Any premeds with REALLY bad eyesight?

[penguinophile]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

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[novawildcat]

My sight probably isn't bad as yours but if i don't have my glasses on or contacts in i can't read the computer screen that is in front of me right now unless i stick my head up to it from about 6-8 inches away. is that bad enough?

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

Wow! Sorry you're having to wait for your glasses. -9.00/-9.50 is pretty impressive. I'm -6.00 in both eyes which is bad enough that, if I knock my glasses off the nightstand, I can't see them against the carpet without getting on my hands and knees. I can read about 6" from my nose with no correction - maybe I can see an inch or so further away than you can - which is not terribly useful. There are some brands of contacts that don't go up to -6.00 - can you wear contacts if you want to?

 

[k_soze]

I'm a med student, but I have 20/400 uncorrected vision in my left eye and 20/200 in my right. So you're not alone out there.

BTW, don't ever go back to a ****hole place that makes you feel bad by telling you your eyes are so bad they have to special order your prescription. I would've taken back my check and told the dude to **** himself (in an articulate, physician-sounding sort of way).

 

[pnasty]

-7.5 and -6.5, my mom figured out i needed glasses when i kept running into the walls (she is an opthomologist, which makes this story even more depressing)

only wear contacts outside of my place tho

 

[registered user]

****, my glasses are so thick, when I try to read a map I see people waving at me!

 

[Rafa]

Reading at close range, to the best of my knowledge, may strain your eyes (or more accurately, the muscles that bring your lens into focus), but bad eyesight (in cases where subjects are not lacking nutrients/medical care/etc) is almost completely genetic. In other words, your eyes aren't bad because you read in the dark too much as a child, or spend too much time in front of a computer, or beside a book, etc - those are urban legends. The cause of nearsightedness is almost always an eyeball that grows too long lengthwise. That's determined by your genes, though, as always, environmental factors are present to some degree. However, it's primarily genetic.

 

[funshine]

Reading at close range, to the best of my knowledge, may strain your eyes (or more accurately, the muscles that bring your lens into focus), but bad eyesight (in cases where subjects are not lacking nutrients/medical care/etc) is almost completely genetic. In other words, your eyes aren't bad because you read in the dark too much as a child, or spend too much time in front of a computer, or beside a book, etc - those are urban legends. The cause of nearsightedness is almost always an eyeball that grows too long lengthwise. That's determined by your genes, though, as always, environmental factors are present to some degree. However, it's primarily genetic.

yeah, I've heard the same old thing from every single optometrist and ophthamologist I've seen, but I still think this is total bull...how else to explain the fact that my eyesight is worse than both of my parents?! And that every single kid I know who has grown up in our computer/tv/video-game-happy environment has worse vision than their parents? I think genetics play a key role, but if you strain your eyes too much AND you have bad genes, then you're in for a steep increase in prescription. My eyesight had stabilized around -4.0 in high school, but in college when I really started hitting the books, staring at my laptop, counting yeast cells through the microscope, etc., my eyesight worsened dramatically and now I'm somewhere in the -6.0 range. If I'm not blind after med school, I'll be happy. 😡

 

[SRK85]

Damn are you blind. I have a prescription for my contacts at -6.5 and without my contacts or glasses I can not see anything within 3 inches of my face.

 

[ShyRem]

My eyes were relatively stable (change about every 2 years) until I went back to school. All of a sudden - BAM! - they change every 6 months (if not more often). I went from a -3.25 to a -6.25 in two years. And when I hit advanced calc and biochem I had to go into bifocals (or reading glasses with my contacts). I can't see **** without my glasses unless it's literally 3 inches from my face. The astigmatism doesn't help matters. Bah. Bad eyes suck.

