More proof another doctor has failed me

Recently last August we discovered my mothers problems with her mobility that was diagnoise as arthridas and diabities turns out to of been her first verbrate pinching her spinal cord. It was removed sucessfully and shes doing everything again that she use to 5 years ago. Still uses a walker to walk, but can walk some without it.

Anyway, Ive just discovered I who was legally blind at 20/200 vision can see 20/40 and get a driver license.

After the past year of noticing I can see better by moving my glasses around on my face and fooling with past sets I decided to see a doctor again. The doctor spent a good hour and half with me. He went slowly and painfully through the lenses on the optical mask like view finder you look at the eye chart with. We quickly went to the 30s with the which is better game, 1 or 2. We did this a few times and slowly I got to see more and more of the chart clearly and the items in the near vision of field got a bit harder and harder to see. I kept asking for MORE POWER. Finally we got to the point at 20/40 where the previous line became less clear or the same and he said we maxed it out.

He then tried my other eye which is reduced to counting fingers at 10 feet. It can not see the first letter on an eye chart. I use to be able to see that first letter a good 10-15 years ago. Anyway, sure enough, I got that back. I then asked for MORE POWER and likely wise with the other eye, the big E kept getting blurred or the same, we had maxed it out.

I really dont know what to say or do..... I went through battery of tests for a sudden lost of vision and went from being able to get a license at age 14 to being artifically nearly blind the past 10 years.

Cobb, that's great that they can correct at least one of your eyes enough to get a driver's license.

Life is like this most of the time. You've got to take the successes where you can get them, even when they're terribly overdue. I've learned that I can really get myself worked up for no productive reason by trying to change the past.

Congratulations on reaching 20/40 in one eye. Now it's time to focus on the benefits that can bring.

Glad for you Cobb.

Before blaming the doctor too much, keep in mind that they work with the tools they have. Techniques change from time to time and so do the tools and materials they have to work with. As posted earlier, the "is 1 better or 2" decision tree used with the Phoroptor is not always that precise. The Phoroptor is that big machine with all the lenses.

If you want to find out about that computerized vision checking system , call Dr Curt Nguyen at (925) 960-0248. He runs the optometry shop at my local Costco. He should be able to tell you the name of the machine so you can ask about it's use locally. A quick google search shows the Welch Allyn® SureSight™ Vision Screener is one computerized version that gives dioptor, cylinder and other stuff. It's targeted for kids but it's the same basic idea.

I think the machine may be an "Automatic Refractor/Keratometer", but I',m not sure.

Daniel

I remember a machine like this that had adjustments that the customer could tweak manually until everything looked sharp. The doctor (or the machine, I forget) would get it into the ballpark and allow the patient to do the rest. It didn't serve as a replacement fhr the old manual system at the time (maybe 15 years ago) but it was a novel way to confirm the prescription.

What PhotonWrangler said in his first response.

Take your successes wherever you can get them. From here your's sounds like pretty good news.

Additionally, I used to know someone who had a similar experience to yours. Many years ago I knew a woman who also had complex medical problems (though completely different than yours). She also had very serious vision problems. Her medical care came from one of the best teaching hospitals on earth -- part of a famous university. For years they told her that her vision problems were so complex that glasses couldn't even be made for her. One day she just showed up wearing some strange looking glasses. Amazingly, she had gone to a private eye doctor and he had figured out something that no one else had. They worked and she was both thrilled and angry.

I almost forgot the other part of my post.... It's worthwhile to hav e a fresh look at any problem every few years. New diagnostics, materials, medications and techiques are making "untreatable" things treatable again.

I've had 2 procedures in the last 5 years that were not available 10 years ago.

Daniel

You hit it Sub_Umbra, angry and thrilled.

Cobb,

From prior threads, I know your financial situation, so this is a long-term solution. However, if you really want it, you can save up for it within a year or two, even with your earnings.

If your glasses/car/job plan works out well, maybe even sooner.

