Literally me for decades. My astigmatism wasn’t diagnosed until 2-3 years ago despite yearly (or semi-yearly) visits to the optometrist. Thought that was just how lights looked in the dark lol.
I was at the optometrist explaining the streaky lights AS I WAS WALKING OUT WITH A PRESCRIPTION FOR MY ASTIGMATISM and the doc was like “you were probably squinting, causing that effect”. Bro
I was getting my pupils dilated for the optometrist to properly measure the extent of my astigmatism.
Had never had that procedure done before.
…As I am leaving, with eyes blurry as fuck from being dilated…
Receptionist tells me if I leave now, I might be able to dodge rush hour.
… I wish I could have actually seen the expression on her face when she said that, but I couldn’t.
Due to being temporarily legally blind.
From the procedure that she had just-
sigh
So yeah I made it about two blocks in my car, said NOPE, and just fucking sat in a parking lot for something like an hour, till I could fucking see again.
American health care just literally is a sadistic joke.
Lol I had the same procedure and sat in my car after calling someone to come pick me up, but they took too long and I decided to just drive myself anyways. I couldn’t read signs, but traffic lights and other cars were visible enough. I bet there are a lot of old people on the road driving around regularly with eyesight that bad or worse.
Oh yeah, I am of the strong opinion that everyone should need to fully redo their drivers test, written and practical, every 5 years, hit 60, every 3 years, hit 72, every single year.
There are way too many idiots who don’t know how to drive, and driving is such a … multi faceted skill that requires so many of your body processes to be working well… and basically all of those start to nose dive after a certain age.
I used to see images like this explaining what an astigmatism was and just thought “well your windshield can cause this too so that’s probably what I’m seeing”
I genuinely don’t know why this was the conclusion I came to. Got an Rx for glasses a few years ago now and like most of my family I have a mild astigmatism.
Same. “If you get laser surgery you might get a starburst” but that’s what I see already, I don’t know what you mean. It took a while to get the rotation properly tuned in too.
(Since they tuned in the astigmatism and with the risk of side effects I decided no laser.)
Consider that once the laser you, your astigmatism is gone: even if you need corrective lenses, they’re much simpler than they could be.
As an example, my twin got his eyes done when he was rocking some serious coke-bottle lenses and working the fancy FAANG jobs and livin’ large. He’s had a coupla tune-ups, but never for the astigmatism. (and, even now, they’ve tuned one eye for close focus and the brain still copes, drastically reducing his need for presbyopia lenses)
I have 20/15 with glasses and astigmatism correction has eliminated the starbursting issue, so my (difficult) decision was that unnecessary surgery that could leave me with some combination of still needing glasses, poor night vision, starbursting, and especially dry eyes led me to decide to just settle for glasses.
I’m up to about $700 a pair these days (high fashion frames ain’t cheap, and they match my sweatpants) every two years or so, but it’s almost 100% insurance covered and they’d only cover 10% of my eventual laser bill.
Don’t think you get dry eyes and the sticky eye lid with LASIK. My buddy who got PRK (army boon lol) does complain about it though.
The only thing I got now is minor starburst, but I regret nothing. Ten years in and my vision got a bit worse, -87 diopter to -0.5 on both eyes after surgery to -1/1.5 now. But I’m above forty five so it’s normal. I could probably go for a corrective surgery.
However you know how trans people feel before transitioning? Body dismoprhia or dysphoria. While I was not in distress, looking into the mirror while I was still wearing glasses I was not seeing myself, but a stranger. Getting the surgery helped with that to an immediate effect, along with boosting my self confidence.
Long-time glasses-wearer. My face looks wrong without them, like someone missing their eyebrows. It is interesting how many little things around us are so different for us, like finding sunglasses that sit nicely, protective eyewear that isn’t kept too far away by my glasses’ corners, hats (less commonly a problem), any kind of helmet that approaches or covers the ears, headsets (I swear by earhooks). Not to mention the circumstances that fog them up, like sudden temperature changes (exiting a cooler building or car into a hot outside) or getting hit with a blast of steam from the kettle, oven, or whatever. Fog city, takes awhile to clear up during which I’m either blind because of fog or because of no glasses.
Literally me for decades. My astigmatism wasn’t diagnosed until 2-3 years ago despite yearly (or semi-yearly) visits to the optometrist. Thought that was just how lights looked in the dark lol.
