[30Days]: On My Eyes

[seventhe]

Well, this post starts out in an interesting manner: jennyclarinet asked me to talk about being legally blind.

TW, if it is needed, for discussion about blindness, eyesight, and related disability.

Here's the background: my eyesight is very, very bad. I've had glasses since I was three years old. My eyes, now, at 28, are reaching the point where they're no longer 100% correctable. Since I've had glasses for so long, I barely even remember the discussions that went on when I was 3, but I do know I am functionally blind without my glasses. I am "severely sight impaired." And, somewhere in those 28 years, I was told this was "legally blind."

So I went to Wikipedia and looked up the borderline for being legally blind, to talk about it a little bit, and I am now confused, because - while I've been told that I qualify on the ground that my eyesight is so poor, I do not qualify according to the line drawn on Wikipedia because my eyes are (mostly) correctable. So, hilariously, which is right? Is it the natural state of my eyes which counts, or the state of my eyes after correction...? Which doctor told me I was legally blind, and was that a state definition, or a doctor somehow projecting on a young patient? Was it right at the time? Is Wikipedia correct in this case? Do I actually qualify as legally blind?

Obviously, these are all questions to ask my NEW optometrist; I am not qualified to answer them. But it made me think a little, and I want to throw these thoughts out there. It made me think, because I don't want to look like that person appropriating labels and intruding on legitimate space for the fellow disabled. I don't want to lie. I am not looking for attention, or for sympathy.

So who gets to decide if I am disabled? And does it matter?

I feel disabled. Am I? Does that count?

Hilarious Edit: I think thewhitemage has clarified my confusion for me: the "legal" definition is what you need to get benefits, which is why correctability matters; to qualify in the medical category, correctability is irrelevant. So... perhaps everything is correct here!
Oncoming rant still stands though. *g*

My eyes, right now, are the worst of anyone I've ever met. I am the second-worst patient my ophthalmologist has ever seen, and the only person to "beat me" in prescription had a detached retina.

That is the category of eyesight I fall into, people with detached retinas.

The one time in my life I was trying to save money and went to Lenscrafters, they called me "the girl with the -11s" in the back like it was a joke, and I spent 9 months fighting with them until I realized they were literally unable to make me a pair of glasses which would work. I need specialty materials and lenses fitted individually, by a professional.

My eyes right now are anywhere from 80%-95% correctable with glasses, and anywhere from 50%-85% with contact lenses. (your vision also changes with your blood sugar, did you know? so any given day I can see better or worse with my contacts in, it is awesome, trust me.)

Does this count? Do I have "the right" to complain about it?

Because look: legally blind or not, whether or not I fall just above or just below a line drawn in the sand, I consider this a disability. There is not a day in my life I am allowed to forget, ever, that I carry this. There is not a single day where I don't have to pay extra attention while driving, because my peripherals aren't 100% clear; or I have to pay extra attention in the shower, because the floor is just a giant blur and oops, I dropped my razor and literally cannot see it; or I've been reminded that in semi-light conditions like rain, my eyes aren't 100%, and I just missed my turn because I could not read the road sign in time; or even that I wake up in the middle of the night and the world is black and I don't even know where my alarm clock is let alone what time it is.

I do not talk about it in this light because I am fortunate; it can be corrected to the point where I can function. I can hold a job; I can use a computer; I can live life as a 'sighted' person. I do not want to steal the thunder of other people who are visually impaired, even though I have never met anyone whose eyes are worse than mine, because I know that I am lucky to have the correctability that I do.

So: do I get to say that I am disabled? I don't receive any special money for this; I have to pay for my glasses through my own insurance and out of my own pocket. Do I get to claim that I am sight-impaired? Or am I robbing the truly blind of sympathy and attention if I do so? Can I define myself in this way, in a way I feel is the correct definition for my life, in a way doctors have defined it for me? Who gets to say whether or not it affects me?

Because, as me, I say it does.

But what does that mean?

Just things to think about.

I'm not going to put my full prescription online, but I will paraphrase it here: you know how you can buy reading glasses in stores, -1, -1.5, -2.5? My script is -11.

