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