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I'm in the same boat; different circumstances but I've only got one functioning eye and the other one isn't fantastic. (-14 contact lens.) I often wonder if th

I'm in the same boat; different circumstances but I've only got one functioning eye and the other one isn't fantastic. (-14 contact lens.) I often wonder if there isn't more I could be doing -- hanging out near research hospitals that have good retina teams, following research, anything -- to keep abreast of new developments or maybe even get in on some trials for new procedures.

tallanvor 15y ago
It's actually sort of interesting how much the field of eye care has improved in my lifetime: I was a year and half when I had surgery to shorten one of the muscles for my bad eye - they thought it was just a lazy eye. When I was 5 I used to have to wear a patch over my good eye for an hour a day because the doctors still thought my other eye was just lazy and that I could be "trained" to use it properly. At 6 we traveled 4 hours to Seattle to see an eye specialist at a hospital. It was a full day affair and I had to spend most of the day in a dimly lit playroom because my eyes were kept dilated so they could take multiple pictures. This is when they actually figured out that there was more going on, and decided what parasite actually caused the damage (I still can't remember the name of it). 15 years ago I went to an eye doctor who took another picture of my eye. He wanted to show the image to others because he had never seen anything like it. Even 5 years ago pictures of the eye usually meant dilating it and putting in a dye so they could get a clear image. Today I can go get an eye exam and they don't even need to put dye in my eye to take a picture. --Other tests still need the dye, but at least I haven't had to have my eyes dilated for around 3 years. And, of course, the images are stored online so they can quickly load them up and compare them to make sure nothing has changed. If this sort of progress continues, I figure there's a chance that they'll come up with something that can give me vision in both eyes before I'm too old for it to matter. :)

tallanvor 15y ago

It's actually sort of interesting how much the field of eye care has improved in my lifetime: I was a year and half when I had surgery to shorten one of the muscles for my bad eye - they thought it was just a lazy eye. When I was 5 I used to have to wear a patch over my good eye for an hour a day because the doctors still thought my other eye was just lazy and that I could be "trained" to use it properly. At 6 we traveled 4 hours to Seattle to see an eye specialist at a hospital. It was a full day affair and I had to spend most of the day in a dimly lit playroom because my eyes were kept dilated so they could take multiple pictures. This is when they actually figured out that there was more going on, and decided what parasite actually caused the damage (I still can't remember the name of it). 15 years ago I went to an eye doctor who took another picture of my eye. He wanted to show the image to others because he had never seen anything like it. Even 5 years ago pictures of the eye usually meant dilating it and putting in a dye so they could get a clear image. Today I can go get an eye exam and they don't even need to put dye in my eye to take a picture. --Other tests still need the dye, but at least I haven't had to have my eyes dilated for around 3 years. And, of course, the images are stored online so they can quickly load them up and compare them to make sure nothing has changed. If this sort of progress continues, I figure there's a chance that they'll come up with something that can give me vision in both eyes before I'm too old for it to matter. :)