I can't take the vision chart test - the one with the letters and the big E - because without my glasses, I can't see the chart. I can't even see the wall the chart is on. The test that I have taken before is called the CF test, where CF stands for "Count Fingers." I can count fingers 1 foot away from my face if the light is okay, 2 feet from my face if the light is good and the hand is against, say, a white background. In poor lighting, or against a background color similar to the hand in question, I cannot count fingers 2 feet away and sometimes can't even do it 1 foot away. (Just for fun, try this at home. That is what my eyes are like.) This means my eyesight is something like 20/4000 - 20/8000, although at that end of the scale the Snellen numbers become pretty meaningless.

Like I said above: I have had glasses since I was 3 years old.

My parents actually had to get special dispensation for me to take all kinds of eye tests as a 3-year-old, because you cannot take the normal eye test because they don't expect a 3-year-old to be able to read yet. I could, and did, and took - and failed - all of the eye exams they gave me. I am not sure if I actually remember the day that I got glasses or if I have created this image in my own head, but I swear I can recall driving home from the doctor's office and marveling that trees had leaves.

I got contacts in 7th grade, and I still remember being amazed that I could see out of my peripheral vision! Is this what it's like? It didn't even matter that I had to stick things on my eyeballs, seriously, I could see in all directions and it was amazing. I wore contacts regularly for years and years.

I had to stop wearing them when I started working at Bridgestone. This is a lab environment and wearing contacts is a safety violation, because if chemicals splash into your eyes they can become lodged behind the lenses and do permanent damage to your eyes before you can wash it out. So I've become a day-to-day glasses wearer.

And that's okay, because my eyes have deteriorated to the point where I have trouble obtaining 100% vision with contact lenses.

My script is already very, very high, and the number of lines that offer contacts at so high of a prescription are already limited. But I'm developing astigmatism, too. Right now, there are only two lines that even OFFER a contact lens at the prescription I need and with the curvature my astigmatism demands, and one doesn't work for me. So I only have one single option for contacts. If my script continues to get worse or my astigmatism continues to grow, I'm not sure I will have options.

Which worries me, yes.

I worry that I'm going to get to the point where my eyes aren't correctable. I am already teetering on that point as it is. What happens when I am no longer 100% even with my glasses? What do I do?

I've thought about laser eye surgery before. I am a prime candidate - they've been pushing me towards it since I turned 21, because basically "Your eyes cannot get much worse." My argument is, yes they can: I do not want to be truly blind. The laser surgery scares me. But am I going to have an alternative?

If I got it now, even if it couldn't correct my eyes to full 20/20 - even if I was "only" a -6 in prescription, that's a lot easier to deal with. You can function without your glasses; you can walk to the bathroom at night. Lenses wouldn't cost me full hundreds of dollars to get the high-density high-corrective materials I need. Contacts would work again. I'd have more lines open, more options.

If my astigmatism gets worse, I may no longer qualify for laser surgery anyway. What happens then? My eyes continue to get worse until I can't wear contacts at all, until glasses stop working?

It terrifies me, because I have this -- strange sympathy; I know what it's like to not be able to see and yet I am terribly afraid of going completely functionally blind, because I am on the edges of this country and that's hard enough; I don't want to think about it because it's too much like what happens to me at night and it's like this sympathetic fear because I think I can almost imagine it and yet I have no idea what it would be like and yet I do and -- that's what it's like, in my head, every time I think about it. It makes me want to cry.

And yet I am mostly correctable; how do I have any right to complain when there are people out there who never got to see?

And yet, it's like -- Jeff made fun of my driving skills because I would run over potholes, at night, instead swerving around them to avoid them, and I could never explain to him that I couldn't see the potholes.



It kind of goes along with my strange relationship with my own body; it doesn't work right, and I am not sure I love that. And it goes along with my own struggles with and desires for medical "legitimacy", as if I'm not allowed to claim something unless it's an actual diagnosed medical problem? As if having this awful eyesight isn't enough, it has to be labeled "Legally Blind" or I feel like I should just STFU about it?

Anyway, yup.

I have pretty much decided that I am going in early next year to be evaluated for laser eye surgery. So anyone who has any thoughts on that, they're much appreciated.