I may have to consider going back to rigid (gas perm) lenses to stabilize my eyes. Ick. Not a candidate for laser eye correction either. 🙁

 

[Rafa]

yeah, I've heard the same old thing from every single optometrist and ophthamologist I've seen, but I still think this is total bull...how else to explain the fact that my eyesight is worse than both of my parents?! And that every single kid I know who has grown up in our computer/tv/video-game-happy environment has worse vision than their parents? I think genetics play a key role, but if you strain your eyes too much AND you have bad genes, then you're in for a steep increase in prescription. My eyesight had stabilized around -4.0 in high school, but in college when I really started hitting the books, staring at my laptop, counting yeast cells through the microscope, etc., my eyesight worsened dramatically and now I'm somewhere in the -6.0 range. If I'm not blind after med school, I'll be happy. 😡

I wouldn't be surprised if the condition has environmental triggers - in fact, I'm almost sure it must. Like herpes, cancer relapses, or other diseases/disorders, I'd imagine stress triggers (school) or the like (studying, close viewing of lit screens) might easily turn the "lengthen eyeball" genes on. I presume the genes are defective to begin with, in that they don't turn off when they're supposed to, but I also believe outer stresses may stimulate the genes beyond their already messed-up behavior.

I don't know. It's an interesting phenomenon. Humans (and other creatures with binocular vision) are designed to view objects from a distance. That's why the ocular muscles aren't stressed when you stare out windows over vast plains, or at the sky. But modern life seems to place us more and more frequently indoors with objects at ever-shortening distances from our eyes, with bad results. It's the kind of stuff that almost makes me wish I had the money to go into an occupation where I'd spend the majority of my time outdoors, far from computers, books, and the like.

Also, with regards to your case, I've heard that ns vision progressively shifts (worsens) pretty much until your twenties or thirties, when it should stabilize. So your worsening from h.s. to college is pretty much expected. It all depends on how much worsening potential your genes have built in. I mean, technically, one could go from -.5 to -.6 and stay at -.6 for the rest of one's life - but it's usually much worse than that. Good luck. 🙂

 

[faluri]

Once you are ca. -6 and less (more negative) - they always have to order your lenses. furthermore, sometimes they don't have to order your lenses just because your vision is very poor, but rather, because you may have a slight astigmatic correction or non standard base curve, etc.

don't feel bad - they have always had to 'order' my lenses for as long as i can remember - i was around -3 in like the 3rd-4th grade if that gives you some perspective. it does suck though - as soon as i am a candidate, i am all for corrective surgery.

 

[albe]

Hey Penguin, I know where you are coming from. I haven't checked lately, but I think my prescription is worse than yours. From what I understand, doing a lot of close-work (reading) causes us to accomodate for that type of activity, resulting in worsening myopia. Every few minutes of studying, look up and glance in the distance (20 ft) so that your eyes get a break.

It's unfortunate that myopia seems like it rarely reverses (maybe someone can figure out how to do it). Don't let those people at lenscrafters get to you.

 

[Rafa]

It's unfortunate that myopia seems like it rarely reverses (maybe someone can figure out how to do it).

The first step, I'd imagine, would be to figure out how to turn off the genes that encode for lengthening eyeballs. Once we pin that down, we can start working on either A.) genes to "shorten" the eyeball without damaging internal structure, or B.) ways to mechanically reduce the length of the eyeball. Before then, however, we'll probably get much better at trimming the cornea (laser surgery). The next fifty years should be exciting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_lens

 

[penguinophile]

Once you are ca. -6 and less (more negative) - they always have to order your lenses. furthermore, sometimes they don't have to order your lenses just because your vision is very poor, but rather, because you may have a slight astigmatic correction or non standard base curve, etc.

don't feel bad - they have always had to 'order' my lenses for as long as i can remember - i was around -3 in like the 3rd-4th grade if that gives you some perspective. it does suck though - as soon as i am a candidate, i am all for corrective surgery.

I have never had a problem with 1-hour glasses, and up until this time I always got to super-thin type (this time however, that step costs an extra $120). For me, my lenscrafters just didn't carry any that high. I have no astigmatism or apparently anything else wrong other than my eyesight.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how to convert prescriptions into the 20/XXX form, or if there exists such a thing since those of us who are way up there can't see ANYTHING at 20 ft away.

 

[FutureDocDO]

yeah, I've heard the same old thing from every single optometrist and ophthamologist I've seen, but I still think this is total bull...how else to explain the fact that my eyesight is worse than both of my parents?! And that every single kid I know who has grown up in our computer/tv/video-game-happy environment has worse vision than their parents? I think genetics play a key role, but if you strain your eyes too much AND you have bad genes, then you're in for a steep increase in prescription. My eyesight had stabilized around -4.0 in high school, but in college when I really started hitting the books, staring at my laptop, counting yeast cells through the microscope, etc., my eyesight worsened dramatically and now I'm somewhere in the -6.0 range. If I'm not blind after med school, I'll be happy. 😡

agreed

 

[masterMood]

when will donated eyes for eye transplants be a viable procedure?

