[pct-l] LASIK options

[mardav at charter.net (Marion Davison)]

I did my first long distance hike at the age of 41.  I had worn glasses 
for nearsightedness my whole life.  My right eye was 20-70 and my left 
was 20-200.  I broke a pair of glasses on my hike and ended up wearing 
the spares, with tape on them, for the last 100 miles.  I also hated 
that they were always dirty, and when I looked up at night I couldn't 
see any stars unless I put my glasses on. 
I looked into Lasik surgery and did something no one else has 
mentioned.  I just got one eye  fixed.  I had my right eye corrected to 
20-15, but left the left eye as it was, 20-200. 
So now I have monovision.  I read with my left eye, and see everything 
else with my right eye.  My right eye, alone, cannot read.  My left eye 
cannot recognize things more than about five feet away.  My brain 
switches its attention from one eye to the other as I look at different 
things.  It took only about a day to adjust to this. 
I am required by the DMV to wear glasses when I drive.  The glasses 
correct the left eye so it can see at a distance.  This means that when 
I am driving I can't read my watch or my cell phone or a map unless I 
take the glasses off. 
But it also means that I don't need reading glasses, now, at the age of 
49, and may not need them for another decade or more.  My left eye is 
still doing just fine at reading. 
I got a larger computer monitor, and I sit pretty close to it. 
And now I don't have to take glasses on a hiking trip, and I can see the 
stars at night. 
I can buy regular sunglasses, instead of prescription ones.  I am really 
glad I did it.
And besides, I look better without glasses.  After 41 years of wearing 
them all the time it was very liberating to get rid of them.
llamalady