This is part of my 30 Days of Posting meme - feel free to check out the schedule of posting! My month is full, but if any of the posts make you want to ask for something else, go ahead and leave a comment anyway! DW || LJ

Comments

[vrazdova]

:< The idea of losing sight really truly scares me. I know my vision isn't that bad but you never know when you're gonna wake up to ACID IN YO EYES, BLINDNESS!! or something ridick like that. I mean, not that I'm irrationally paranoid, but I've thought about the subject too and all I can say is FUUUUUUCKING SHIIIIIIIT man, you have every right to be worried! I don't know too much about laser surgery myself but I *would* encourage you to look into it seriously. I know it's not permanent but if it'll stave off, uh, blindness a few years longer, I'd say it's damn worth it. One of my friends had it done I think last year - her vision was pretty bad (she wore glasses from as long as I've known her too - and before that, even - and I met her in 2nd grade) and she's able to not wear glasses now. So, her case wasn't quite as bad as yours, but she went from trifocal glasses (seriously) to nothing, and that's pretty awesome. Nobody likes being conscious while someone pokes at your eye with a fucking laser, but I'm pretty sure it'd be highly worth it in your case. Don't wait till it's too late and you don't even have the option anymore! At least get an evaluation for it, is my rec.

Now I have a question for you, for my sake~ My left eye keeps getting worse. I still see 20/20 with both eyes open, but I wonder if it will eventually get to the point where I lose depth perception because of my deteriorating left eye. I just took a vision test at work (heh Red Cross health fair!) and the guy was pretty adamant about me doing something to correct my left eye, like wearing 1 contact lens or actually wearing my damn glasses with regularity... Do you think I'm being stupid by letting this go? :/

[seventhe]

I'm not sure! Every time I hear something about "Straining your eyes makes them worse!" I then hear something like "Your eyes are your eyes and they don't care whether they're strained or not they will do what they do." It depends. (A), I would go see your eye doctor and ask for his advice. (B) - how much does your vision improve when corrected? I know when my contacts aren't working or my glasses are old, any time my vision is not 100%, it gets not only mentally but physically frustrating (like, headaches and stuff) to not be seeing in full. Are you there yet? Or do you not really notice it?

I think overall our bodies try to tell us when shit isn't right XD

[vrazdova]

But then I just go back to my I HATE DOCTORS, THEY WILL JUST TELL ME WHAT MAKES THEM THE MOST MONEY train of thought >_> Curseeeeeees! (I don't have an eye doctor either: I got those glasses in high school back in Albany, so =/ Also, that whole insurance thing doesn't exactly inspire me to go out and drop mad cash on something I may or may not need. OH HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO IMPROVE)

Well, I do have my glasses, and they do correct my left eye pretty well. Maybe I should just go back to wearing them while I'm on the computer n'at. I used to wear them at my computer when I'd get a headache from straining my eyes, but either I haven't had headaches in a long time at the computer or I just haven't noticed them.

SUMMARY: I am so dumb, I am really dumb when it comes to my own health/well being/doctors 9_9

[whitemage]

So not trying to butt in, but I agree with seeing your doctor on this one. XD

I have congenital nuclear cataracts in both eyes, a left eye that is +1.5, and a right eye that is -2.5, and... well, I wouldn't say I have trouble, but my depth perception is... TRICKY! :D

I will also say the body, especially with senses, has an AMAZING ability to cope and to adjust. Sometimes, we don't realize how bad something is until it's corrected (like getting rid of a headache you didn't consciously realize you had). Not saying that has to be the case for you, but it's always worth looking at. :)

[vrazdova]

Oh man, I totally know about the body-adjusting-to-things... thing. I didn't realize I had constant back/shoulder pain for basically years until I just bought a new bed the other month @_@

Well, I will consider it, then ^^ They gave me a pamphlet thingie at work about cheap vision correction so maybe I'll look into it and see if it applies to me. I know my left eye is definitely getting worse and will continue to do so, so... I don't *really* want to lose my depth perception >_>

[seventhe]

Well, it might be somewhere to start! If you start wearing your glasses at the computer and, I don't know, while driving or whatever, and you notice a big difference, then maybe it is time to find a nice (AFFORDABLE?) eye doctor and check it out. Honestly you can get eye exams at a Lenscrafters and if your eyes aren't TOTES TERRIBLE I bet the exam is just as good as any other.

[vrazdova]

How about this for timely: B&H just posted this event about a legally blind photographer O: Unfortch it's basically just a notice about her speaking live tomorrow in NYC but that's interesting!

[whitemage]

The legal definition for "legal blindness" is 20/200 or worse with corrective devices (glasses, contacts: surgery is not counted). The medical definition is usually either 20/180 or 20/200 or worse, correction not counted--but yeah, don't quote me on that. Optometrists know their shiz.

