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From: era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Becoming more nearsighted
Message-ID: <15067@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 90 04:25:13 GMT
References: <14943@bunker.UUCP>
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Reply-To: era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
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Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
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Index Number: 11197

In article <14943@bunker.UUCP> ml@pnet01.cts.com (Monica Lombrozo) writes:
|Index Number: 11082
|
| I have a problem. I'm nearsighted and becoming more nearsighted.
|I've worn glasses for a year (since my 18th birthday), and it's
|gotten to the point where I feel kind of naked without them.
|It is depressing losing my eyesight 
|over what seemed like such a short time. I think I'm very 
|young to start loosing my sight.Has anyone had the same 
|feeling?   I'm currently in  20/70. I started at 20/40. I feel
|that I'm nearly blind right now, I can not imagine becoming 
|more nearsighted.

Don't feel too bad about it.  My prescription is worse than -8.00
in both eyes, and I've been that way since before I was 9 years old,
and I've recently passed the big 40.  It really isn't *that* much of
an impediment.  After all, there are many people whose posts find their
way into this forum, who have virtually *no* vision, so what have we
got to complain about?

If you're really worried about it becoming super progressive, visit a
good ophthalmologist.  There has been some stuff in the press recently
about how gas-permeable hard contact lenses *halt* the progression of
nearsightedness in almost all cases.  This is hardly new news; my
ophthalmologist told me when I was 16 and getting my first pair
of contact lenses (the old non-permeable type, at that time) that I
could expect them to halt the progression of my myopia.  They have;
my prescription hasn't changed much since then.  I've never considered
radical/invasive means (e.g. keratotomy) to correct my vision ... its
long-term success is still not proven.

The only really bad thing about contacts, is that they're sensitive
to dust and sand.
--
Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(voice)
303-497-1137(fax) * era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era@ncario.BITNET
era@ncar.UUCP * Edward.Arnold@f809.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG