Take the nearsighted survey! I have seen some and am making one now!

I am doing a survey for fun and research on nearsightedness. Any
responses
greatly appreciated. Survey questions, I'll answer first to serve as
examples.



1. Age at which you got your first pair of glasses and how strong?
I was 12 and got -1
2. Your current pescription(if you also have astigmastim, state it) and
vision without correction(UCVA) and vision with correction(BCVA)?
Left eye= -5 20/600, Right eye= -4 with -1 astig. 20/400, I
correct to 20/30 and can see some of the 20/25 line.
3. Do you wear glasses or contacts, preference?
Glasses. First tried contacts last year and tried them several times
but could never tolerate them.
4. What things are you able to do without correction?
Eat, read, go for a walk outside durning the day, go swimming,
shower. Theres a few more things I can do but its not very easy nor
comfortable with my poor UCVA.
5. How close do you need to hold things to see without lenses?
This is elementary, but I see this question in the other survays so
I have included it for completness. At -5 I can see at 1/5th meter.
When I measured, I got 20.5 centimeters perfectly clear in the worse
eye, 21.5cm in the better eye. Should be 25cm but the astigmastim
blurs. With both eyes together, I read at 9-10 inches away but can read
at a foot or even more in very bright light.
6. What age did you start wearing lenses full time and why?
To the best of my memory, probably when I begun high school. I was
already like -2.5 diopters.
7. How old are you now and male/female?
Male of 24 years old.
8. How does your vision compare with other family members?
Much of my family and relatives have the myopia gene. My eyes is
quite bad but not as bad as my mom whos in the -7 range. My sister is
just under -3(-2.75 contacts) and my lucky brother is only -1.25 so he
doesnt need glasses except for driving. I have a cousin whos a high
myope at -6.25
9. Do you have any plans to get surgury done on your eyes(prk, lasik,
intacs, IOLs, etc)
Nope, too risky, especially with my huge pupils.
10. Have you tried natural vision improvement?
Oh why, yes I have! I have experienced a small, but measurable
improvement. Still improving and still working on it! I know tons of
others who have improved, most achieving between 1 and 2 diopter
improvement!

 

I'll bite.

1) Age at which you got your first pair of glasses and how strong?

15 years old. 20/60 in both eyes. -1.75 OD & -2.00 OS (I have
my old records)

2) Your current pescription(if you also have astigmastim, state it) and

vision without correction(UCVA) and vision with correction(BCVA)?

-2.50 OD & OS with no correction for astigmatism. When I started
vision therapy I was -3.50,-.50x180 OD & -4.25,-.50x180 OS.

3) Do you wear glasses or contacts, preference?

Glasses &/or disposeable soft lenses. Preference is to not have
to bother with either as both are inconvenient and down right annoying.
In fact, I tossed my last pair of glasses in a fit of violent anger
after accidently poking myself in the eye with the frame.

4) What things are you able to do without correction?

I can do anything, but obviously certain things are not smart to
do without correction (i.e. driving) and some stuff is easier to do
with corrected distance vision.

5. How close do you need to hold things to see without lenses?

It depends on what I am doing.

6. What age did you start wearing lenses full time and why?

I was 15 and wore them because I was told I needed to if I wanted
to see clearly.

7) How old are you now and male/female?

Last time I felt, I was a 37 year old male

8) How does your vision compare with other family members?

Younger brother is the same original prescription as I am. Father,
age 80, has a lesser myopic prescription then me but no need for
glasses for close work. Mom has clear distance vision but needs
readers.

9) Do you have any plans to get surgury done on your eyes(prk, lasik,
intacs, IOLs, etc)

I have thought about it many times and may do it one day. All my
expreiences with laser vision correction find me encountering centers
more concerned about making money then addressing me as an indvidual.

10. Have you tried natural vision improvement?

I am the poster child for natural vision therapy. It has helped more
so with the strabismus, emmotropia, and visual acuity of my visual
system. This increase in visual efficiency has reduced my
pseudo-myopia. Now if someone has a way to naturally correct
axial-length myopia I'm all ears.

 

Hmph. As usual, nobody gives a damn about the farsighted.

