What Would You Do If You Were Almost Blind? I Had Actually Had Lenses Implanted In My Eyes
Posted on February 28, 2008 - Filed Under Health and Fitness
Physically, I have been very fortunate all my life. No major illness or disease save one- extremely poor eyesight. How bad? Without glasses or contacts, I couldn’t read the big “E”. I wore glasses until from the age of 10 until I was about 16 when I started wearing contacts.
The glasses years.
During my early adolescence, I was fortunate to be raised by a stepfather who was a retired Army Sergeant. So whenever I had the good fortune of breaking my heavy coke-bottom-bottle glasses, I would be carted off to the local military base (most often Fort Ben Harrison) to have my standard issue black framed military glasses repaired or replaced. I was a very active child, and it seemed I would break them every six months or so. I vividly remember once just swinging on a hot day and the glasses slid off my face and broke when they landed (couldn’t get them to believe that one). I won’t go into detail the evil children can commit to others, everyone has their own stories from childhood and I am sure you can imagine the teasing, rejection, and abuse I took as a child.
The contact lens years
Once I was able to drive and earn an income I pushed hard to get contacts. I was no longer a freak and social acceptance started to change. The fact that I had hit puberty and grew about 1/2″ a month for a while didn’t hurt either (I am currently 35yrs old and 6′1″ 220lbs with an average build). I loved my contacts, it allowed me to actively participate in physical sports such as Football and Wrestling. The problem with hating my glasses so much was that I RARELY wore them. I never had the eye infections that I have heard of from wearing contacts for unreasonable amounts of time, but my optometrist would always ask how often I removed my contacts because it appeared my eyes weren’t getting enough oxygen.
The option of LASIK surgery
LASIK has been around for years and I have kept up on the advances and limitations over the years. I realized early on that my severe myopia would likely make me ineligible for the surgery. Not until I met an individual that stated his eyesight was almost as bad as mine had the surgery. That news prompted me to to ask my optometrist for a referral. He directed me to Price Vision group where after some testing, I was given the news I had expected- I wasn’t eligible. They then offered me another solution, to actually implant lenses in my eyes surgically. After extensive research on the matter and a couple of sleepless nights, I decided to have the surgery.
The Verisyse surgery
The 1st surgery was the worst, because I was a couple of days before I could see the improvement due to the stitches in my eye which caused astigmatism. I had serious doubts on whether I had made the right decision. It wasn’t until the morning of the surgery of the second eye that I could see well enough to allow them to perform the second surgery (they removed the stitches the day before). I can now see as clearly as ever with one small exemption- I have some slight night vision. I will catch some glare at night time in my peripheral vision.
I love the choice I have made and would be happy to discuss the entire event with anyone who is considering the surgery.
If you would like to see hi-res photos of the lens in my eye or video of the actual surgery, you can visit my personal website for more information.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~jawells/coolsurgery.html
Tags: cool eye surgery, eye surgery, lens implants, verisyse lens
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