 

[isobel]

i have totally horrendous astigmatism compounded by myopia. i have to get the special super highly refractive lenses or my glasses would be too thick to fit in any but the most nerdy frames. if i'm not wearing my contacts, i cant even carry on conversations because i can't see the other person's facial expressions. it's so annoying. and i hate glasses because i only get good vision in the very center of each lens and everything else is a bit blurry. also, i can't drive in glasses because my peripheral vision is so blurry that it's like having none.

oh lord, and i can't just order replacement contacts like everyone else. i end up waiting like a month to get them because they need to be made for me.

i tried to get laser vision correction but my vision is so bad that they want to wait until i'm like 35 because astigmatism this bad could possibly be a sign of a condition called keratoconus.

luckily my vision has been stable since i was 18 (7 years).

 

[spaceman_spiff]

I am nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, go figure huh.

but i do think that wearing glasses adds to one's nerdy sex appeal...

 

[cubbbie]

My prescription is -9.5 and still climbing. Every time I go to the eye doctor it gets worse. I figure I'll be at -12 by the time I'm done w/ med school and all those textbooks.

 

[ForamenMagnumPI]

My prescription was similar to the OP's. My vision was estimated at 20/800 (-10 in left eye, -9.5 in right eye). I wore contacts for many years, but when I started clinical rotations during the 3rd year of medical school, it was a real pain to deal with contacts while taking call. I finally had custom Lasik two months ago, and what an amazing difference! It's like some sort of miracle. If your prescription is stable, I would suggest looking into Lasik. If you are a candidate, I'd say go for it.

 

[lookslikerain]

Also, with regards to your case, I've heard that ns vision progressively shifts (worsens) pretty much until your twenties or thirties, when it should stabilize. So your worsening from h.s. to college is pretty much expected. It all depends on how much worsening potential your genes have built in. I mean, technically, one could go from -.5 to -.6 and stay at -.6 for the rest of one's life - but it's usually much worse than that. Good luck. 🙂

at my last eye check up, the optometrist told me that ns vision does stabilize at about age 25. i'm already at -5.5 and -6 (contact lens pres) and although thats not as bad as some people in this thread, i'm not looking forward to it worsening for another 3+ years.

 

[Law2Doc]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

Didn't anyone ever tell you that if you don't stop playing with it so much you will go blind?

Don't sweat it -- like 90% of med school wears glasses.

 

[prana_md]

-10, both eyes. It started in second grade, and just got worse. If they had had RK when I was in junior high, I would have done some seriously illegal sh** to get out of my glasses. My mom finally relented when I got to high school and I got contacts. Life was good until I hit post-bac at 28. Then up close started going all fuzzy somewhere around the Krebs cycle. I have to see an eye doctor before med school starts, definitely.

 

[Callogician]

<------20/20 uncorrected

Wow. You guys opened up a whole new world to me. I have a new found sympathy for those with vision problems. I always thought glasses were nothing but a minor annoyance. I was even looking into getting a fake pair for nerd sex appeal a la spaceman_spiff.

 

[RayhanS1282]

I am basically legally blind. I went to get my learner's the other day and after passing the written part, I failed the eye exam and I was wearing glasses. I guess my prescription needed to be chnaged.

 

[luhando]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

my prescription is about the same. been wearing glasses since about 7 and contacts since 9. cmobination of genetics (mom, brother, and sister have similar prescriptions) and being a computer nerd.

 

[Gabby]

I was born with VERY bad eyesight. I'm so farsighted that my glasses from the age of 5 until I was 18 were incredibly thick and nerdy. They couldn't order contacts for me because there wasn't a company that could design them for the extremely unusual "curve" in my eye, or so I was told. They tried a few times during my teen years and I ended up with two corneal abrasions because the strength of the contacts provided a problem for the design (or something. I was young and didn't really understand why, but basically, the contact wasn't gripping my eye).