I was at the optometrist explaining the streaky lights AS I WAS WALKING OUT WITH A PRESCRIPTION FOR MY ASTIGMATISM and the doc was like “you were probably squinting, causing that effect”. Bro
I was getting my pupils dilated for the optometrist to properly measure the extent of my astigmatism.
Had never had that procedure done before.
…As I am leaving, with eyes blurry as fuck from being dilated…
Receptionist tells me if I leave now, I might be able to dodge rush hour.
… I wish I could have actually seen the expression on her face when she said that, but I couldn’t.
Due to being temporarily legally blind.
From the procedure that she had just-
sigh
So yeah I made it about two blocks in my car, said NOPE, and just fucking sat in a parking lot for something like an hour, till I could fucking see again.
American health care just literally is a sadistic joke.
Lol I had the same procedure and sat in my car after calling someone to come pick me up, but they took too long and I decided to just drive myself anyways. I couldn’t read signs, but traffic lights and other cars were visible enough. I bet there are a lot of old people on the road driving around regularly with eyesight that bad or worse.
To your last point:
Oh yeah, I am of the strong opinion that everyone should need to fully redo their drivers test, written and practical, every 5 years, hit 60, every 3 years, hit 72, every single year.
There are way too many idiots who don’t know how to drive, and driving is such a … multi faceted skill that requires so many of your body processes to be working well… and basically all of those start to nose dive after a certain age.
Receptionist isn’t an opthalmologist, and she probably had no idea that you’d just been rendered temporarily legally blind.
You know, I don’t think you have a good eye doctor?
I used to see images like this explaining what an astigmatism was and just thought “well your windshield can cause this too so that’s probably what I’m seeing”
I genuinely don’t know why this was the conclusion I came to. Got an Rx for glasses a few years ago now and like most of my family I have a mild astigmatism.
Same. “If you get laser surgery you might get a starburst” but that’s what I see already, I don’t know what you mean. It took a while to get the rotation properly tuned in too.
(Since they tuned in the astigmatism and with the risk of side effects I decided no laser.)
Consider that once the laser you, your astigmatism is gone: even if you need corrective lenses, they’re much simpler than they could be.
As an example, my twin got his eyes done when he was rocking some serious coke-bottle lenses and working the fancy FAANG jobs and livin’ large. He’s had a coupla tune-ups, but never for the astigmatism. (and, even now, they’ve tuned one eye for close focus and the brain still copes, drastically reducing his need for presbyopia lenses)
I have 20/15 with glasses and astigmatism correction has eliminated the starbursting issue, so my (difficult) decision was that unnecessary surgery that could leave me with some combination of still needing glasses, poor night vision, starbursting, and especially dry eyes led me to decide to just settle for glasses.
I’m up to about $700 a pair these days (high fashion frames ain’t cheap, and they match my sweatpants) every two years or so, but it’s almost 100% insurance covered and they’d only cover 10% of my eventual laser bill.
Don’t think you get dry eyes and the sticky eye lid with LASIK. My buddy who got PRK (army boon lol) does complain about it though.
The only thing I got now is minor starburst, but I regret nothing. Ten years in and my vision got a bit worse, -87 diopter to -0.5 on both eyes after surgery to -1/1.5 now. But I’m above forty five so it’s normal. I could probably go for a corrective surgery.
However you know how trans people feel before transitioning? Body dismoprhia or dysphoria. While I was not in distress, looking into the mirror while I was still wearing glasses I was not seeing myself, but a stranger. Getting the surgery helped with that to an immediate effect, along with boosting my self confidence.
really? I like my glasses and I think they bring some personality to my face
Long-time glasses-wearer. My face looks wrong without them, like someone missing their eyebrows. It is interesting how many little things around us are so different for us, like finding sunglasses that sit nicely, protective eyewear that isn’t kept too far away by my glasses’ corners, hats (less commonly a problem), any kind of helmet that approaches or covers the ears, headsets (I swear by earhooks). Not to mention the circumstances that fog them up, like sudden temperature changes (exiting a cooler building or car into a hot outside) or getting hit with a blast of steam from the kettle, oven, or whatever. Fog city, takes awhile to clear up during which I’m either blind because of fog or because of no glasses.