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01-10-2013, 01:09 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pocahontas MS
Posts: 3,884
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Unless they've changed the rules, you can do monovision *surgically* & fly, but you can't do monovison with contacts & fly. Supposedly their logic is that you can adjust to the depth perception issues if it's permanent, but they assume that since contacts can be removed, you'll never totally adjust. At least that's the story I got.
N15JB, did you get regular CLR, or one of the newer tech variable/multifocus types of CLR? Supposedly, there are some lenses available now that can mostly eliminate the presbyopia issues. That's what I'm looking for. :-)
Charlie
Edit: just read on the Crystalens site that they are what I was trying to describe. Thanks, Mel and What was your experience with the presbyopia issue?
Last edited by rv7charlie : 01-10-2013 at 01:12 PM.
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01-10-2013, 03:07 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Cornish, NH
Posts: 391
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a different take on it
I've been following this type of eye surgery since it was developed in Russia and then was available in Canada, before it was available in the USA. Back in the early 1990s, people from the NH area used to go up to Montreal to get it done. I very nearly did it, and have thanked my lucky stars since then that I never did it. This is why:
I'm 60 years old now, and thus about 40 in the early 90s when I was considering it. I've worn pretty strong, and ever-increasingly strong, distance glasses since first grade. Without glasses, I'm 20-200+ ; off the chart. With glasses, I'm at least 20-20 or better. Over the last 10-15 years, my prescription has gradually gotten somewhat less strong.
I wore contacts throughout the 80s and until about 15 years ago. I quit wearing them because, while I could see distance OK, seeing close things with the contacts in became more and more difficult. For example - going to a restaurant and reading the menu - impossible with the contacts (and thus permanently so with surgery)
The really big difference over about the last 15 years is the near vision. As we get older, our eyes' ability to focus closely diminishes. If I need to see something very close, I just pop off my glasses, and I can see very close things as though I was using a magnifying glass. If I was wearing contacts (the same as if I'd had surgery, except the surgery is unremovable), it would drive me absolutely NUTS being unable to see anything close very well. And I'd be completely unable to see anything that's very close.
Based on what I've seen in myself, I'd recommend giving very careful thought to getting the surgery. While it may work wonderfully for distance, especially for younger people, it will INCREASE your need for close glasses (that you might not otherwise need at all) as you age. And in my opinion, while glasses are a pain (altho the new lightweight plastic lenses are far less of a pain than the old heavy glass lenses were), part-time glasses that would always be being misplaced or not at hand when needed would be an even larger pain. The glasses may be a bit of a pain, but I can see clearly at distance, they are "progressives" for close, and I lift them up when I need to see very close. For me, fulltime glasses are less obnoxious than part-time glasses.
__________________
Brian Meyette, Cornish, NH
1995 RV-6A - N16RK (Ralph Koger) SOLD
RV-7A - incomplete, supercharged Subaru STi - N432MM - SOLD
2001 Quad City Challenger II LW - N28RT SOLD
www.meyette.us/RV-7Ahome.htm
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01-10-2013, 03:33 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pocahontas MS
Posts: 3,884
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I hear you Brian; I've been through the same progression. I quit wearing contacts when presbyopia kicked in in my mid 40's, & now wear 'progressive' lenses. That's why the newer clear lens replacement lenses that are supposed to solve the presbyopia issue are so interesting to me. They are intended for cataract sufferers, but as an eye doctor friend once told me, 'everybody has cataracts to some degree'. :-) The only real downside (other than money) is that the surgery is a bit more invasive than lasik, but I have less fear of that than having the surface of my eye sliced off.....
Charlie
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01-10-2013, 03:42 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Fort Myers
Posts: 370
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Best money you can spend. Cost me 3K 17 years ago when I was 43. I still don't wear glasses at all and have excellent vision. I'm a bit baffled that i still have good near vision, maybe because i read a lot every day.
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01-10-2013, 04:11 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Posts: 317
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This is interesting. I'm 54 and have been wearing glasses since I was 40. Started out with only readers and have progressed (maybe regressed?) to wearing progressive bifocals now. I inquired to my AME who is a general practitioner a couple of medicals ago whether or not Lasik surgery would help me. His response was that it would but advised me not to do it until I was finished flying because the FAA didn't allow it. Perhaps I need to check again. 
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Bill Settle
RV-8 N38CW (Reserved)
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01-10-2013, 04:17 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Dallas area
Posts: 10,768
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rv7charlie
Thanks, Mel and What was your experience with the presbyopia issue?
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I've worn very strong progressive lenses for many years.
The Crystalens so far are great.