Finally, after several specialists, when I was 18, I found one that was able to work with a company to have contacts custom-made ($300.00 an eye). It took a good eight months from start to finish, including several fittings. It was the best they could do right now, but it isn't perfect.

I wear my contacts out of the house, but in order to read, I have to have prescription reading glasses over the contacts. Otherwise, I can't read something like the computer screen or even a textbook. I used to work in TV news and they had to increase the font to double the size of the letters on the teleprompter in order for me to read it. At home, I just wear my super thick glasses and hope no one comes to the door. LOL

I'm glad someone started this thread because I've always wondered if my vision will be a huge detriment to me in med school.

 

[yomaxpower]

My vision sucks. My contacts have -7.5 written on their cases. This makes me wonder what I would do if there was no such thing as contacts. I am pretty sure that I would be eliminated from the gene pool. Now I am thinking... "how the hell did such crappy gene's survive in the first place?" I have a theory that people with bad vision had to read lots of books to survive. It turns out that reading gets you places in this world and those who read lots get rich and have lots of babies spreading their bad vision gene's throughout the world. Is there anyway to fix this? Does anyone else think about this sort of crap or am I a complete lunatic?

 

[cobalt31]

man! I thought my vision was pretty bad at -4 and -4.25. my vision changes about -.25 a year or two, and consistently has since i got contacts 7.5 years ago. I wear contacts all day every day and have only missed a couple days since i got them way back when.

Is anyone here considering laser correcting surgery? is there a minimum age requirement or something? I only know a life with glasses and contacts... i cant imagine what it would be like with perfect eye site. must be wonderful!

 

[Rafa]

My vision sucks. My contacts have -7.5 written on their cases. This makes me wonder what I would do if there was no such thing as contacts.

You would wear glasses - like millions upon millions of people did (and continue to) in the hundreds of years before contact lenses were invented.

 

[ShyRem]

From what I understand, for most laser corrective surgery your eyes have to be stable for 3 years. (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone correct me if I'm wrong - I would LOVE to be wrong!!!!)

As for nearsightedness stabilizing around 35? I'll be 39 this year and my eyes are STILL changing 2-4 times a year.

Anyone know anything about the contacts you wear at night that temporarily reshape your corneas?

 

[yomaxpower]

You would wear glasses - like millions upon millions of people did (and continue to) in the hundreds of years before contact lenses were invented.

What about life before glasses? I use the words contacts/glasses interchangeably. I forgot that talking to premeds requires precision vocabulary because the goal of most premeds is to make another premeds look like idiots. 😉

 

[ShyRem]

Let me just say that baking a cake while wearing glasses can be... frustrating. Opening the oven door to check your cake and getting an instantaneous vision of fog while the steam completely obscures your vision is *not* cool.

Also coming in from a cold outside while wearing glasses. Not fun. Not cool. Big case of CSS (can't see ****). Glasses are a major PITA.

 

[Dr. K]

My prescription was similar to the OP's. My vision was estimated at 20/800 (-10 in left eye, -9.5 in right eye). I wore contacts for many years, but when I started clinical rotations during the 3rd year of medical school, it was a real pain to deal with contacts while taking call. I finally had custom Lasik two months ago, and what an amazing difference! It's like some sort of miracle. If your prescription is stable, I would suggest looking into Lasik. If you are a candidate, I'd say go for it.

Good to hear! Would you recommend getting Lasik during the first 2 years of med school? Just wondering as many people have told me that those are the "heavy reading" years...

 

[ForamenMagnumPI]

I wish I had gone through with Lasik earlier in my medical training, but it was only recently approved for eyes as bad as mine. I've heard some people have trouble with reading and farsightedness after the procedure. I haven't had any problems, though. My eyes are a little dry in the AM - nothing that a few lubricating drops can't take care of.

 

[funshine]

I wouldn't be surprised if the condition has environmental triggers - in fact, I'm almost sure it must. Like herpes, cancer relapses, or other diseases/disorders, I'd imagine stress triggers (school) or the like (studying, close viewing of lit screens) might easily turn the "lengthen eyeball" genes on. I presume the genes are defective to begin with, in that they don't turn off when they're supposed to, but I also believe outer stresses may stimulate the genes beyond their already messed-up behavior.

I don't know. It's an interesting phenomenon. Humans (and other creatures with binocular vision) are designed to view objects from a distance. That's why the ocular muscles aren't stressed when you stare out windows over vast plains, or at the sky. But modern life seems to place us more and more frequently indoors with objects at ever-shortening distances from our eyes, with bad results. It's the kind of stuff that almost makes me wish I had the money to go into an occupation where I'd spend the majority of my time outdoors, far from computers, books, and the like.

Interesting, I've always suspected stress might trigger increasing near-sightedness as well. When I focus/concentrate on something, even just mentally, I can feel a lot of energy build up behind my eyes...maybe I've just become hypersensitive about it, but lots of people have observed that I look at things really intently.

Yup, my vision will likely deteriorate more in med school, especially now that everything is on the computer. I hate that my profs are all computer-savvy and like to post all these addtl articles and review papers online...in addition to their lecture slides and required textbook reading. Shoot, I could spend 24-7 staring at my computer and not get all the reading done.

I'm glad someone started this thread because I've always wondered if my vision will be a huge detriment to me in med school.

yeah, this is like a mini support-group for those with bad vision! 🙂
I don't think med school will be easy on your eyes, but not having perfect vision certainly won't be a detriment to your medical career, unless you want to go into surgery and those related specialties. I would shy away from radiology as well...looking at x-rays all day doesn't sound fun for my eyes. However, there are lots of other medical fields that don't require perfect vision or lots of computer use: psychiatry, pediatrics, OBGYN, family medicine, derm...so you have some options. I remember seeing a blind resident on TV who was explaining how she chose psychiatry because it was most suitable for her condition.

I wonder how many ophthalmologists out there have bad vision. I'm assuming the procedures they do must be performed with utmost precision, and having anything less than perfect vision would be a hazard to your patient...? I'm also considering getting Lasik in 4-5 years, but I'm still afraid I'll be in the 0.00001% (hypothetical percentage) that suffers permanent blindness 😎 . I have a family history of glaucoma too, so I don't know if that means I'm more likely to have complications afterwards.

 

[Law2Doc]

I wonder how many ophthalmologists out there have bad vision. I'm assuming the procedures they do must be performed with utmost precision, and having anything less than perfect vision would be a hazard to your patient...?

Every ophthalmologist I've known has worn glasses.

 

[Anastasis]

-7.00 in both eyes. Can I join?

 

[funshine]

My vision sucks. My contacts have -7.5 written on their cases. This makes me wonder what I would do if there was no such thing as contacts. I am pretty sure that I would be eliminated from the gene pool. Now I am thinking... "how the hell did such crappy gene's survive in the first place?" I have a theory that people with bad vision had to read lots of books to survive. It turns out that reading gets you places in this world and those who read lots get rich and have lots of babies spreading their bad vision gene's throughout the world. Is there anyway to fix this? Does anyone else think about this sort of crap or am I a complete lunatic?

I know!!! I feel so genetically inferior to those with 20/20 vision sometimes, and I'm not sure I want to pass on such crappy genes. I have this master plan to marry someone with near-perfect vision so hopefully our kids won't be too badly screwed up 😉. The good thing, as someone mentioned, most people with good vision have no idea how much it sucks to be near-sighted, so they probably won't realize my genes are "inferior." 🙂

 

[Gabby]

I don't think med school will be easy on your eyes, but not having perfect vision certainly won't be a detriment to your medical career, unless you want to go into surgery and those related specialties. I would shy away from radiology as well...looking at x-rays all day doesn't sound fun for my eyes. However, there are lots of other medical fields that don't require perfect vision or lots of computer use: psychiatry, pediatrics, OBGYN, family medicine, derm...so you have some options. I remember seeing a blind resident on TV who was explaining how she chose psychiatry because it was most suitable for her condition.

That's great because I'm already leaning heavily towards psychiatry! Either that or rheumatology, which I know requires an IM residency. I still have a long way to go though, so you never know. Fortunately, I don't think I'll be interested in either surgery or radiology, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[tacrum43]

man! I thought my vision was pretty bad at -4 and -4.25. my vision changes about -.25 a year or two, and consistently has since i got contacts 7.5 years ago. I wear contacts all day every day and have only missed a couple days since i got them way back when.

Is anyone here considering laser correcting surgery? is there a minimum age requirement or something? I only know a life with glasses and contacts... i cant imagine what it would be like with perfect eye site. must be wonderful!

You're like my eye twin.

I had to get glasses in high school durning my senior year when I realized I couldn't read the equations on the board in Physics. I tried conteacts for a while, but they irritated my eyes too much. I started at about -1.0 and now I'm up to -3.5 and -4.0, although I need to get a new prescription. Both eyes seem to get worse in 0.25 increments every year or so, although recently my left eye has been pulling out to win.

I'd like to get the laser surgery as well someday. My optometrist said I can "once my vision stabilizes". Well, it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. I hope it doesn't just keep getting worse and worse. I've already surpassed my parents.

 

[Beau Geste]

man! I thought my vision was pretty bad at -4 and -4.25. my vision changes about -.25 a year or two, and consistently has since i got contacts 7.5 years ago. I wear contacts all day every day and have only missed a couple days since i got them way back when.

Is anyone here considering laser correcting surgery? is there a minimum age requirement or something? I only know a life with glasses and contacts... i cant imagine what it would be like with perfect eye site. must be wonderful!

I used to be pretty close to that, too. I was -4.5 and -4.75 and then I had the LASIK in Feb 2002. Best thing I ever did.

I do have some trouble at night with the "halo effect" but it's dimished a lot over the years. I also get dry eyes if on the computer too long, but my vision's 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other, where it used to be 20/400.

 

[Reimat]

My eye's aren't terrible, but boy am I blind without glasses. I can sympathize with others on this thread. I like to imagine that one day in the future laser eye surgery will fix my eyes. Or, maybe we'll all even be able to get super vision 😉

 

[Rafa]

I forgot that talking to premeds requires precision vocabulary because the goal of most premeds is to make another premeds look like idiots. 😉

No need to get defensive. Just say glasses when you mean glasses, and contacts when you mean contacts. Premed or not, none of us are mind readers. 🙂

 

[Kristiyana]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

Me:

-15.75 and -16.25

So yes, I have really bad eyesight. I'm lucky to have any vision at all though, so I'm not complaining. 🙂

 

[71263]

Man, my glasses broke today. The screw came out and whenever i tried puttting it back in the frame, the lens kept falling out.

Then I had the brilliant idea of wearing them while pulling something out of the oven, and then my lens falls in and stays there for a few minutes before i decide to risk burning my hands to get it out. Now not only is the frame broken, but the lens is halfway melted in the middle. 😡

 

[badlydrawnvik]

My eyesight is not terrible right now but it's only correctible with hard contact lenses. because of this I tend to walk around with marginal eyesight because the lenses are so uncomfortable. This is probably going to be the summer where I finally have to start wearing them on a regular basis and getting used to them because my eyesight is getting worse and if I went to do well in anatomy next year i'll have to be able to see. I'm also worried that this will affect pursuing surgery.

 

[Kristiyana]

My eyesight is not terrible right now but it's only correctible with hard contact lenses. because of this I tend to walk around with marginal eyesight because the lenses are so uncomfortable. This is probably going to be the summer where I finally have to start wearing them on a regular basis and getting used to them because my eyesight is getting worse and if I went to do well in anatomy next year i'll have to be able to see. I'm also worried that this will affect pursuing surgery.

Ah, I wear RGPs also ...when I first got mine, I would wear them only a couple of times a week, and they were SOOOO uncomfortable ... once I started wearing them regularly, they were pretty much fine... they're still not as comfortable as softies, but they're certainly bearable. My only complaint is that on occasion one of the lenses falls out and I have to walk around for the rest of the day with only one contact lens.

 

[akinf]

I had to get my prescription changed for my glasses, and when I went to Lenscrafters, the home of the 1-hour pair of glasses, I was told that my eyesight was so bad that they had to special order my lenses and they would take 14 business days. I was just wondering if those long hours of studying in the dark corner of the library has impaired anyone elses vision. FYI: I have a prescrition of -9 and -9.5

wow

that's really bad eye sight, mine are only -2.0 and -2.5 and I thought that was bad. Anyways, unless you go blind, i doubt that will impair your ability to practice medicine.