--
Cheers,
Bev
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in
poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are
apparently doing quite well for themselves." -- Emo Philips

 

OD -23.50 -2.50x43 OS -25.50 -5.50x92

my nose, and even this is not good

yeah right, like a few dioptres is really useful! GMAB

 

Tresa I have been an optometrist for 14 years and not only have I never
seen a patient with your myopia, I have never heard first hand of it
either - congratulations, you take the cake!

Do you wear contacts sometimes?

Dom

 

yeah i get this reaction a lot...and even scare most opticians!

i don't wear contacts

 

yeah i get this reaction a lot, and instill fear in the hearts of
well-intended optometrists and opticians. other than that i get by
just fine with glasses, and have only a couple of times tried contacts.
maybe IOLs someday.

tre

 

OD -23.50 -2.50x43 OS -25.50 -5.50x92

Glasses.[/QUOTE]

I was very myopic for years. I was resistant, but finally moved to
contacts. They work much better for many severely myopic people. If
you haven't tried them, I would suggest that you talk to your OD about
them at your next visit. They will change how your face looks and they
don't fog up when you do sports.

I always found that I actually slept better without glasses.

It always freaked me out that I could focus on the end of my nose.

I didn't start until fourth grade, and it was *way* too late. I had no
idea what the world looked until I got glasses!

Perhaps they are a plan. I would try contacts first. Unless you
already have accommodative problems, IOLs will cause you to lose *all*
accommodation. That's OK for us older folk, because we already lost it.

 

Visit me at Yahoo!
http://profiles.yahoo.com/kelly_lenti

You look really good in your fat eyeglasses!

Maybe the next killer style?

 

yeah right....

 

Thanks for your replies!

Bass, -1.75 and 20/60 isnt bad! This means at your -2.5 you arent much
worse, right?
As for lasik I see no reason for you to get it and in my opinion you
arent likley to be happy if you get it, especially since you wont
reduce dependancy on glasses. You are my role model on NVI!


Andrea, you are quite fortunate your pescription is fairly low. Have
you considered natural vision improvement? Bass improved ALOT!

Do you know Tresa? Her pescription is just mind boggling! Even her
astigmastim is very severe in one eye and moderate in the other! Most
optometrists have never seen anything like it. I know one who has been
in practice for 20 years and the highest he has seen was -19 and that
was not long after he started optometry! He rarely even sees patients
with myopia in the low teens!

Contacts, especially RGP are very popular for the highly myopic as it
gives much better BCVA with little, if any minification and disortion
glasses give. With her pescription, she would only be able to see an
inch and a half past her eyes and see nothing past her nose! How well
does she correct with glasses? RGP contacts? What *can* she see without
correction? I am really curious! How far can she count fingers(if even
possible) what about hand motions?
As for IOLs, there is phakic IOLs but she wont get a full correction
with them and still need glasses for the remainder of her myopia and
astigmastim. Stick to RGPs for now.

 

Thanks for your replies!

Bass, -1.75 and 20/60 isnt bad! This means at your -2.5 you arent much
worse, right?
As for lasik I see no reason for you to get it and in my opinion you
arent likley to be happy if you get it, especially since you wont
reduce dependancy on glasses. You are my role model on NVI!


Andrea, you are quite fortunate your pescription is fairly low. Have
you considered natural vision improvement? Bass improved ALOT!

Do you know Tresa? Her pescription is just mind boggling! Even her
astigmastim is very severe in one eye and moderate in the other! Most
optometrists have never seen anything like it. I know one who has been
in practice for 20 years and the highest he has seen was -19 and that
was not long after he started optometry! He rarely even sees patients
with myopia in the low teens!

Contacts, especially RGP are very popular for the highly myopic as it
gives much better BCVA with little, if any minification and disortion
glasses give. With her pescription, she would only be able to see an
inch and a half past her eyes and see nothing past her nose! How well
does she correct with glasses? RGP contacts? What *can* she see without
correction? I am really curious! How far can she count fingers(if even
possible) what about hand motions?
As for IOLs, there is phakic IOLs but she wont get a full correction
with them and still need glasses for the remainder of her myopia and
astigmastim. Stick to RGPs for now.

 

Why don't you wear contacts?

