Contacts

I should have put in my post that I have tried using contacts but they don't agree with me. They irritate my eyes.

I used to be in that same boat with contacts. I went with daily contacts with hydrogel that are essentially quite moist. It made a world of difference for me.

I will give those a look. Contacts are the obvious solution but I have had little success wearing them.

Do you wear them on the swim?

All the time- 14-18 hours/ day and I get to throw them out each night. I think the tech has progressed quite a bit.

LASIK or PRK. Had PRK 13 years ago, best decision ever.

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MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

agree. prk for me 9 years ago as too much change and not enough cornea for lasik. First month was tough as vision sorted itself out. would do it again without a second thought..

wife had lasik and could see well enough to drive next day and no pain at all.

i have no regrets even though at 53 i am starting to need reading glasses and occasionally glasses to drive at night but i can function without them and they are not the massive and heave -6 or -7 things i had to wear.

wide has started to wear reading glasses and glasses to drive more often than i do, and never really had the powerful and heavy distance glasses i had to wear, so despite lasik being undramatic in any way i think she now wonders why she did it. i think she just did it 5 years early - and in any case it is better to have a -0.75 and be able to function without glasses than a stronger prescription and actually need them all the time.

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And the question remains. where were you.

This times 100. Best thing i ever did for my love of doing sports and racing cars.

Yup... LASIK here 15ish years ago. Best money I have ever spent. Left eye probably needs it again... stupid aging.

yup, changed my life.

also I just this year hit the "paid for itself" mark. yes LASIK was expensive ($5k all inclusive with touch ups if needed, both eyes), but so were prescription glasses, sunglasses, and contacts/solutions, etc. I was spending about $600/year on that stuff. My doctors could never get my prescriptions quite right either, i was nearsighted, with astigmatisms, and a good dose of higher order aberrations. LASIK fixed them all.

Not sure if these will help but I ride in Dual Bifocal Sunglasses - 3.0 so I can also read my Garmin

https://www.dualeyewear.com/cycling-sport.html

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

I have the same problem as you, just wonder why you are so focused on getting a helmet with a shield? I guess the Giro Aerohead is the exception, but most aero helmets are faster without the shield anyway.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

X infinity + 17

Hello Calvin386 and All,

I have had Lasik and eye exams with Dr. Boxer Wachler for many years since his early practice at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Clinic .... now moved to: 465 N. Roxbury Drive, Suite 902, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 ....... Phone 310 594-5209

Website: http://www.boxerwachler.com/

Beverly Hills, CA 90210
He provides various procedures ...... includng Visian ICL.

Insertable lenses are one of the most exciting new breakthroughs in the field of enhanced vision care. After 13 years of study in Europe, insertable lenses are now approved by FDA to correct vision.

A significant advantage of the Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL is that this is bicompatible and “in sync” with the body. The Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL is removable and provides “HD Vision”. Over 500,000 procedures have been done worldwide.

The procedure is outpatient and can be typically performed in 10 minutes per eye with the goal of improvement to the patient’s vision by the very next day. Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL™ can also be updated with a new prescription should vision change in the future. Potential benefit of Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL™ is improved eyesight and potential risks are suboptimal vision, infection, inflammation, loss of vision among others. That is the reason that Dr. Brian and every staff member is highly “detail-oriented” about every step of the process for every patient. Dr. Brian and his team have published results in the medical literature and presented results at numerous medical conferences on Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL™.

Dr. Brian uses a specialized ultrasound device to determine to idealized size of the ICL. The ICL is customized to not just each person, but EACH EYE of each person.


The United States military commonly uses the Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL on those who serve our country. Their government-funded studies found Ultrasound-Guided Visian ICL provides superior vision over LASIK for higher degrees of nearsightedness.

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

Usually my glasses are covered in sweat which hampers my vision. I have already switched to running without any glasses. I have my watch set up in such a way that I can see it despite my bad eyesight. There is no set up where I can see my bike computer without glasses. By mile 20 on the bike, I'm looking through sweaty glasses but I can read the numbers. I was thinking that a shield may alleviate that a bit

You might find riding with a shield even more annoying than sweaty glasses...

Like you, I was unable to wear contacts successfully for a long time (decades). Then -- also because I wanted to ride with them -- I asked my eye doctor to please help, and we tried many different types and brands, and the daily ones similar to what was mentioned above worked for me.

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Michael

Google "stick on reading glasses". They cost about $15 you could stick them on the visor of your helmet. Some guys I work with use them on safety glasses.

Another vote for contact lenses. I use the extended wear type - very comfortable and you can wear them continuously for up to 30 days. No mucking about taking them in and out every day.

That's good info and I was a little worried that the shield would get just as sweaty as the glasses.

I may just have to try the contacts.Are your contacts single vision?

Single vision contacts or bifocal?

Eye doctor here. Without knowing your prescription or age, I can not say if LASIK/PRK would be an option. Daily disposable contact lenses might be an option. Again, this is dependent on your Rx, age, and expectations. Where do you live? I might be able to help you find a good eye doctor who understands your needs.

I have been fit and actually have a set of bifocal contacts. They are good for ~ 30 days. The problem is they irritate my eyes. I probably just haven't given myself enough time to get used to them.

Another + whatever here! My spouse and I both had Lasik done about 10 years ago... best money spent by both of us!

