The contact lens got folded in half and was located up under my eyelid. Sometimes almost impossible to get out by yourself. Just about to head for the hospital when a friend dropped by and could see the contact lens and brushed it out with a cotton bud, stoked. I wasn't 100% sure if it was there or not. Thought I better get it checked out, cos I didn't want to wake up at 2AM and think, yeah it's really still there.
But it's out now. Unreal.

Hey that was a great fun surf. Hard work but we both got some good ones.

The kind of surf where you go home stuffed, but so happy.

Hope everyone else is getting great holiday waves.
RobDog

I had laser eye surgery almost 13 1/2 years ago. It's the best thing I ever did. Life changing in terms of making it so easy to do stuff. I would gladly pay 10 times the price.

Hi Robdog,

I had excimer Lasik treatment.

Basically they peel back the top layer of your eye, hit the cornea with the laser to reshape it, then lay the 'skin' back over it. The whole process took less than 15 minutes to do two eyes and I could see when I walked out of the surgery! Very very light sensitive for the first day but now (2 weeks later) I am out in the water every day with no problems (wear sunnies when paddling on the flat, but no sunnies for surfing).

My optometrist had been telling me 'no' to laser treatment for the past 10 years as I have both astigmatism & shortsightedness and the rate of success was only 85%. I decided to look things up on the net myself now that newer technology was available. The success rate is now 99% so I went for it. Three others I know went to the same surgery and raved about the results.

The consultation is 1.5hrs and at the end they tell you if they think you are a suitable candidate. They have good success with scripts up to -6.0 however the higher the script, the less likely you are to get perfect vision. If you are over -6.0 they send you to another surgery for a different treatment. I was minus 4.75 in one eye and -5.5 in the other. I now have fantastic distance vision, but I am still waiting for the reading & close up to come completely clear, which they said could take 6 weeks to 3 months.

They have a fantastic website so you can take a look at the whole process, even watch a treatment and do a virtual tour of the facility. See http://www.aies.com.au/index.html

Good luck
Melissa

My wife had the surgery but due to her situation (bad eyes or something) she had to get PRK surgery instead of Lasik. So she had to spend 3 days in a dark room or with eyes shut but eventually same result. Best thing she ever did. No worrying about contacts or glasses. Apparently she is better than 20 20 now if that possible!

She was almost scared of the water before that as she was always worried she might loose a contact. Now she's SUPing with the rest of us!

Apparently it's not for everyone, but if you quailfy go for it. Also ask around as the big laser eye guys (Medonick etc) offer good prices but are using dated equipment.

edit: Only downside for her is night driving. She has a bit of light sensitivity with on coming traffic so I tend to drive at night unless she is designated which is usually.

Thanks heaps for the great info, I will follow it up.
RobDog

BTW The standard eye chart has 6 rows of letters. 20:20 is reading the fourth row. I can read the sixth row. They call it 6:4 which is better than 20:20.

There is a little bit of a trick involved. After 25 years of being half blind you get used to working stuff out from a blurred image. My right eye is crystal clear and the left is a bit less clear.

While I remember, I know of two failures from Lasik. One was from a Chinese guy with really strangely shaped eyeballs (they looked like flattened grapes). He rubbed them too hard and dislodged the Lasik flap. They got him all fixed up with after care.

The other was a woman who got mates rates from the business downstairs from where she worked. When it's done properly they over-correct your sight and during the healing process it comes back to normal. You put in steroid drops for a few months that increase the internal pressure in your eyeball and that helps smooth things out.

Her sight was not corrected enough so they had to re-do the surgery twice more. Eventually they could not correct it anymore and she had to go back to glasses. It's important to go to an established business with a track record. (My surgeon had done research and published papers on the correction process and the method of achieving the desired result and was well known to the medical fraternity.)

Brooko said...

Me and robdog had another good session today Was paddeling the 9 6" around in 28 kmh winds worth it though cause the waves were good.

Looks great for tomozza arvo as well. Bring it on

Have you got some photos of the beaches where you surf that you could share with us? It's a very rugged coastline around Portland I'd be interested in what they look like. Are there many people about at the moment?

Yep Gorgo that would be it very close to the seal colony Hey I can see robdog waving from his front yard in the first pic

Toadwhispera said...

JB Mel said...

Hi Robdog,

My optometrist had been telling me 'no' to laser treatment for the past 10 years as I have both astigmatism & shortsightedness and the rate of success was only 85%. I decided to look things up on the net myself now that newer technology was available. The success rate is now 99% so I went for it. Three others I know went to the same surgery and raved about the results.

Good luck
Melissa

I had the exact same eye condition as you Mel , got the same runaround , had the surgery and its the absolute best thing , No drawbacks at all

Yep, I have a sneaking suspicion that many optometrists are protecting their income by discouraging people from having the laser treatment. I am still waiting for my close up vision to come good, but it is getting better every day: It is very encouraging to hear from others who have had complete success. Thanks

Brooko said...

...very close to the seal colony ...

I surfed there once and it was pretty nice. Denis at the lodge seemed pretty amused that I was out surfing.

I've heard the seal tours used to let the tourist jump in for a swim with the seals ... until a shark tried to bight the leg off the outboard.

I'm hoping to be down there on the Australia day weekend for a SUP, kite, paragliding long weekend.