Eye Checkup OT

Rick: My father, birthday today, had cateract surgery when in his 70's. He can now see without the use of glasses and only needs reading glasses. George.

If you are talking about and are eligible for Lasix surgery, I know a few people who have had good luck. A couple ended up slowly (2-3 years after surgery) going back to reading glasses, but overall their eyesight was better than before surgery. I've heard that it's not uncommon to have to go back in for a "follow up" procedure. One person decided he didn't care for it after they gave him the temporary contact lenses (one set for far sight, one set for near sight). He said they made him dizzy, but didn't leave them in for more than a few hours for his body to adjust. My brother did it about 6 years ago, he was told to hide his glasses in a drawer when he got home He said he went to bed, got up and did the same thing he had done for the past 40 years... reach for his glasses, when he realized they weren't where they should be, he went looking for them... then it dawned on him that he could see perfectly without them.

Lee

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Rick -

I'd reccomend getting several opinions (optermetric physician or eye surgeon) on caterac surgery for your particular case. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. I had one eye done - it didn't make a bit of difference. However, I was advised ahead of time that my diagnosis barely showed a need for surgery, so at least I wasn't surprised. Here (Seattle), they do these surgeries on a production line basis with only a local anesthetic - I was driving the next day, at work the day after. Guess I'd say that unless you have a strong indication that you are good candidate for surgery, I'd hold off.

I know what you mean about after 50. For me, the magic age was about

58 or so, then it was like I, or at least my health, took a wrong turn. Right about when Bush got in.

As one doc told me, there's no silver bullet. Good luck.

Frank Starr

Yeah there is two kind of Lasix, one is RK the older method and the other is PRK whick is still using lazers but instead of using serveral cut around the eye it work on the lens itself to refocus the lens correctly on the rita. 5 years ago I was going to have it done and decided to wait becuase it was too new and want to see the after effects after 5-10 years.

I had PRK in 97, went from 20/800 to 20/20. Today it's 20/20 and 20/30, the FAA is still happy with my eyesight, I do need reading glasses though as it takes a long time to get distance focus if I read without them for too long.

I'd recommend it to anyone.

Rick Courtier wrote:

Mom's cataract surgery went well, despite her having a minor infection problem. She sees better now then when she was 20.

If she could feel her feet, she could drive again.

p.d.

Rick Courtier wrote:

A lens implant will correct for vision at one optimum distance, as the lens can't change shape like the one you are born with can. When both eyes are worked on, some people get one eye set for reading and the other one for distance. As with seeing with only one eye, you will adapt somewhat to judge distances.

Interesting timing, Rick, I just announced in the Chapter newsletter that we need a new rep on the Car Council to replace me as I am giving up some driving as of now and will propbably stop driving completely in a year or so.

These things happen........

Karl

I've been blind in one eye and can't see out the other since 2nd grade. Not really - just 20/400 vision w/ Atsygmatism and now I need bifocals to read stuff.

I am grateful as hell I live in the year 2006 and have the science of optics to correct me to 20/20.

I have always needed glasses and I appreciate my sight a HUGE amount.

It is that appreciation that makes me very leery of doing anything to FXXK up wht little sight I do have.

I too am waiting until it is routine and they have a track record and the price is reasonable. When I get 'er done, I will do one eye at a time.

It's hell getting old.

Mark (resident bat) Dunning

Recently, I had a detached retina. I didn't realize what it was; and would have been much better off if I had gone to the eye doctor sooner. Generally, people aren't well informed about this problem. Although the odds really aren't as bad as the often quoted 1 in 20; nearsighted, ( greater than 5 diopters), 50 year old males are much more likely to have retinal detachments than the general population. It can happen spontaneously, as mine did. Some studies show a higher rate of detachment after Lazic. It's generally attributed to the nearsightedness that caused the person to have the surgery, rather than the surgery itself. It has to do with the elongated shape of the eyeball. There does seem to be an increased likelihood of a detachment after cataract surgery. Here are two good sites, for more information:

. . Mike M.