You might want to look into LASIK. With a perscription like yours, you probably wouldn't be able to get full correction, obviously, but you'd be able to get 20/20 or even a smidge better with low-powered "normal" glasses or contacts.

Many people think LASIK isn't worth it if you can't get 20/20 without corrective lenses, but with abnormaly high power lenses, going to thin lightweight low powered glasses or contacts would still seem like a godsend. There are plenty of people with profound vision problems who can't be corrected completely, but they are brought back well into the easily correctable range with LASIK.

You'd probably want to find a Intralase clinic, which is more expensive, but worth it. This is where the cornea flap is cut super accurately with a laser instead of a blade, then you're moved over to the corrective laser. These places seem to run about $2000-3000 per eye, but if you get your car and better job, saving up that amount would only take a year or so if it was realy important to you.

If you are at all concerned about the science of medicine you have
got to read this book!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312421702/?tag=cpf0b6-20

I just got done with it and it's an easy read and well worth it!

AJ_Dual said:

Many people think LASIK isn't worth it if you can't get 20/20 without corrective lenses, but with abnormaly high power lenses, going to thin lightweight low powered glasses or contacts would still seem like a godsend.

Click to expand...

That's what my in-law did; beats wearing 2-inch thick glasses all the time.

Good luck, cobb.

I may need that surgery, I am having problems finding a lab to make my glasses at all, not to mention for less than 1200 bucks.

Unfortunately if your best corrected visual acuity is 20/40 and 20/400 then you're a poor candidate for laser refractive surgery, i.e. you'd be crazy and stupid to do it and so would the surgeon. If your glasses are so complex that they must cost $1200 this is another big red flag that LASIK is inappropriate.

A LOT of people with very strong prescriptions see VERY well with rigid gas permeable contact lenses. Better than with glasses. Just another option.

The Welch Allyn Suresight is a piece of junk. No autorefractor is going to get anywhere near as good a result as a careful professional working by hand with a phoropter. Don't even bother with that. "Computerized" sounds nice and modern and foolproof but it's not. I use a state of the art autorefractor all day every day and it gives the same result that I get with my phoropter maybe 10% of the time. When they are significantly different (90% of the time), my result ALWAYS gives the patient better vision than the autorefractor's.

I'm pretty sure Cobb was considering the lasik as a way to get his eyesight close enough for glasses to do the rest. Is that a bad idea?

Daniel

I was thinking along the lines of what Daniel said. Maybe with the surgery a thinner lower powered prescription could be used to see. Its my understanding my eye is rather long in shape to the point detaching of the retina is a concern, so having nonreversible surgery wouldnt bother me but so much to make me less nearsided.

I'm not an optometrist but my understanding is that PRK is a better bet for high myopes.

Both a BAD idea. You have VERY abnormal eyes. The results are unpredictable. No reputable refractive surgeon would touch you with a ten foot laser.

Just an idea. THe doc didnt mention it to me either. I think the best thing I can just do is wait as the technology and procedured improve.

A friend had cornea surgery to improve his vision enough to be able to work. This was more than 10 years ago. As he described it, his corneas were pointed and his eyeball was oddly shaped.

Yooper seems to have some expert knowledge in the area. Maybe he can suggest a few areas of treatment for Cobb to discuss with his doctor ??? Not medical advice, but pointers about what he should be discussing with his doctor.

Daniel

P.S. Thanks for the feedback in the computerized refractometer. My optometrist uses one AND uses the phoropter but says it's to verify his phoropter results. If they are wildly different he double checks.

I'm an O.D.

On the surgery with one eye blind, the other 20/40.

One answer.

No,No,No,No, No.

Surgery is RISKY, and should NOT be performed in this case.

Period.

JohnK, you sumed up my vision till I get my new glasses. Blind(Legally) in one eye and cant see out of the other one. Most people think I am being smart when I say that.

Yeah, I am not going ot jump into any surgery anytime soon.