The LASIK surgeon was not at all interested in any of my ideas. He didn't quite kick me out of the office, but let's just say there's a reason he's a surgeon and has other people handle screening appointments.
So one of my hesitations with LASIK was that I wasn't clear what the actual benefits to my quality of vision would be. A couple sources encouraged me to give contacts a try. Because the lens is closer to the eye, the power is lower than in glasses, and they move with the eye, making peripheral vision issues go away entirely.
So in my mid 40s I'm starting the adventure of contacts. So far I'm in -14.0/-13.5 lenses, in my second fitting pair, likely going for one change in the right eye. I'm doing ok putting them in and wearing them, but getting them back out at the end of the day is a challenge. I've already seriously irritated my left eye twice and had to take a break from the contacts for a few days. I'm trying a new method of gripping with the side of my fingers instead of the tips. Still hard to get the lens out, but at least my nails and my spare fingers are all out of the way so it's more gentle when I do miss. I think at my lens strength and resulting thickness, my lenses are less flexible than the ones I see in most tutorials.
On the research end of things I've found:
- increased tear film increases negative lens power
- character recognition can improve without improving refraction
- bifocals and multifocals are protective against myopia progression.
- +1D myopic defocus is protective against myopia progression in growing children.
- myopic defocus can cause very minor changes in eye length, and cordial tissue thickness, although not enough to account for major diopter changes in anecdotal reports.
- Anecdotal reports of a change more than 4D is very rare. Hard to say if this is a factor of community size 5 years ago, average change needed, or a limit to the process.
So my next steps are finishing the fitting period and getting my distance lenses all straightened out, and then finding appropriate reading glasses to wear over and relieve eye strain at computer work. This should be protective against further progression. Whether or not reduced lens therapy does anything for long term regression, we shall see, but reading glasses are a very safe tool with some potential to at least improve fluid circulation under the cornea by relaxing the ciliary muscle.
