Brian Ratliff

It was discomfort more than pain, but the recovery period was pretty long. Doctors will usually schedule the surgery on a Thursday to minimize the time off work. I couldn't do anything over the weekend; and it was hard to see to the point where I couldn't drive. On the Monday after, I could drive, but only in familiar roads where I didn't have to read street signs. It was about a month before I could read street signs during the day. Maybe two months before I had reliable night vision (again, using street sign reading as the measure). My eyes were really dry up to that point; the doctor will usually tell you to take eye drops, and it's best if you use them religiously.

After two months, the worst was well over. I had to enlarge the print on my computer screen for three or four months. After six months, my vision was pretty much great. There are small creeping improvements for a couple years after the surgery; the doctors will usually aim for a slight over correction knowing that in the following years the eyes tend to slip back towards the original correction.

Now, don't need glasses at all, though I have a pair since my eyes are very slightly far sighted now. Those glasses generally stay in my bag unless I am at the computer too long. Traveling is so much easier, especially flying. I was surprised how easily I slipped the habits of taking out and putting in contacts, though the habit of reaching for my glasses after waking took over a year to get over. I had no idea how much energy was going into my contacts and my eyes in general until I didn't have to do it anymore. It was a total life changer.

I should say I think the recovery depends a little on the correction. I was going from -5.5 and -6.0, which means I was right on the edge of being acceptable for surgery given my cornea thickness. Part of my recovery too was getting my brain to stop correcting for my former astigmatism. My recovery was pretty long, but because it is permanent, well worth it.

iflabs

Got contacts 2 years ago after wearing glasses for 15 years. Don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

Long Tom

I wear contacts while cycling. My only issue is that my right eye likes to get dry, in the wind generated by the sheer power my guads put out, and that eye has a major astigmatism (not the same thing as an asplosion) and so, the orientation of the lens is crucial. When it gets dry the orientation goes bad and my vision in that eye suffers. This is a problem on SOME parts of SOME rides. In general, contacts are great; I've been wearing them for decades.

You won't be sticking your finger in your eye per we. Ain't no big thang.

Gentlemen: try the Baush & Lomb (sp) Renu "Fresh" solution. That exact stuff- comes in a clear bottle, and it's expensive. It is the BOMB! I've been wearing the same set of lenses for at least a year- no kidding. Stuff is awesome.

MingusDew

This just goes to show the range of recovery, and the side effects that can occur. My PRK surgery wasn't anywhere near as bad recovery wise. I walked out of the office seeing 20/20, and over the following week it got slightly fuzzier, but within a month I was at 20/15. I was uncomfortable for about 3-4 days after the surgery, but by the 5th day I was back at work (I had to wear sunglasses while indoors, dr's orders). My eyes were dry after sleep, but they prescribed a lubrication ointment I put in my eyes before going to bed and that fixed that. The dryness went away after a month or two. Overall, very painless for me, and I too found it to be a bit of a life changer. I never cared for contacts, and glasses were annoying in athletic situations, but after the surgery all of that was gone and the world was crystal clear. I'd recommend the surgery to others if they qualify for it. It's a relatively new procedure (couple of decades), but most dr's doing it have literally performed it thousands of times, so you can rest assured in their competency. The only questions are long term efficacy and side-effects. Since the earliest patients are just now reaching the 'long-term' phase we are just starting to see studies of this, and they don't reflect the recent developments in procedures that decrease recovery times and immediate efficacy.

roadbuzz

I use contacts for riding and other situations where I need eye protection and don't want to wear glasses.
Somebody already mentioned it...
Tell your ophthalmologist or optometrist you'd like to try contacts. S/he'll do a couple of checks, probably give you a couple of samples, and have someone show you how to put them in and remove them. There's a little learning curve, and you'll get better with practice. Touching your eye does not come natural. Removing them is actually harder to get used to than putting them in, IMO.

c0urt

i have owned both, and ridden long distances in both, and wrecked in both, i prefer my oakleys, but i have scars where they have broken both orbitals, on the same note, i have had to wandered home, with one contact in before. pissed as hell were I fell off the bike knowing that my glasses would have survived that light fall. and i have my contacts spread at high speeds out of my line of sight in to the corners. so i stick to glasses. and the insurance is worth it. I pay the same for both in the end because of an astigmatism in one eye.

MikeWMass

IMO/IME (34 years of contacts, starting with hard, then gas permeable, then soft toric lenses):

Contacts don't:
protect your eye, and can actually make things worse if you get anything caustic in your eye.
remove the need to wear glasses on the bike, they just don't have to be prescription. If you don't, they are likely to dry out or get blown off.

Contacts do:
provide correction throughout your entire visual field.
allow you to see if you do have to remove your glasses due to sweat or fogging

I have not had trouble with my torics, shifting orientation while riding in the drops in a fairly aggressive position.
I have what is called monovision, where one eye has a distance prescription and one a near prescription. I find it works better than the attempts at bifocal contacts, and I have not used reading glasses in the 10 years since I first got these.