The first definition is the one that gets you handicap tags/permits and tax deductions.

Both mean you are free to bitch, with or without a label, because not seeing sucks.

Your story about getting your first glasses reminded me of when my mother had her cataract surgery, when I was 3, coinkydinkly, and she said the very same thing when she came home with the eyepatch off after the first surgery. "Oh, my! LOOK AT THE LEAVES! INDIVIDUAL LEAVES!!!" It was a spiritual experience for her. Then her next comment was, looking at my father clearly for the first time: "My god! You have SO MUCH GREY HAIR!!!"

That pretty much killed the magical wonder of it all. (And no, this isn't a, 'hey! let's make you think things might be WORSE if you saw well!' story. I just am eternally amused by it.)

But, yeah, I'm scared to freaking death about eye surgery, as in, it making me blind. I can't imagine being where you are and considering it. My eyeball fun pales in comparison.

[seventhe]

Thanks for that clarification -- I bet that is why my doctors have been telling me I am blind for years. >.>

AND OMG HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH DEPTH PERCEPTION, seriously! XD

[whitemage]

XDDD np. And yeah. (I used to work in an optometry office back in my admin days. I learned all kinds of cool things. Like there is an insurance code for "Toliet Seat Syndrome"--not one we used, it was medical, not vision, and I saw a guy's eye explode once. It wasn't as dramatic as it seems, actually. =/)

LMAO I... don't. XD;;; Everything far away just looks like a movie set, and for everything up close, I am a klutz, I suck at driving, I don't play sports, and, well, this is why all my drawings look 2D. :D I also have a superhypersensitivity to tactile sensation, so for close work, I can literally just like feel my way around to fill in what my eyes are missing. It's freakish, but it works.

Now, I will tell you what is a bitch: driving. At night. Yes, I share this pain. Though I'm better at driving in near total darkness, or by the light of the moon, but when those damn headlights are coming at me... I EMPATHIZE WITH DEER, WHAT?

[ambersweet]

...Your eyes are slightly worse than mine. Understand, in my life, I have met ONE person whose eyes were worse than mine, and she was actually 100% blind. I don't know my entire prescription off the top of my head, but that Big Number is -8. I also have fairly severe astigmatism. I can buy glasses at Lenscrafters or similar places, but it takes about two weeks to get them, and they invariably cost several hundred dollars because of the materials, and even with them they're thicker than most people's. I have panic attacks when I don't know where my glasses are or someone takes them from me; without them the world dissolves into colors. When I'm close enough to run into them they become shapes. I can walk to the bathroom at night because I have the path memorized, but if someone moved stuff around after I went to bed, I would have problems. I can see THAT there is an E on the wall (a black shape!), but if I didn't know it was an E I wouldn't be able to read it. I didn't get glasses until I was in kindergarten, because I can hold books close enough to my face to read them without my glasses on, but I couldn't see the blackboard. My prescription has gone back and forth between single lenses and bifocals all my life, depending on the optometrist's personal opinion on bifocals for children. My last prescription before this one was for progressive lenses; these are single-vision again. I've thought about eye surgery, but the idea of losing my sight terrifies me to death, and I literally can't conceive of not having to wear glasses.

I remember the first time I put on contacts and realized that it was possible to see peripherally. I don't wear them a lot, just because I don't like the experience of putting them in, and my eyes are so sensitive I have to wear sunglasses outside, so I might as well just wear my glasses.

Rambling comment is rambling.

[yukie]

I think my dad's vision is a tad better than yours but - yeah.

Degrees of disability something makes me go HNNNNGHRRGH because while some days I may have it easier than others, there are other days when it's just like "HURP, NO" and the good days don't erase the days when everything goes wrong and sucks. You have a right to be upset and frustrated when your body does something three-butted-Martian in scope and dealing with everyday shit becomes a chore.

You're not taking attention and sympathy from people any more than me. The condition I have runs the gamut from 'mild' to '....FUCK' with regard to respiratory and digestive effects, and while my lungs are about on par with those of your average 30-year-old (said the navelgazer), my pancreas is extremely stupid and only knows how to do insulin. Lipase is right out. Compare and contrast this with friends of mine who've had lung transplants or have pissy kidneys from harsh antibiotics (thank the fuck these are not used too much any more - and when they are they're used in a weird, better way that doesn't hurt your kidneys)...or the people who just are simply not here any more. I am a lucky little bitch in many, MANY ways, but I still have to drag umpty-bump kinds of pills around and explain to airport security WTF that little air pump is for and I've known since I was eight that I'm finite.