This has been an interesting thread for me, too. I'm badly nearsighted, and have lost the close-up vision, too. I wear contact lenses for distance, and put on reading glasses for closeup work. Also have a degree of astigmatism.

I thought about having LASIK surgery done, and went to a well-regarded sugeon here in Calgary. He told me that my corneas are too thin and too irregular for LASIK; too much risk of burning through in a thin spot. They COULD do PRK, apparently, but the recovery time is much longer....

His recommendation was to have a "refractive lens replacement". Essentially the same surgery as done for cataracts. They break up and suck out the eye's original lens, and replace it with a plastic lens designed to lodge straight in the capsule which contained the original lens. They now sell a "pseudo-adaptive" lens, one in which the power of the lens varies with the radius from the center. The center of the lens is optimized for distance vision, and the periphery is optimized for closeup vision. This works because the size of the pupil tends to vary with the distance at which one's eyes are focussed. The surgeon claimed that 95% of the people who receive the pseudo-adaptive lens can dispense with reading glasses, as well as any visual aids for distance.

Has anyone here had experience with these lenses? It's quite a lot of expense, and it's a one-way trip. You can't get your own lenses put back in.

Gord Richmond

After 9 eye operations, you need to clarify what exactly you consider "blind". When I have an exam my right eye can count the brush strokes of paint on the wall much less the lowest line. When asked to read the eye chart with my left eye, I ask what chart?

Before any surgery, I suggest a second and third opinion. In the last two years based on age, I have gone thru four prescription changes, manly due to computer work, and then going from computer to looking at things at normal distances. For example during the day, I can read the Nikon manual for my new camera. At night when I wan to study it more, as the print is too light and small.

Pat, Back in 1978 a FAA doctor pulled my ticket because of eye sight. I fought it and the FAA allowed me to apply for a demonstration waiver of ability. I made an appointment at teterboro and flew my Cherokee 140 down there. The examiner was a wise ass, and as we taxied out he told me to keep the nose wheel down the white line as we took off. Trying to break the tension, I told him the white line was wider than the runway at the airport that I keep my plane.

We took off, and climbed to about 3500 agl, when he started to ask me to read the instruments in a very fast pace. Then he asked me if I saw any taffic, we were over the NY TCA so there was traffic, and I pointed out what I saw, then I started calling out aircraft that was not there. What was he going to say? So he agreed with every plane and chopper I called out.

After we landed, he wanted to know how I learned to land with one eye? I explained to him about a guy named Wiley Post who had one eye, and people could not figure out how he could land. Post figured out that if you look out the side of the plane you can determine the height you are at by looking at famiiar things, buildings, cars, and relate to your heght above ground.

I accumulated over 800 hours, and then when my buddy who taught me to fly passed away it no longer was fun with out him, the airport was no longer fun, and Ellen and I felt "you can't go back". We tried a couple of different small airports, and even tried Westchester County, but it took 15 min to 30 min to taxi to the active.

Billy G Tailspin Tannenbaums Flying Aardvark Airlines

I had the "old" RK in the late 80's. The doc was trained in Russia where the sugery was developed. I kept forgetting my glasses from a sleeping start on a Fire Call and would be driving the 100' tillered ladder truck with my 20/70, 20/80 vision. Not good. My Captain "reminded" me that I needed my glasses, but my eyes kept getting worse. I had the RK where they cut radial incisions to change the shape of the eye....I went to better than 20/20!. I could see like a eagle and that lasted many years. My reading ability steadily went south. I now need

1.75 to 2.5 reading glasses for up close work and my eyes are back to 20/70. But I had almost twenty years of great vision. I'm going back for a "tune-up". I am not a candidate for the "flap" type lasix, so they are going to scrape my cornea. Not a pretty thought, but I should have 20/20 again and my reading will be no worse. But you are fooling with your eyes. Check out your Doc very well and if possible get a second opinion. Kelly

Kelly,

I suggest that you try it on just one eye.

Karl