I have a pair of transitional bifocals which I wear in the morning when I first get up, and the evening after I take out my contacts. If I had to I could wear them all the time, but I much prefer the contacts.

Leinster

These are some of the reasons why, when I had contacts, I always rode with a spare pair of disposables, sometimes a pair of glasses just in case if the ride was long enough, and a travel-size bottle of solution in my jersey pockets.

I always hated riding with glasses on, though. Ever since the day I had to ride 25 miles home through a rainstorm in flat-fronted, metal-framed specs aged 13 or 14, and all the rain, road grit, sweat, dirt etc getting in behind the lenses was one of the most miserable experiences ever.

KBentley57

I also wear contacts exclusively for cycling. I use the Dailies disposables. when I'm not cycling, I prefer my glasses. I like the Dailies for the field of vision I have over my glasses when biking though, I don't have to crane my head as much to see clearly. my glasses were also expensive! I had a spill earlier this year that would have ruined them. instead, it cost a pair of $5.00 no names.

cvskates

+1

I have a really weak prescription (0.75). I wear glasses for work, but don't ned them to drive or anything. I thought it would be nice to have contacts for hockey. Got set up with disposable daily contacts.

I wear them for hockey and biking and that's about it. The finger in the eye took very little time to get over.

coppercook62

I only wear contacts for cycling. I have bad astigmatism so i prefer glasses when im not riding. Btw im legally blind without my glasses.

Ice41000

I started using them long time ago because pres. glasses are not very good for cycling.
Never looked back.

dvdslw

I have been wearing contacts for the last 20 years and I have a mixed bag of results. Years ago I could wear them all day, sleep with them in and go another day but now maybe due to my age they tend to dry out faster so they usually stay in for a max 6hrs. As far as sticking them in your eyes there are a few tricks that make it more bearable because just taking them out of the solution and jamming them in your eye usually doesn't end up good. 1st, if you end up getting contacts know that they are directional and cant be worn inside out, they will go in but be very uncomfortable and your vision will be lacking. If you look closely at the lens you will see either text, lines at different locations for toric's, or both. The objective is to place the lens on your eye in the proper orientation to reduce the amount of repositioning after its inserted. 2nd, and very important, place one drop of solution on the lens just before putting it in and you'll find that you wont even need to touch your eye, once the lens makes contact with your eye using little to no pressure at all, it will create a vacuum and just suck on to your eye. No need to JAM your finger in there, let the lens do the work. 3rd, keep some premium rewetting drops on you at all times for when they dry out. 4th, go out and buy yourself a nice pair of Sun Glasses and enjoy the ride!

on the path

About 1 year ago I got my first set of contacts. I'm well into my 50's. Getting the contacts turned out to be one of the best quality of life decisions I've ever made. Cycling was a big reason for me making my decision.

I had been wearing progressive lens eyeglasses. The glasses were not practical to wear on the bike. So, while riding I had trouble reading road signs. I couldn't tell which cog or gear I was in by making a visual scan. While driving a car, most areas of vision were blurred, except the small location where the progressives would allow me to focus.

Now, I have contacts to correct for my presbyopia induced farsightedness and my astigmatism. I wear the contacts all day, every day. I use drug store type reading glasses in addition to the contacts for computer and other reading.

Contacts are not a perfect solution. If I could afford it, I'd get laser correction. But I'll never go back to wearing glasses full time. I have enjoyed much better vision in the last year than I had in the previous 20 years. The contacts are generally very comfortable to wear, and I'll deal with the small inconvenience of putting them in and taking them out every day. That's a small concession compared to the quality of life I've gotten from wearing contact lenses.

Seattle Forrest

Unlike glasses, contacts give you peripheral vision, too.

FrenchFit 

Fit is everything. First time through I spent over an hour trying different brands before I found one that was heavenly comfortable. When they discontinued that line, it took 3 trys to find good replacements. Just don't accept whatever they push at you, there are differences in sizes and construction. The only negative I can think of is on very hot and low humility days they'll dry out if you're moving fast. But on those days you probably aren't going that long and hard anyway.

I like my glasses, but good contacts are the sweetness.

seajaye

glasses for 18 out of the 26 years i've been alive. always wore double-glasses (large sunglasses over regular glasses) when outside or cycling. finally got daily disposable contacts for cycling, so i would be able to get cycling sunglasses without paying exorbitant amounts for Rx lenses.

i only wear them for fast road rides. allll the other riding, i do with my regular glasses, plus sunglasses if need be. although, my prescription for my contacts is newer than my glasses, so switching back and forth gives me a headache...i've been sticking with my glasses. it used to be a pain to put them in and take them out, but i'm getting better. also, i have relatively big eyeglasses (original wayfarers) so my peripheral vision is wayyy better than peripheral vision with contacts....i can't look out of the 'corner' of my eye without seeing the border at which the contact ends.

to summarize: a bunch of factors lead me to wear my glasses much more frequently than contacts while cycling, even though i got contacts specifically for cycling.

datlas 

I agree you should try contacts. You can get over the ick factor fairly quickly, and modern contacts are amazing.