I have to tell myself over and over that yeah, this is a pain, it counts as a disability, I'm not doing anyone a disservice by calling it what it is.

And I dunno if it helps for me to say that to you - to say 'fuck anyone who claims you shouldn't be allowed to claim you have a disability and fuck, too, the jerks who say you are taking something from more-impaired people' - but I want to anyhow because damn it you're awesome and what you deal with is no less 'real' than the stuff my dad does (his eyes are really gwah and he's had glasses since he was three - so have I but I'm just farsighted) or my friend Rav does or - yeah.

My capacity to be coherent has explod. But yeah.

Re: lay-zurs - my uncle Erik had LASIK surgery, which probably isn't quite the same process as you'd be undergoing, but he said apart from being annoyingly photosensitive for a while and his eyes feeling strange while it all healed, there was very little pain (nothing unmanageable, he said) and the results amazed him. Again IDK how helpful that testimony is. XD;;

[lassarina]

I am fairly certain I know people who have had laser eye surgery but I cannot presently recall who it was. I'll ask my mom when I'm home next week; if it was her, I'll badger her for some thoughts (she has them.) She also has significant astigmatism, although her eyes were not as bad as yours are.

....shitfuck, if 20/180 is legally blind by the med definition, APPARENTLY I AM TOO.

I got through college never wearing my glasses, but these days if I do not have them on, boy howdy do I notice it fucking immediately as soon as I try to look at something that's not a shape. YOU HAVE SEEN MY TV. that shit is BLURRY when I do not have glasses on, wtf.

[selryel.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I have anything of substance to offer in the way of input or response. Without my glasses, I'm legally blind, too, so let me offer you a (glasses-on) high-five of commiseration.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Yes, let us definitely make sure our glasses are on before we do this! XD

[selryel.livejournal.com]

It's either glasses-on or we're going to have to invent the echo-locate five.

[ifotismeni]

oh man, i can't even imagine. i'm -6 and my mom is -8 and i've been told i could be in a similar position to yours some day. being "only" a -6 with correction... holy crap. if people don't think that is a handicap, they are full of stupid.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Have you or your mum looked into the laser correction at all? I am so on the fence about it. gosh.

[ifotismeni]

i am kind of terrified of it to be honest. i know some people who've had it done, but after i heard that it's not a permanent fix -- as in, after maybe a decade or two you need to get it done all over again -- i really don't think i'd get it done in my case (as i can see clearly with contacts as i am right now, thankfully) but in my mom's case, she's really worried about cataracts. she's approaching 60 and i think laser eye surgery would cause some complications.

[jennyclarinet.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're looking into the lazer eye surgery. I've heard only good things about it. It would be so great if you could actually see a little bit at night when you don't have your glasses on.

[jennyclarinet.livejournal.com]

Damn it. I meant LASER. It's like how I recently discovered I'd been spelling EXERCISE wrong my whole life (excersize-hee).

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've wrestled on and off with my contacts this year, and as I discovered how limited my options were I decided that I would at LEAST get the evaluation. I plan to go next January when I have a break from class and have some time to actually put thought into it. And yeah, like I said, even if I only get corrected partially it would still be a HUGE benefit for me, so I have a feeling that if I'm a candidate, I might get it next year.

(And thank you for this question - someone has clarified for me the difference between the medical definition of "legally blind" and the benefits-eligible definition... I HAVE LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY.)

[edited for totally pre-emptive send!]

[sargent-snarky.livejournal.com]

I empathize with you a ton here. D: ... and I'm probably going to tl;dr about related issues, so my apologies in advanced for a long and rambling comment.

My eyesight is not as bad as yours, though it is pretty bad, averaging around -8.5 (and yes, definitely sometimes more or less depending on blood sugar, though I don't notice the change as much with glasses), and I have had glasses since I was around 4 or 5, though I might have needed them sooner, and I honestly cannot remember what it was like without them. My vision is more or less 100% correctable, with glasses (not with contacts), and I am also considered legally blind sans corrective lenses and thus cannot do things like drive without them. Not that I'd want to, but it's actually illegal for people like us. xD;

Though on the legallity issue - because we both can have our eyesight corrected with lenses of some sort to better than 20/180 or 20/200 (I forget which it is), we don't qualify for the legal disability-related stuff. Or at least that's what I recall from when I did a bit of research on it some years back?

