I am aware of the risks. Most of the time when things go wrong it’s because people have tried to save money and gone to places that don’t take all the care they can. The place I am going to has special iris tracking and the machine shuts down straight away if your eye moves. It tracks 22 000 points on the cornea. They also don’t do the surgery if your cornea isn’t thick enough. They also offer implantable contact lenses that are permanent but also removable. It will cost a lot but I consider it worth it as having to wear impacts pretty much every part of my life.
It’s not just an inconvenience for me. I can’t see without glasses. Most of those eye charts go to about 20/300, I am off those those charts. Nothing is clear unless it is within 5cm from my face. My glasses are thicker than 1cm even after being ground as thin as possible. If I drop my glasses I damn sure can’t find them again. I can’t see in the shower. I can’t see in pools, or at the beach or at water parks. If I am out and something happens to my glasses I am unable to drive home. Glasses interfere with me doing karate.
I wear progressives myself they still need to be placed accurately. I’m extremely nearsighted without my glasses I can only focus on something about 3-4” from my eye. I’m pretty much screwed without my glasses and even the strongest OTC reading glasses don’t help. I have vision insurance that covers yearly exams and bi-yearly glasses. I’m old enough to need eye checks regularly. I’ve worn glasses over 60 years so I’m pretty used to them. Glasses are something I use every day, all day I don’t mind paying for them.
Well some butthurt nimrod flagged my post. But whatever. It could be considered off topic. I didn’t think so, because love it and hate it, this country finds every way possible to scam people out of their hard earned cash, including who-woulda-thunk eye exams.
as long as you dont have heaviest astigmatism, not extremly shortsighted which forces you to wear thick, heavy coke-bottle-glasses, you better off with the usual. and as a lot here mentioned, your eyes keep changing, so you will need a pair of glasses anyway when you getting older.
as a sidenote; the US-system seems really out of control, given that I paid for my pair of glasses with simple silicat and without coating all included (that means eye exam, frame and glasses, measured and bought in an actual shop in the streets of berlin, right around the corner where I live, everything without prescription or even insurance at all)…
17.50 euros.
thats right, about 19 $. no, I shit you not, these glasses:
As someone who has made their own (glass and plastic) from “scratch”, it’s doable but:
-4x as many surfaces as a telescope mirror
-but you don’t need to be quite as accurate in the figuring
-inducing stigmatism is a pain and nigh on impossible in higher prescriptions.
-getting/making all the tools, testing equipment and materials you need is a chore.
-then you need to edge the lenses to fit your frames or be darned careful in drilling tiny holes.
I am seriously wondering what is up with the increase in acute angular closure glaucoma of late. Is there a push to diagnose, is there money involved in diagnosing this illness- I swear everyone and their brother now has acute angular glaucoma risk and requires the surgery. Something’s up. Either we all of a sudden have a rampant run on glaucoma patients (what causes a rise like this- thought it was genetic?)- or something’s up.
I didn’t know there was an uptick in reporting this; mine was actually starting, so it wasn’t a scam in my case. I was getting flashing lights due to the build up in pressure (I thought it might be a detaching/detached retina), eye soreness and a significant decrease in my vision; I couldn’t read the largest letters on the largest chart even with my glasses on. The problems cleared up within a few days of the surgery.
My place gives you samples and a test fitting. Once you have those, you have the numbers to order what ever you need.
Also, it appears that “disposable” contacts can be reused if you are diligent with care. I had a pair of contacts last so long they yellowed (pre they days of disposable ones). So for now, my game plan is on the handful of occasions per year I want to force myself to wear contacts again, I’ll just be sure to handle them carefully and clean them. You know, for like Comicon.
thats right; I use my “dailys” usualy up to 4 times with mechanical cleaning between my fingertips with very clean washed hands and combined cleaning/saline-solution…
I had a pair of contacts last so long they yellowed
??? NEVER do THAT again! SERIOUSLY! you know what a streptococci-infection on your EYE feels like?!? you dont want to know;
20 years ago I almost lost my right eye because I was - and please dont take this the wrong way - as stupid as your little anecdote suggests. SERIOUSLY, Im not joking! 14 days hospitalization with no guarentee if I could ever see normal again out of my right eye…or anything at all! because of weared off contacts!
if you use dailys multiple times, not more than 5x in a row and at all. and once youd opend the original package, use them! you cant store them anymore after that exept for a few days!
dont fuck with your eyes around, I had to learn the hard way, so you dont have to
if you ever going to visit germany, this is where you get it. doesnt matter where you from, but you have to wait 3-8 days before you can pick it up in the store.
The issue I have isn’t with the samples, it’s with the process. When I recently went in for an eye exam and updated prescription (covered 100% by my insurance), I asked about contacts as well, because my supply was running out. I was told that a contact lens exam is a totally separate process that involves a test fitting, isn’t covered by insurance, and has to be scheduled a month in advance. I’m baffled as to why this needs to be a hassle.
These were the long lasting kind, but yes, you’re right, I wore them waaaayyyy too long. I just kept doing the cleaning and they worked fine… poor college student, I was just trying to save money.
I guess call around for a new place? They fitting was a separate appointment, which was a good thing because the first sample wasn’t quite right. But I think it was a week or so after my visit. That is a weird hassle.
When I last bought eyeglasses, I needed trifocals, went for invisible lines, thin, coating that’s supposed to help with working in front of a computer monitor all day, etc.
The glasses cost me over $900. My wife’s glasses at the same time were about $100 less, but still insanely expensive.
As a result of that sticker shock, I haven’t gone back to have my eyes tested again in several years even though I need to. I haven’t gotten my damned money’s worth out of this pair yet.
ETA After getting about halfway through the comments, I just made the eye exam appointment for next Friday. This is going to be fun.
ETA2 From the comments about the EyeQue subscription fee for the app, I checked it out in the AppStore and it doesn’t say anything about a subscription IAP. How much is the subscription?
I’m just mildly curious because I’m confident my eyes are too fucked up for any “at home” solution.
My current frames are from these guys http://141eyewear.com/
And I got this frame BURLINGTON – NEW COLOR | 141eyewear and they were actually quite affordable ($150ish I think). My lenses after the fun of progressives, anti reflection, blue blocking, etc were more expensive.
I still have an old second pair for midrange/starting at the computer screen as while at work I was looking at enough screen to take up my entire field of vision and that part had not changed.