Dom

 

i've never really been able to. my astigmatism is too severe, i can't
read anything with them, things jump and twitch and i get seasick, they
really hurt my eyes, and i am totally afraid of them falling out.

 

I would think RGP contacts do a great job with the astigmastim and if
not, a thin pair of glasses over them to correct the remainder of the
astigmastim? Whats your BCVA with contacts? glasses? What *can* you see
without correction? How far can you count fingers? hand motions? very
curious to the vision of a myope over -20! See my previous replies a
couple posts above this one.

 

Ace,

-2.5 still sucks. I am still myopic and still require corrective
eyeware if I want to see clearly in the distance. I can function
reasonably well without but it is still inhibiting.

It has been theorized that most of my improvement in my vision has come
from an improvement in my acuity. Minimization of my strabismus and
improvement in my focal ability and emmotropia (+sp?) has reduced my
pseudo-myopia. If I can not get any more improvement that would
theoretically mean the remainder of my myopia is axial-length. Since
the only person in the world that seems to think -2.0 is an acceptable
form of myopia, the rest of us who don't like it want to know how we
can improve on that without corrective lenses.

 

what difference does it make if i can see fingers at 3 inches or six
inches? i have no idea. i see with glasses and don't see w/o glasses,
and that is really all i know. i find it funny that anyone should
really care about uncorrected acuity, since any of us who wear glasses
full time cannot really function in life w/o them. who cares how far a
hand has to be from the eyes until they are indistinct? what
incremental advantage do i have (or not have) if i can count fingers a
foot away from my eyes? none.

with glasses? well, not 20/20, but i can get around without bumping
into too many people. itw, i can do most things that normally signted
poeple can, though i have had to give up my dreams of being a fighter
pilot (j/k).

y

 

Bass,

its all relative. -2.5 may suck but nowhere near as much as -4.5! We
both need correction but I need it much more than you do. The fact you
go without glasses much of the time is testament to the fact. I will
agree in your case -2.5 is functional but inhibiting. In my case, its
borderline non functional. I think some myopia like -2 is acceptable
only because of something called presbyopia. If I didnt have
presbyopia(ophthalmologist's words) I would be much less tolerating of
any myopia. Again, why dont you overcorrect yourself to simulate
presbyopia? It really sucks not seeing clearly from near. Mine isnt
even that bad but I know itll get worse as I get older. I dont "need"
-4.5 diopters but something like -2 is ideal to keep you out of
readers. Plano is fine for far distance but anything closer starts to
get blurrier and blurrier. I am going to improve my vision as much as I
can and get rid of all my pseudomyopia. I probably have around -3.5 of
axial myopia but I hope its less. I will wait for something based on
the principle of orthoK to come around but longer lasting(see my thread
on epithelium thinning) and get my myopia down to about a -2. This is
enough for the best "balance" between near and distance vision and I
can always wear glasses for driving or watching movies, no biggie.

 

Tresa, It was just something I am curious about. You can hold your own
fingers and find out. I was talking to this -11 sperhical equivalent
lady who couldnt see her own fingers held at arm's length. I had a hard
time believing her vision was so blurry. She couldnt even walk around
the house without glasses or she would bump into furniture and walls! I
know you dont see without glasses, but theres different amounts of
"dont see" I am trying to get an idea of the blur someone with your
myopia experiences. The best simulation ive done was with several pairs
of reading glasses but this -11 lady said its not the same, for one
those reading glasses magnify, especially when stacked. She says while
I do experience lots of blur, everything is bigger and closer, similar
to weak binoculars.

The minification and disortion of your over -20 glasses with cylindar
in them would make 20/20 impossible. Are you legal to drive or
otherwise pass the DMV for 20/40? From my research, it appears most
extremely highly myopic individuals have reduced correctable vision. I
know a -17 who sees 20/40 with myodiscs. I know one optometrist who has
tested a few myopes -15 to -18 and said they corrected to 20/40 to
20/50.

Are your eyes still getting worse? What can be done to slow or halt its
progression? How bad can it get? Wont there be problems with the
retina?

 

You could be an icon for Pearl Vision. The one they got is a total fake.
http://www.pearlevision.com/images/espots/epsot_home_lg.jpg