I am thinking of having my eyes corrected now whilst im not too ill.

I need glasses for everything now and I think it would be of ebormoud benefit not to need any.

Does anyone know any HD+ person who has undergone this surgery? I wondered if it was safe what with the muscle issues etc I guess eyes are a kind of muscle.... although now ive typed that im doubting it!

Anyway any ideas/info please?

Lorraine

That is a tempting surgery for everyone with glasses. The problem is that the complications that might arise from it wouldn't go well with HD. If you get the halo effect or the staring of light or lots of floaters, all of those will be doublely as hard to deal with in processing what you see, and a whole lot more distracting. I don't think anyone should get that surgery anyway... the reports of complications are mounting as people are aging after it. You only get one set of eyes... and glasses work fine. People with HD do fine with glasses.... and don't seem to misplace them any more than we all do. Just my opinion.... always choose the least evasive alternative to a problem, even if inconvenient.

If you have the vision correction surgery using laser (or with the older method using a knife), the problem is they can only correct your near vision or far vision but not both. If you are older than age 40, your lens looses its ability to focus at near for reading (called presbyopia). If you're nearsighted that's no problem (take off your glasses and you can see to read), but if you get it the nearsightedness corrected by laser you'll loose the ability to see at near without your glasses. Farsighted people have a double whammy and even if you get that corrected for distance it won't help your reading...you'll still need reading glasses when you get to around age 40 and older...and the reading prescription will get progressively stronger for several years before it tapers off and is stable. Some do what's called monovision where they make one eye able to see clearly for distance (but near is blurred) and the other eye is able to see near (but then distance is blurred). Many people can't tolerate this and it is felt to interfer with depth perception. But some people adapt and do fine with monovision.
There is no way they can make you able to focus both distance and near unless you have cataract surgery (which at this time is not laser surgery) and have a special bifocal lens implant (this lens is not perfect either).
And Eric is right that there can be complications from the laser surgery. Also it is a relatively newer surgery and so it is almost like one big experiment to see what will happen to all these eyes as they get old. Be sure to get all the facts before you make any decissions.
But you're right to think ahead if this is something you'd like the time to do it would be now before you have movement problems because you must be absolutely still during the surgery.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2011 02:35PM by eve.

Maybe you could get some contact lenses, if you want to go without glasses now, while you are younger, and then when HD makes that too hard, go back to glasses.

Ive already got contact lenses and have asigmastisms in both eys which makes them uncomfortable.. but i do use them occassionally wedings funerals nights out kind of thing..

Im interested to read Eric/Eve info.. I have a friend raving on about how good his eyesight is after a £2,500 treatment... it says in the "blurb" that they can correct all vision issues and the new laser cutting (rather than mechanical) avoids scaring leadin to further probs etc. Also it says it can correct long and short sighted (i have varifocals as im both need glasses for everything).

Eve are you saying that they cant correct near and far vision simultaniously then?

I have come across articles like this one.....

[www.dailymail.co.uk]

I was all geared up for this but my friend is one of those positive over enthusiastic types so maybe ill wait and see if technology gets even better and reports of no long term eye damage are few.

Maybe I should put it this way. I don't mean this to be mean at all so don't take it that way. But if Teresa had had this surgery and had surgically induced dry eye that required eye drops every hour, she, for that reason alone, probably would have gone to the nursing home sooner. Her chorea would have made doing drops on her own impossible, and her short term memory to do it on time, every time, would have been compromised. There are tipping points for these decisions of long term care and that would have been one for me. So regardless of the short term convenience of not wearing glasses she, unlike everyone else with dry eyes, might have had to be in a nursing two years sooner or more. There are are lot of elderly people where the tipping point for them being in a nursing home is their vision and eye care. The eye doctor won't mention this and the nuero won't because they don't think like a care giver. So really turn on your HD filter when you think about this. You know HD is going to impact you so, what will HD plus whatever you plan to do impact in the best and worst case? I know having that HD filter on takes some fun out some things.

I have been perfectly happy with my lasik surgery. Going on 10 years. My HD Mom is always breaking her glasses and she is in no way able to repond to a doctor appropriately for an eye exam to get new glasses. We have had anyone with a remotely similar prescription to hers in our family hand down old glasses to her. I never had dry eye, halos or anything - but maybe I'm just lucky.

Next time you go to an optometrist or eye doctor, check how many staff people are wearing glasses. If Lasik were so great they'd all be without them. I've been wearing a monovision prescription with contacts quite successfully for years. I believe that only works with contacts.

When they say Lasik corrects all sorts of problems, I think you would get a permanent monovision prescription to correct both near and far vision. That scares me. I adjusted to monovision quite easily, but a lot of people don't.

Will

Hi!

I am HD positive (CAG 42) and I had the laser surgery over 10 years ago. I was also totally blind without glasses. I sometimes need glasses to read, but am not dependent on glasses to get around the house if something should happen to them. I had no ill effects from the surgery.

PK

Lorraine, carefully read the article you provided a link to about the rocker Rick Wakeman who gives his testimonial about the refractive surgery and you will see that he didn't get corrected for distance and near vision both in each eye. He had what Will was talking about (monovision is the most used USA term), where one eye is corrected for near (but distance vision is blurry) and the other eye is corrected for distance (but near vision is blurry). As Will stated, this can work for many people, but not all. If you are going this route, you must have a trial of contact lenses simulating this to make sure it will work for you. The surgery is permanent, although small adustments can often be done after the surgery. At this time, after age 40, there is no way to correct the presbyopia (need for reading glasses that starts around age 40) so that distance and near vision is equally fixed in both eyes. But some people are happy with just their distance vision corrected and when they need the reading glasses they feel it's no big deal to pull them out. A lot of younger people get this surgery and I hope they understand that someday they'll need reading glasses (unless they had the monovision with unequal eye corrections). I just want to be sure that you have all the facts before you make any decissions.
Supposedly there is something being researched that uses a laser to remove the protein and other built up stuff that stiffens the lens as we age and causes problems with focusing for reading (presbyopia) and cataracts. And maybe if this experimental thing works out then we would have a "cure" for presbyopia and an easy fix for cataracts too. But it is not available now. The refractive surgery you're talking about deals with reshaping the cornea which is not able to change focus like the lens.

Lorraine, great post. I have also thought of this, since my grandmother with HD had a difficult time keeping her glasses on/straight, even with straps.

I'm gene-positive, near-sighted and rely on contact lenses, but figure that contacts would become too difficult if chorea sets in. And that that point would be too late to get laser-correction.

I've only heard great things from friends who've had the correction, but these replies give me lots more to think about. I'll keep reading; and be interested what you decide, too.

Sara,

I wear Night and Day extended wear contacts. I sleep with them in and take them out once every 3 or 4 days to scrub them with saline with my fingertip. Then they go right back in. Each pair lasts 30 days. I do leave them out for 24 hours on the day I change pairs. That's about as hassle free as wearing contacts gets.

Will