If you have eyesight worse than -10 please come and talk to me about contact lenses!

[foxessocks]

I'm at my wits end! I'll try and keep this brief, my eyesight is terrible, I think -12 one eye and -14 in the other. I used to where GP lenses but then I got dry eyes and switched back to glasses full-time. I don't mind wearing glasses but I really need another option for the summer because I want to wear sunglasses and I can't get pescription ones. The optician I saw gave me these options-

1. get eye surgery - lens replacement (which I have looked into and am pretty sure I will do at some point but I have to save up!)
2. get disposable contact lenses and then get precription sunglasses to go over the top to make up the prescription iyswim
3. go back to GP lenses and try them again (they got very uncomfortable but that was over a year ago)

He originally was very optimistic and ordered me some monthly lenses in my correct prescription which I was very excited about as I didn't think such a thing existed - well, then they didn't bother to call me back for 3 weeks so I chased them and they said, "Oh, they don't do those any more you'll have to come back in". So here I am, going to another appointment later today and I'm feeling fed up and don't really want to even go.

If anyone has any advice, ideas, success stories...I'm only in my early 30s and this has been my situation since I was about 10 years old! I've had enough of opticians I've tried lots and they all seem really unhelpful. I even tried a super expensive private one and they were also unhelpful and charged me £85 for the appointment.

Yes, I've been told I must forgo the pleasures of hurling myself towards the ground from vast heights due to risk of retinal detachment too :(

I think if I could get them to -12 then surely that would be good enough as long as I'm not driving
Definitely not, I had to go a few months with my prescription .75 out if one eye while I waited for one prescription to get used up before they sent me a new supply.
It was horrible reading the screen or reading and made me feel sick and disorientated. I stopped wearing contact lenses unti I got the new prescription in the end.
You will notice a difference that big.

Unlikely to get headaches from too weak a prescription I think — too strong a prescription, yes.
Actually maybe my discomfort was because I was over prescribed .....

My first contact lenses I got at age 11 were a pair of custom vial lenses I had to keep going for a year, boucher — they were so expensive that when one got flicked out of my eye by a flying piece of grit at school I just had to lick it clean and stick it back in

With myopia, if the lenses are too strong, you have to work hard with your eye muscles to compensate which causes strain and eventually headaches, and everything will be horribly distorted. If it's too weak, you can't compensate by changing your focus so there's not the same type of strain going on and you just get fuzziness you can't get rid of, tho I assume that there are people who really can't cope with under-correction, or who squint to compensate and give themselves headaches that way.

mumoftwoyoungkids - I also get that voucher from the government - ridiculous isn't it , always makes me laugh when it goes against my £400 pair of glasses!!!
I've never been warned against jumping out of a plane but maybe I don't look the type, haha!! I used to ski and even worked as a ski instructor so it was on my file as a dangerous sport and the optician never mentioned that...he does often warn me to come straight in if I get flashing lights as that can be a sign of detachment, always freaks me out!

Expletive - I'm pretty sure we have a Leightons near us, I think a new optician might be a good idea, I'll have a look, thanks.

Thanks everyone I appreciate all the advice

boucher - I had a feeling that was the case actually as I made a few enquiries with some specialist opticians locally who deal with complex prescriptions, I reckon they'd be able to help me but the initial appointment was about £80...

I mean, I could do that but I'm starting to think why throw all this money at it, maybe I should save my money and pay for the surgery next year instead.

Fox my daughter has had amazing lens replacement surgery. I think it’s worth talking to them about paying in installments or even getting a loan. Especially if you factor in the cost of lenses and glasses.

Why can't you get prescription sunglasses? Asda opticians do them to higher prescriptions than yours, and for a lot cheaper than £400.

wrybread, I tried to get prescription sunglasses but they can't thin them down all the way with sunglasses and my lenses are so unbelievably thick that I can't wear them if they aren't thinned down, they are too bulky.

tinkly it's good to hear people have had success stories with the surgery , I'm excited to find out more!

I do get warned about the retinal detachment/bungee jumping stuff yes, also to monitor floater activity. Also it's important to have all the retinal scans etc that a good optician should offer now, so they can pick up early signs of problems.

expletive yes to the scans and stuff - Specsavers actually don't do this unless you over 40 which I didn't realise, I complained and said really with my prescription they should do all those tests every time! They told me they'd put a note on my file to do them free of charge every visit. I'm a bit grumpy with Specsavers on the whole at the moment!

Although actually, they have just redeemed themselves a bit. I had cancelled my appointment today because I was feeling quite fed up with them but also my childcare fell through, anyway, the optician himself has just phoned me back without me even asking for a call back and apologised for the issues, asked if I would reconsider and come and see him next week and told me he can order bespoke monthly contact lenses in my prescription (he has just converted it to CL and it is 11.75 and 13) , he has told me the cost of 3 packs of lenses and it isn't too bad actually. Although I actually think the GP lenses would work out cheaper. But perhaps these monthly ones will be more comfortable. Either way I can try them free of charge.

So, a bit more positive now. Still going to save up for surgery ASAP though!!

If I ever get to the point of not being able to wear contacts that surgery is on my list too, I really hate wearing glasses.

I'm tempted by it — I'm just on the borderline between laser surgery and lens implant wrt risk/benefit. But I feel wary of letting someone fuck with my eyes; heard too many stories of side effects. I don't even mean the rare serious ones, I mean the common ones you're just supposed to put up with like haloes and starbursts and dry eyes and all that, from laser surgery.

But to be able to wake up and see… that would be nice.

I've also been warned about bungee jumping!

I couldn't justify paying for sunglasses as I prefer to pay for lenses and wear normal sunglasses (GP lenses help with my hay fever) so I got some cut to the shape of my glasses that clip over the frame.

So, you're going to need between a -12.25 and a -13.00 in your worst eye. Proclear monthly lenses come in your prescription, but they're quite old-fashioned now and don't really let a lot of oxygen to the eye.
You can also get lenses custom-made from a company called Mark Ennovy.

My advice would be to book a trial for some disposables with a -12.00 and the full correction in the other eye. You may find that the vision is okay, you may find that you need a small overcorrection for driving.
You then have the option of having the custom-made lenses.

(my temptation is entirely theoretical given that I would need to magic several thousand pounds from somewhere)

I get dry eyes but now put VitA-POS eye ointment in my eyes every night whilst in bed.
It's very much like putting Vaseline in your eyes so you can't to anything afterwards see but it seems to work.

@piperatthegates I went to Optegra in Guildford. I live in South Wales!
As I had the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes Optegra said they'd see if the NHS would pay for it. To my surprise and delight NHS did pay for it.

First of all do not consider any form of unneeded elective surgery on your eyes. Dry eyes should preclude you from it but many surgeons would do it anyway and damn the result.

The high street providers like optical express are the worst. Please Google optical express ruined my life and also check out the Facebook groups full of damaged patients!
There is a third contact lens option called scleral lenses. You'll need a specialist fitter.
Again do your research but promise me you will avoid surgery unless needed and carried out by the NHS.

Trust me don't go near laser eye surgery or any form of elective eye surgery.
Visit LASIK complications.com

I can't have laser surgery happy and if I went for other kinds of surgery it would be through an eye hospital not anything from the high street, didn't even know you could do that tbh!

I met someone a while ago who had lens replacement at Optegra in Guidford too and was very happy with the result.

@llangennith thanks for the info. I'm actually not far from Guildford so I might see if I can get a consultation. Amazing that you got it on the NHS as well.