Contact lenses, especially the multi focal contact lenses, are like bikes. You may have been fit, but it could be a bad fit. Some lenses work well for certain people but suck in others. Also, when you start getting into the multifocals, the fit becomes exponentially more difficult to fine tune. Most doctors fit the Air Optix MF lenses. They are decent. I fit a lot of the Biofinity MF lenses and have better success with them.

How long have you worn the multi focal lenses? Have you returned to your doctor for follow up “fine tuning”? Most doctors will see you for 30 days after the fitting, at no charge, to adjust things.

I have not worn them for the full 30 days and have not returned to the doctor. I will schedule a visit. They will see me.

From what I am seeing here, it looks like I need to not give up on the contacts just yet or just get Lasik

I had LASIK performed 19 years ago and I am still 20/20 for distance. Unfortunately, I am now 58 am need reading glasses. I am going to try the stick-on things on my shield. Thanks.

OK, to semi-hijack this thread, doc, any advice for me. I am 64 y.o. and have an astigmatism in both eyes and am nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. Twenty some years ago i used gas permeable contacts every day for a few years. They gave me great vision, but they never were comfortable. It is hard to describe how they felt -- I always knew they were there and even though they did not make me cry when I had them in it was almost as if I was sad and getting ready to cry. Before the GP contacts, I tried soft toric contacts. They would not properly orient themselves for my astigmatisms (I think maybe because my eyes are not normally open as wide as the diameter of the contacts) and so they made my vision worse rather than better for much of the time. Before that, my astigmatisms weren't so bad, so my soft contacts were great.

Anyway, for the last twenty years I've been wearing glasses with progressive lenses. My eye doc at the time didn't recommend the multi-focal contacts. Anyway, the glasses mostly are perfect -- except I can't wear them when I swim. Inside it is not so bad. The black line on the bottom and walls of the pool are easy to see and my eyes are good enough to see the pace clock. But open water is another story. I leave my glasses in T1 and swim without, but have a hard time seeing where I am going. For example, in Cleveland I was one of the lucky ones with a relatively early starting wave. The chop wasn't so bad at first and I could see the orange marker buoys and yellow turn buoy on the way out and the second yellow turn buoy where we headed back for shore. I was all over the place after that, especially as I neared the second orange return marker buoy -- there was no equivalent to the yellow turn buoy near the finish (or anything else that stood out as my target to swim to -- the swim out arch-was black and in the shadows). The chop was coming up and maybe some current swirling around, and I could not figure out what direction to swim in.

I get the impression that lasik is not a good idea at my age. True? What about contacts? Have gas permeables advanced any over the last couple of decades? Even if they have, I wouldn't wear them every day unless multi-focal really works. If not, I would only wear the contacts occasionally, which I understand is not a good idea with GPs. Are the soft toric lenses any better than they were? For GP and/or toric were my problems just bad fit? Are there other contact solutions?

I understand that there are prescription goggles, but that worries me. Lots of goggles won't fit my face. I'd hate to invest in a pair of very expensive goggles and have them give me perfect correction but they leak. Do prescription lenses for goggles move to a new pair of goggles or do I have to buy a whole setup every time I have to replace my goggles?

Anybody else have any experience with my issues (not all of my issues -- just my vision issues)?

Ya, RGP lenses are EXTREMELY difficult to adapt to. Thankfully, advances in soft lenses minimize the number of RGP fittings I need to do.

At age 64, I'd expect you to be getting close to needing cataract surgery. If so, there are lens implants that can minimize any residual refractive error and the need for glasses to see far away. You would still need OTC readers to see most things closer than arm's length. These lenses aren't cheap and the post op can be a pain, but when they work, they work.

If you do not qualify for cataract surgery yet, there are other options. Again, soft lenses have gotten a million times better and do not rotate like previous lenses. Hybrid lenses (GP center, soft periphery) and scleral lenses are other options. These aren't cheap, but might be the only option.

If you have your Rx and want to message me the numbers on it, I'd give you an idea of what I would try and can even help find a Dr in your area that could help you out.

Initially I had a reading lens in one eye and a distance lens in the other eye. I now have bifocal in one eye and distance in the other. Apparently they do not make bifocal lens for my astigmatism in the lens that are comfortable for me.

Try different types of lens and give them a decent go. I first used daily lens and it took me at least a month to get used to putting them in every morning.

Bumping this as I had lasik done two weeks ago. I waited several years before seeing any lasik providers for a consult, there are still risks that you may hear about.

My suggestion see a Dr. They can evaluate and suggest if you are a good candidate or not.

Calvin,

Give the lenses another go, but do it through a good, contact lens specific optician, they know their shit much better than a high street high volume/low cost optician.

Lens comfort is highly personal, edge design, flexibility, surface finish and the rest means that one mans butter is another mans sand. To give you and example, I've been wearing lenses for about 20years, and my eyes just 'went off' the product I was using; we went through trialing 10 types before getting to a pair that suited me again. Interestingly the ones I ended up with, are a product I didn't like 5 years ago, go figure.

Thanks for the advice....

I have new ones now and they are working pretty good. Right now it's a chore putting them in. Once I get better at that part, I'm sure I will like them more

vision correction surgery.

without a doubt the best thing that ive ever done. my wife paid for it as a birthday / christmas / something else present. wanna talk about life changing... forget just the aspect of how it effects sport, it made everyday life so much better. no more messing with contacts that would dry out, glasses that would bother me after so long, now i can just see. its pretty amazing.

if i had to pay $3000 a year to keep this up and keep my vision perfect i would budget for it.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador