TargetTalk

Just want you to know and it may mean nothing to most of you but I am 70 and had eyes like an eagle when I was younger.I used to read the very fine print on the back of old matches.
as time went on I started having trouble with iron sights.
the peep was fine but the target was blurry.

Let me tell you I had the lasix surgery and it was incredible.
No pain whatsoever you are knocked out only in the beginning and you can't see anything but your can hear the laser.
they do one eye first and then a week later the other. You can't see anthing or anybody you are covered up.
what you think you saw as white before the surgery is really almost a light yellow compared to your new vision which is pure white and vivid colors.
I can shoot iron sights now at 70 as good as I could when I was 20.
Just in case someone was wondering about it.
If I am relaxed in the morning I can read the paper without squinting but my distance is clear as a bell.
Just wanted you to know.
If i shoot at 10 meters i can clearly see the pellet hole.
Daveyg

My wife was GB national team air rifle 30 years ago and was very shortsighted and shot with glasses, she also shot .22 prone and 3p as well as fullbore rifle making the Queens prize final in '79.
Last year she was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes and had laser surgery. It was done with local anesthetic, she did not even realise they had started the op when it was finished and like you had both done at two week intervals. The other up side is the surgeon used replacement lens that corected her eye site to 20/20.
Now at 60 she has restarted shooting air and smallbore after a 20 year break and can't believe the site pictures that she has never seen before so clearly.

I am the same age and I was thinking of this kind of solution.Although my eyes are corrected with glasses- I thought this post was very valuable to older folks.

Eighteen months ago I had to have my lenses removed and replaced with the plastic ones due to cataracts, this is quite different from the laser remodeling of the corneal surface. Local anaesthesia of the eye, an ultrasound probe to break up the old lens (cataracts involve changes in the lens rear surface mostly) and insertion of the new rolled up plastic fresnel lens. Amazing reduction of prescription from +3.75 diopters down to +0.3 !! Still need glasses for most things, but I've lived with that situation for 60 years, and at least I can drive at night now. It has naturally, increased my ability to see the sights and my scores are modestly rising. It is very odd to note that one retina sees slightly rosy shades while the other sees bluish tinges - makes for great fun in trying to decide on color choices. Now if only there was a way to correct the deterioration of "retinal pulls" due to the shrinkage of the rigid component of the aquius.

Dr Jim

It's like a miracle-no pain or sensation,
you can hear them talking and see that there is something over the eye they are not working on but it's like they are working on somebody else and let me tell you that you will be stunned when they take the patch off and you realize the difference between the two eyes. They don't give you shots anywhere or anything scary but an IV and you lay there for awhile and you can see everybody else in the room and some in line after you.
You have all your clothes on-Just a paper cover over you
then you realize you must have dozed off because you wake up to the doctor talking to the nurse or whoever and they are almost done.
He just says High -How are you doing and thats it.You will be able to shoot just like when you were younger.
20/20
that is what I have now.I do have a pair of reading glases (cheapo's Walmart) if I need them but most of the time don't need them especiall if there is enought light.
If you are thinking of doing this.
DO IT! you will be totally happy and no more $300 and $400 dollar glasses.If you dostill need them for reading-go get a pair of $8 glasses.
Daveyg

Well if you only have minor corrections, yeah you can get to 20/20, but with severe and critical astigmatism, as I had, I felt lucky to get what improvement I did. Oh, yeah, and after 18months the prescription had changed a bit and I had to shell out $760 for new glasses - guess these just cost more in the Great White North.
Dr Jim

I think we may be talking about two different things here, there is laser correction of eyesight where the cornea is adjusted to alter the focus, and cateract surgery, where the natural lens is broken up and removed and replaced with a plastic lens, this was what my wife had as did Dr Jim.
Her surgeon told her it would be a life changing experiance, and it was, after a life with glasses and being very short sighted she was now 20/20. I can't comment on the laser correction but if you have cataracts get them operated as the side benfit is they will correct your vision with the replacement lens.
In Britain laser correction is around £400 an eye, cateract surgery is free on our national health system but a 4 month waiting list, or £2000 an eye privately.
Robin

Robin is correct Lasix and cataract surgery are indeed two different things. And while we have a government funded medical system, in Alberta it only pays for the exams, surgery, and the basic cheapest lense, if astigmatic correction or multi-focal lenses are desired, well my wife and I paid out $1800 per eye for them. All contributed to the tax deduction for medical treatments, so the process worked out somewhat cheaper in the end.

Cheers -- Dr Jim

So the cost for the standard lens is like $10 (thanks to the Fred Hollows Foundation), yet the corrective or multifocals cost $1800? That's quite a change.

Sorry for the confusion about the name of the surgery.
I had the cataracs broken up and removed and the clear lens put in.
they are beautiful and will last longer than I will.
as far as 18 months?
My sister had it done when it first came out and went to canada to have it done years ago.
there is no change at all in her sight and she does not wear galsses to read.That was quite awhile ago. She said it was the best money invested as she had to pay to have it done then.
also at night when it rained it was really haRd to see and the oncoming headlights would mess me up.blurry and made it difficult to see the road.
No more-that fellow who's wife is shooting again.
She knows and he knows what I am saying is true.
Don't struggle-life is to short- give yourself a break you deserve and have it done.
you wil never, never regret it. Hope I have helped you make up your mind.
daveyg

Different docs do cataract correction differently. My left eye was fixed a few years ago, and I got 20/15 vision at infinity -- but no correction for close up so I carry cheap reading glasses. They fixed my miserable astigmatism. Someday the cataract in my right eye will need fixing, but it isn't growing so I don't worry. But I wish they would do it as they could fix the astigmatism which is getting worse all at the same time.

Other docs will correct for reading, and you will need driving glasses; still others may opt to try one eye at close focus and the other eye at infinity. Not sure I would be willing to chance that.

The plastic implant lens is pretty much transparent to UVA, so you will never again think of UV as "black" light. It'll be bright indigo.

Brian21 wrote:So the cost for the standard lens is like $10 (thanks to the Fred Hollows Foundation), yet the corrective or multifocals cost $1800? That's quite a change.

OK, remember this is in Canada, and we have a National Medicare system that covers everyone. So basic cataract surgery with basic lens replacement is covered, BUT as with a lot of other schedules, the "enhanced" materials are extra to the plan. So therefore the charge for the astigmatism correcting lenses, just as there is for a "Birmingham hip" instead of the cheaper version for a hip replacement.
I hope I have reduced the confusion.

Dr Jim