Do you see what I see?

[anigo]

I am 42 years old. Since I was 20 I've worn glasses. Since I was about 22 I've actually worn contacts instead of glasses, since I needed glasses more and more and it was easier and more convenient to wear contacts. I need my glasses to drive or to watch tv or to do anything really. I mean, I can make it around the house and I don't run into things, but I'm not going to shoot the apple off the head of a small child at 100 feet. At 42 I still can see things close up fairly reasonably without my glasses or contacts, but I find that I'm starting to do the long arm read when I'm wearing my contacts, or I have to look under my glasses if I want to look at the finer print.

Because of an unexpected cash windfall and some juggling of my extended health benefits I find myself in a position where I can now afford laser surgery to have my vision corrected. Just think, no more glasses. No worries about losing contacts if I'm swimming. Or sailing. Or water skiing. No straining to see the clock in the wee hours of the morning. No excuse now to not clean out the bathtub because I can't see how bad it looks without my contacts in. Last week I went in for a consultation and they said that my eyes were excellent candidates for the surgery. (Please hold, I literally have to clean the smudge off my glasses before I continue typing.) The surgery is quick and painless, has an excellent success rate, very non-invasive and an incredible heal time rate.

But here's the thing that's holding me back. Sounds silly, but I like being able to see up close without needing reading glasses. If I have the surgery my eyesight will be very similar to having my contacts in all the time. I'll be able to see fantastically all around me, 24 hours a day, but I will lose some of my near vision. Now granted, if I have my contacts in now (and I wear them almost all the time) I would benefit greatly from reading glasses. But I can easily take my contacts out or take my glasses off and I can see to thread a needle or read a book in the bathtub.

On the flip side, the percentage of waking time I need vision correction now, vs the percentage of time I don't as compared to the percentage of time I'd need vision correction after the surgery is probably 80%/20% vs 20%/80% (did that make sense? Now I need it 80% of the time and 20% of the time I take my glasses off to read, whereas after the surgery it would be the other way around) and the logic of that says that I should reeeeeealy go for this surgery.

But I don't know if I want to lose what I have. I'm pretty sure I'd need reading glasses after the surgery. Ug. Reading glasses. I'm too young for that! :D

What would YOU do?

Comments

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I'm 26 and I have reading glasses. So there.

(This is because I'm far-sighted. :D)

[anigo.livejournal.com]

And that's cool. I actually broke down and bought myself a funky pair a while ago. But I rarely ever use them. (They are great for getting splinters out and fiddly stuff like that though!)

Believe it or not, it's not so much the feeling of a perceived stigma of needing reading glasses, it's more losing the thing I do have in exchange for the thing I don't. I'm not sure if I want to do that. It sort of feels like being a horder and not wanting to give away my close up vision.

Odd, huh.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Not too odd, really. You know what you have - you know how it works, you know what you need to do, you've developed the reflexes and habits that go along with it.

[saavik.livejournal.com]

Go for it Gina. Try the flip side - that is living without the need for glasses *most* of the time. And that advice is worth exactly what you've paid for it. {;>)

[fyremaven.livejournal.com]

I understand the whole, giving up something you have etc. But knowing you and your situation, i say "go for it." You'll be far happier in the long run and reading glasses are very cool and can be really funky.

I should know, i've needed them for years now; and not as much because of age but more because of all the close up charting i do daily at work.

Go for it!