You could get lasik but it's expensive and you may need reading glasses much sooner than otherwise, that's why I have stuck with contacts.

coasting 

I was going to wear contacts today just to try them but I chickened out. Tomorrow. Deep breath. I will I will do it tomorrow. Come on!



You can do it, Coasting! hooo ha!

on the path

I don't this what you're suggesting is possible. Maybe you have hard contacts that are way smaller than mine. But, if yours are modern permeable soft contacts this just doesn't happen.

FWIW, my contacts do move around slightly on the cornea. It's part of the design. But it's not possible for me to see the edge of the contacts. They are bigger in diameter than the iris and they just don't move around that much.

Also, my contacts have never come out unexpectedly, ever. They stay put until I manually remove them.

Rootman

I always had very bad vision. About 10 years ago I had LASEK eye surgery. At that point my vision was about 10/750. My glasses were about 7/8ths of an inch thick, and that was when I paid extra and got the SUPER high index type plastic, they would of been closer to 1 1/2" thick otherwise and completely unwearable. I was MORE than legally blind without my glasses. This caused me a lot of problems. If I misplaced or lost my glasses I could not function, couldn't drive or even walk around safely. So Lasek was a real godsend to me.

I had 20/20 vision after LASEK for about a month, then the swelling completely subsided and I had about 20/30 vision. I was unlucky in the fact that I ended up with what's called irregular astigmatism, that is my cornea is oddly shaped and not uniformly spherical. I also continue to have vision changes despite that fact that I was over 40 and vision tends to stabilize by then. Originally the eye doc said I could NOT ware contacts and I simply wore very thin glasses. A few years later I switch eye doctors to someone who was closer and he said I COULD wear contacts and prescribed a pair for me. Been wearing them ever since.

The newer ultra thin ultra permeable ones Like AcueView Oasis hardly even feel like they are there. Decades ago I used to be able to wear HARD contacts which were a real bithc to get used to. Soft ones are a lt better and these new soft ones are really great.

Either you get used to putting them in or you don't. I never really had an issue. They just slide in and I seldom spend more than a minute in the morning putting them in. Some people I know struggle for like half an hour putting them in. I would say it's not worth it for them.

I wear contacts for riding, actually for EVERYTHING. I wear inexpensive sunglasses when it's sunny and safety glasses when it's not. Contacts won't protect a thing when a rock or bug comes sailing at your eyeball.

on the path

First, I'm really glad for you that you've gotten your vision corrected. That must have changed your life for the better in a significant way.

Here's my disclaimer about the lens insertion process. I can count on spending 5 - 10 minutes every morning putting mine in. When I was taught the process, the first thing I was told was to wash my hands. If done properly, thoroughly washing then drying hands takes 2 - 3 minutes. Maybe I'm over cautious, maybe not. I know a woman who almost lost an eye due to infection from a contaminated contact lens. My eyesight is something I'm not fooling around with.

With all that said, dealing with contact lenses is totally worth it to me.

Rootman

I almost always put mine in straight out of the shower, my hands won't be any cleaner than they are then Beyond that it's seconds to pull them out of the container, squirt a little solution on them and pop them in, for someone that's fairly proficient at it you shouldn't be taking any more than maybe 1 minute to do the actual insertion, without counting time to wash your hands - which is VERY important. But then again some people can just never get used to it and fight with it for a long time or eventually give up and stop wearing them.

Brian Ratliff

1+

Don't mess around when it comes to cleaning your hands and your contacts. Eye infection is the major risk with contacts. When I was wearing contacts, it took a couple minutes to put the contacts, and about 5-10 minutes to take them out. Make sure your nails are short and your hands are clean. Clean the contacts every time they come out of your eyes and store them in lens storage solution, not saline (doesn't have the anti-bacterials, etc.), or, god forbid, tap water (I've seen this ). Don't moisten your lens by (I've seen this too) putting the lens in your mouth.

Once during college I got a minor eye infection from my lenses and ended up not wearing contacts for most of that year. Not something to screw around with. In fact, if you include the chance of eye infection over a lifetime, statistics say that eye surgery is actually the less risky option compared to contacts.

coasting 

First day wearing contacts. I got the daily disposable type so hopefully that is easier to avoid infection. It took several efforts to put them in. I put my finger on my eyeball but the lens wouldn't come off the finger. Taking out was well easy. It was good being to look around but I think I will just use contacts for exercise times.