I used to wear contact lenses, but my eyes tend to dry out easily, and I also tend to stay up long hours, so I don't like hard contact lenses (because I want to be able to see for longer than I should have them in). But soft contact lenses cannot fully correct my sight, because of the blood sugar change issue, because I have a fairly bad astigmatism and because I have that high proscription, which means that the lenses tend to be fairly thick for contacts. Moreover, because of that astigmatism, they need to be those specially weighted astigmatism sorts so that they orient correctly in my eyes.

So -- although I experimented with them in middle and high school, in the end I preferred the sharper vision and less hassle afforded me with glasses, though I can totally understand the appeal of contacts with peripheral vision and stuff. But being able to read street signs + having to take less time to bother about my eyes >>> clearer peripheral vision for me, especially because it's not always even that clear, thanks to the distortion around the edge of lenses and so forth anyawy.

It doesn't matter where I go for glasses, because no matter what - due to the speciality these lenses must have, with both a high proscription and astigmatism - my lenses will be expensive. And even with the 'ultrathin' plastics they have now for lenses, still they are thick. And the edges have a lot of chromatic aberration, splitting things like a prism. Which can be cool when I'm bored and there are windows or LED displays or stuff around, because depending on the angle I look at them, I can make the colors separate from each other in different directions. Except that it can also be distracting, but mostly it's cool. xD;

I'm only 20 right now, so I haven't really thought much about laser surgery, yet, though I've also been told I'd be a good candidate for it, though my astigmatism would have to be evaluated, and also although I do not have diabetes, I have a condition that renders me somewhat pre-diabetic and at a very high risk for developing it, if I don't manage my blood sugar and such /now/. And we all know about blood sugar and eyesight... But I'm very much with you on the fear of becoming blind. Sure, the risk isn't /that/ high, but it's there, and oh dear god, what if we're the unlucky statistics?

Still, I hope that the process goes well for you!

And yet -- you're right. How do we have any right to complain when we can see? When we can see color, even?

There will always be people worse off than you in some way or another, but I do not think that necessarily detracts from the fact that you also have a problem that gives you special concerns that are perfectly legitimate for you to bring up and address. But part of it is, I think, all in your attitude -- do you dwell on your personal disabilities and problems and try to seek attention/pity/etc. from them? Or do you try to work through them? Do you look on yourself as the worst off or do you recognize and acknowledge that there are other people who are just as bad or worse off? And that, I think, is where all the difference is.

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

I find this interesting. I would have to wonder if researching the laser surgery would ease or intensify the worry. Thanks for explaining

[tijuana-pirate.livejournal.com]

Hrm, well, I have an aunt who is 'legally blind' - following the canadian definition, of course. She has a degenerative eye disease that has been reducing her eyesigh since she was a kid. So, in her entire field of view, she can maybe see ~5% of an image in front of her.

I always thought that that idea of 'correctibility' was key. My aunt (& her other blind friends) can't improve their eyesight to the point where they can say, safely drive a car. It's a (obvious!) disadvantage but they can also, say, get support from the CNIB (canadian national institute for the blind).

Do I get to claim that I am sight-impaired? Or am I robbing the truly blind of sympathy and attention if I do so?

Honestly, I really doubt that. I suppose that there is a kind of 'hierarchy of sightedness' - my aunt is grateful that she still has some sight, because some of her friends don't even have that - but you being concerned about your vision doesn't take anything away from anyone.

As for laser eye surgery, most of the people I know who did laser eye had moderate problems and were successful in their operations. I do know that not everyone can participate in the treatment (my aunt, for example) and that it's very important to go to a good clinic. I say just speak with your optometrist next time you have an appointment.

-TP

[yi-sen.livejournal.com]

Didn't know if you know this or not, but Zenni Optical makes Rx glasses up to -20 for their 1.67 high index glasses. Unfortunately, for their highest index glasses, the 1.74s, they only go up to -10.

With their prices, you could probably get decent glasses or sunglasses for about $50. It takes a few weeks to get to you, and you have to know your pupillary distance, but once you have your full Rx, it's super easy to order.