Normal print in good light is no problem. I need "readers" if print is very small or light is dim. But that is improving with practice.
Distance is fantastic!
__________________
Mel Asberry, DAR since the last century.
EAA Flight Advisor/Tech Counselor, Friend of the RV-1
Recipient of Tony Bingelis Award and Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award
USAF Vet, High School E-LSA Project Mentor.
RV-6 Flying since 1993 (sold)
<rvmel(at)icloud.com>
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01-10-2013, 05:03 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Ottawa, Ks
Posts: 2,188
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I checked into Lasik 5ish years ago when I started having issues with contacts. I started wearing my glasses a couple days a week and my eyes perscription wise got better for 3 years. My doc wouldn't recommend LASIK until my eyes had stabalized for a year.
He only recommended 1 doctor locally, he said the best doctors don't have to advertise.
My second class medical was suspended the day of the surgery, reinstated and back at work the next day 20-15. For the medical I had a 30 day and 6 month follow up.
Very happy overall, distance and outside vision is better than glasses or contacts but low light and computer screens not quite as crisp. My wife gave me a one week pass of telling her all the "stuff" I couldn't see before.
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01-10-2013, 05:06 PM
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Forum Peruser
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Austinville, Alabama
Posts: 2,458
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonJay
I chose to have each eye done independantly. I am very happy with my results.

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Too Funny!!!
...and sort of a tribute to Marty Feldman!
__________________
Don Hull
RV-7 Wings
KDCU Pryor Field
Pilots'n Paws Pilot
N79599/ADS-B In and Out...and I like it!
?Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights;
it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Miriam Beard
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01-10-2013, 05:13 PM
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Forum Peruser
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Austinville, Alabama
Posts: 2,458
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Lens implants
I chose not to have Lasik surgery many years ago, choosing rather to stay with gas permeable contacts for my nearsightedness. I actually wore bifocal contacts for a couple of years about twenty years ago until I found out at that time they were not allowed by the FAA. (My AME was a NASA Flight Surgeon. When I pointed out the new regs to him, he said, "Oh, I'll have to study up on that.")
Two years ago I had both lenses replaced due to cataracts. I now have 20/15 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left. (On one test right after surgery I actually read at 20/10 level in the right eye!)
I am very pleased with my vision. I do have to occasionally wear readers to read the fine print, but that's a small inconvenience in my book. YMMV
Sometimes there are benefits to getting older!
P.S. Toric...that's the word! Someone mentioned Toric lenses. In 2009, my optometrist noticed I was developing cataracts. In 2011, the one in the left eye was starting to adversely affect my vision. Because I was wearing hard lenses (gas permeable) which re-shape the cornea, I had to go through a waiting period of several months to allow my cornea to relax to its natural shape before having the lens implant surgery. Not surprisingly, I had some astigmatism in both eyes, so my ophthalmologist gave me the option of three lenses: standard, Toric and Crystalens.
I chose Toric and believe it was the right choice for me. While the Crystalens corrects both cataracts and presbyopia, the FAA requires more paperwork from the treating physician and a longer waiting period. For some pilots, Crystalens may be a good choice. The Toric is a medium price choice among the three, requiring a slightly higher co-payment than standard. The Crystalens per my insurance would have cost me the most co-payment. The Toric corrects not only the cataract problem and the distant vision problem, it also corrects the astigmatism (irregular curvature of the cornea). My surgery was done by an ophthalmologist who does lens implants exclusively four days a week in Birmingham.
__________________
Don Hull
RV-7 Wings
KDCU Pryor Field
Pilots'n Paws Pilot
N79599/ADS-B In and Out...and I like it!
?Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights;
it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Miriam Beard
Last edited by rv7boy : 01-11-2013 at 11:51 AM.
Reason: Added the P.S.
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01-10-2013, 06:10 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bay Pines, FL (based @ KCLW)
Posts: 1,955
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I had LASIK about 12 years ago. I thought it was great.
7 years ago I developed cataracts in both eyes due to family history and my running ultramarathons.
I then opted for implants, not the Crystal lens as Mel received as they were just becoming available at the time & quite pricey. I went with standard lens.
Cost was a $100 per eye co-pay. One eye had to be done twice due to the LASIK having reshaped the cornea and was difficult to hone in on a correction level. I had one eye set for intermediate, one eye for distance. I now see 20/20 & 20/15. I see perfect and no longer need reading glasses as I did with the low light LASIK.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, even though I was always a weenie and would freak out with adding eye drops in my eyes prior to my first surgery.
__________________
Danny "RoadRunner" Landry
Morphed RV7(formally 7A), N20DL, PnP Pilot
1190+ hours
2019 Donation Paid
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