I finally went for it.

In 20-odd years of wearing a single contact, I never lost one and almost never dislodged one. That includes waterskiing, snow skiing, whitewater kayaking, competitive swimming, windsurfing, mountain biking, etc. Lots of opportunity with high pressure water and various whacks to the noggin. So I'm comfortable with the potential of the flap moving. I seem to have very well developed reflexes to protect my eyes

I am firmly in the "I wish I'd done it sooner" camp. More comfort, better night vision - really, I had no downsides other than feeling like someone had been shining a freakin' laser beam in my eyeball the day after.

Of course, a few years later I started to lose my close vision. But I don't regret losing my one "close up" eye, it wasn't going to work properly for me. Basically, I have the vision I would have had if that one eyeball hadn't gone funky back in the 80's. I'm good with that. My wife had really bad vision and had the procedure done before me, and she's reported no ill effects. Being 6 years younger, she can still focus up close

Tom_Spangler wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote: I've heard one of the long-term negative effect of LASIK it it makes blue/black dresses appear to be white/gold dresses.

I *see* what you did there, but you have it backwards. It actually is white and gold.

You know, the backlash has begun and lots of people are out there whining about "why are we arguing about a dress when Obama is trying to ban fun" or whatever people like to bitch about.

But the while thing is actually a really fascinating look at the way we perceive color and the zillions of things that affect it.

For the record, the actual color is blue and black, but when I first saw it I saw gold and white. I saw it again later and it was blue and black, and though I was looking at a retouched photo. Then I realized I could actually change the colors by where I focused my eyes on the photo. My perception of it also changes based on the ambient light, and whether I've been in sunlight in the last few minutes.

It just one of those amazing accidents that exposed a peculiarity in the human brain and eyes, that would probably even be tough to replicate if someone tried to do it on purpose. It's pretty amazing stuff.

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

I'm not worried about eventually needing reading glasses to correct near vision. When that happens, I'll only need to go to the drug store to buy over the counter glasses rather than having to worry about bifocals or switching glasses.

In the meantime, I don't need to cram glasses into a helmet or futz with contactsat the track. My vision is better than 20/15. And I can walk aaround the woods at night without a flashlight.