Vision

[Scrubs]

I've purposely put this in the Rider Safety thread topics to not appear as a big fat whiner in the General Talk forum.

For personal reasons, haven't ridden since Sunday, April 26th, and left the day after for California on a 2-week business trip. If I'd known my near term future, I woulda ridden the Harley all the way out there and all the way back. Coulda been the road trip of a lifetime.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda.

While in Cali I got an e-mail from the base Optometry clinic and was told to quit wearing my contact lenses May 11th at least 30 days before a scheduled initial Corneal Refractive Surgery (CRS) evaluation...that's the Lasik or Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) procedures.
I've been on this clinic's waiting list for almost 3 years. Counting all the money in the past 3 yrs on lenses, fluids and time spent, I shoulda paid for it at a civilian CRS surgery center years ago.
My surgery will supposedly be scheduled sometime this summer.
This eval is coming up this Friday and I'm really happy about it.

What I haven't been happy about is the "not riding" part. Started wearing contacts at age 15 when I was racing motocross and noticed I wasn't winning as much. After switching to CLs that season, I was winning again and my lap times at the racetrack nearby dropped by a full minute due to a unshaking, clear field of vision. The only time I put on the hateful specs was when I was reading at home or maybe watching TV.

My distant vision has only gotten worse and my glasses are like prescription ashtrays. My peripheral vision is non-existent and depth perception is a little jacked up. On a neighborhood trial ride, the glasses were uncomfortable, visually and physically, and it's seriously not a vanity-thing; it's just not safe for me and I will not wear glasses when I ride.

I've been missing out on some gorgeous riding days this spring.
I put time & energy into other stuff; hence the yard & pool look great. And, at least I have a spotless bike to go back to.

I don't really have a question, just rambling. Thanks for listening.
Doug

[nightrob]

Thank God, from the title I thought you had switched over to Victory!!! LOL. Anyway good luck with the surgery, I have a friend that did it about 4 yrs ago and is very happy with the results. Only thing I have ever heard him complain about is light sensitivity, hell that may just be caused by years of not being able to see...lol.

[pjciii]

Everything is going to be fine. you have alot of riding ahead of you and staying off the bike right now is just a little hitch in your get along. look at all the other things that are getting done. by the time you get back in the saddle all of those "to do's" will be "to did's" and you will have more time to ride.
patrick

[Young Pup]

Do you know which procedure you are going to get? I did the PRK one and love the results. I too wore contacts for a long time and the military was nice and paid for my surgery. PRK has longer down time but I think it is a better choice. Good luck and you will love the results, as soon as you get up from the table you can see great. I now have 20/15 in left and 20/20 in right.

[Scrubs]

Yesterday's pre-eval didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

Many measurements were taken of the topographical features of each cornea and it hasn't met the acceptable parameters, yet. The topo maps showed raised areas which are not quite true keratoconus, but slightly cone-shaped. Maybe my eyes were just a little too dry because the 1st readings were way high and the more I wet them with drops the better the numbers became.
This all took over 2 hours and finally the NCOIC (a master sergeant I've known for 15 years) and the TDY surgeon decided the cyclo refraction exam wasn't gonna happen since he wasn't sure that Lackland AFB would accept me as a candidate for either procedure.

So, I'm a bit disappointed & everything's up in the air right now. I won't move to the bottom of the list and must leave the contacts out until repeat scans are taken in the next week or two to see if I truly have coney corneas LoL.