# Eye issues



## Webmaster (Dec 16, 2011)

Eye issues affect everyone, fat and thin, and so I'll share my experience with eye sight and eye problems.

I was lucky insofar as I never needed corrective glasses. But I started needing readers in my mid-40s. I started with the 1.0s, and gradually worked my way up to my current 2.0s. I usually get el-cheapo glasses from drug stores. They get the job done (though at least once I paid dearly for my cheapness with glasses: giving a speech in Stockholm, the frame of my glasses broke right in half and I had to finish the speech holding up my glasses with one hand, rather shaken and not making the best of impressions).

I had the chicken pox when I was 19, and some of it got into one of my eyes. As a result I couldn't not focus my eyes for several months. That went away, but permanent damage revealed itself decades later. It became enough of a nuisance that I had an eye operation about ten years ago. While the surgeon declared it a success, it also meant re-training my brain to the new eye geometry for almost a year. And it resulted in one eye's horizon being about 7 degrees off from the other, making for stressful viewing, headaches, squinting, etc. So I am once again close to considering a follow-up operation. But with health care coverage that, while hugely expensive, covers almost nothing and has a large deductible, I am not sure I can go for it.

Good eye sight is just so important, especially when you make a living sitting in front of a computer display.

What are your eye issues?


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## Fat_Angel (Dec 16, 2011)

Aside from having to wear glasses because I am nearsighted..I also have macular degeneration and I'm only 43! I take supplements and thankfully, it hasn't progressed to much yet.


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## CastingPearls (Dec 16, 2011)

My ophthalmologist says I have astonishingly tight tarsal plates (a connective tendon under the eyelid) which while they makes my eyes look pretty, also don't allow me to wear most contact lenses--they pop right out. Add to that, multiple astigmatisms in each eye and there are maybe only three brands of 'off the rack' contacts I can wear, only there's a catch--they don't completely correct the astigmatism in one eye so my depth perception is affected because both eyes can't totally focus in unison. Walking down steep steps can be scary. 

Wearing glasses doesn't really correct the astigmatisms and when I have to wear them to give my eyes a break from contacts, the perception actually nauseates me.


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## cinnamitch (Dec 16, 2011)

Nearsighted with bad astigmatisms and a lazy eye(left)


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## Sweet Tooth (Dec 17, 2011)

I have close to 20/20 vision, but I have a form of corneal dystrophy. Found out about it a year ago, although I'd have to say I've noticed the symptoms for probably 5 years before that. Just thought it was aging. When my corneas get a fluid buildup, my vision changes can make it seem like I really have 30/20 or 40/20 vision. I get light sensitive, have double vision in one eye, and all sorts of other fun issues. Last Christmas was pretty miserable thanks to an erosion that caused me to tear incessantly for a week and need sunglasses - even indoors...with the lights off. I am supposed to do 5% saline drops 4 times a day for basically the rest of my life although I admit they sting like a bitch and I get too busy a lot of days to remember them like I should.


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## jdsumm (Dec 17, 2011)

I had excellent vision my entire life and was even told by an eye doctor when I was in my thirties that my eyesight was so good I would likely not ever need readers, or at least not till I was very old...WELL he was wrong. 2 years ago I developed cataracts...I was only 44 years old!!! I was the youngest person my surgeon had done cataract surgery on, although his partner had once had a 39 year old patient. He said it was due to the fact that I am fair skinned with blue eyes, but primarily because I had a time in my life a few years back where I had to take high doses of steroids for an extended period for my asthma. The surgeon believes this was the trigger for the cataracts. I have had the surgery on my left eye and have a cataract lens. I have a cataract in my right eye as weill and will need to have surgery on it in the next few years. I have had the left lens in for well over a year now and it has sucked! I mean it was a completely successful surgery, but I went from perfect vision, to cloudy vision with the cataract, to suddenly being far sighted since the lens is only single vision. Since cataracts are usually in older patients their eyesight has slowly deteriorated with time so it isn't as big a deal, but for me it seems so drastic to not be able to see things close up at all without glasses. I found myself trying to force my eye to FOCUS until I could see, which of course isn't possible since it is not a lens that I can adjust like my old human one. I am amazed about how tired my eyes get and how being tired makes me not be able to see things. I was an avid reader with a voratious appetite for learning but now rarely read because I get headaches and my eyes tire so quickly. I used to read books in one sitting all the time, now I am lucky to finish a chapter in one sitting which is so frustrating for me. On the positive side (I hate to sound whiny and my post so far has been very pitiful)...on the positive side of things going from near perfect vision to what I have now has become a powerful life lesson in my life I think. Hopefully it has made me a more grateful and appreciative person for things I used to take for granted.


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## Gingembre (Dec 17, 2011)

Astigmatism making me verrrrry near sighted. I can just about read a book 'au naturel' if i practically have my nose touching the page! Don't know if UK prescriptions are the same as US/Canada, but I'm a -8.25 girl!


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## Webmaster (Dec 22, 2011)

jdsumm said:


> ...Hopefully it has made me a more grateful and appreciative person for things I used to take for granted.



I can relate. Eye operations, especially, tend to totally throw one's brain and you practically have to relearn how to see properly. After I had my eye operation where the surgeon reattached an eye muscle in a different place to compensate for a slight paralysis in one of the muscles, it took forever for my brain to adjust so I could once again see properly. And even after my brain had fully adjusted after a year or so, the operation had left the geometry of the eye muscles such that some movement was simply no longer possible. So while the surgeon shrugged off the slight misalignment (at the time he had a golf appointment to keep), it has pretty much been the bane of my existence ever since the operation. Which is one of the many reasons why I am very skeptical of any and all operations, unless they are absolutely necessary.


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