High Myopia - Is there anybody out there?

[sophia35]

Hi everyone.

I'm 35,with  really high myopia ( -17 in left eye and -22 in right eye)astigmatism  and cataract in right eye not impairing sight. Use rigid gas permeable contacts and get along "fine".

Have had gas bubble in left eye and laser in both for retinal tears/holes.
The only procedure I'm considering is IOL when absolutely necessary.

I've never heard of anyone with myopia this high. i'm really worried about future prospects.

I know people with similar conditions can have different outcomes but can anyone with high myopia ( even if not like mine) please give any input or useful information?

Many thanks.

Wishing you all the best,
Sophia

[Peterws]

I just got meself some GP lenses. Seem to be the best and cheapest option with least risk unless you box. . .!  These are readers and general purpose.  Using additional specs for driving which works well .  my prescription is above minus 20 and Im in my late 60,s.

Tried wearing my old prescription specs, with my additional specs perched in front.

Suffice to say the result was beyond my wildest dreams and way way beyond my optemitrists ability to achieve.  But it doesnt look cool.  Most assuredly not cool at all

Do I care?  Haha

[JohnHaganMD]

I would find a new doctor. That is truly one of the worst responses from a doctor ever posted here (you don't need the back of your eye checked because you are not at risk).  Find a new optometrist or ophthalmologist that will yearly dilate your eyes and look at your retina.

Your high myopia increases the risk of retina tears, detachments, holes, lattice, myopic macular degeneration and glaucoma.
JCH MD

[controlzone]

I've always thought my vision is extremely bad, but compared to some of the other posts here, looks like my eyes are fairly okay.
Anyway, I'm OS: -5.50/No Cyl =and= OD: -5.25/ -0.25@90 (Spectacles).
Both eyes: -5.00/No cyl (For contacts).
Every time I go to my doctor, he's more interested in the health of my corneas and doesn't even look at the retina. I get an autorefractor test, then a tune-up with trial lenses, followed by a slit-lamp test (which I'm assuming is for the cornea, as a cycloplegic eye drop is not used prior to the test and my pupils must constrict too much under the super bright illumination to allow a good view of the internals).
Last time I saw him, I  specifically asked him to take a look at my retina, he said it's not required, you have 20/20 with correction and you're not at risk.
I feel awkward trying to argue with a doctor, of course he knows way more than I do, but something tells me it's not right- my correction might not be as high as that of some people here, but they're still fairly high. What do you think, should I go for a second opinion?

I've seen this SAME doctor all my life, and I'm 32 years old now!

Another question, I use B&L monthly disposable soft lenses (not toric) made of Hylafilcon-B (59%water) for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. My doctor says it's okay, but these are NOT silicone-hydrogels, these are ordinary lenses. Am I damaging my eyes by wearing them 12 hours a day? I never go more than 12 hours, always take a day off every week, and never sleep in them (as suggested by my doc.)

Please suggest.

[JohnHaganMD]

=

[SoftwareDeveloper]

I should note that of course I was talking about the "worst case" scenarios, since high myopes do have some slight increased risk of other eye health issues compared to the average person, but that still means most don't have any problem aside from being myopic. The odds are that with correction your vision will remain comparable to other people's vision. As the doctor noted, there are ways to perhaps reduce your myopia surgically via laser or lens implants. Other high myopes cope with a combination of contacts and/or glasses. My point was merely that visual problems don't tend to keep people from working with computers.

[SoftwareDeveloper]

When I was in school for computer science I recall someone in the year ahead of me who had glasses with attachments on them that seemed almost like a telescope (its been a few decades so my memory is vague), I don't know what his visual issues were (again my memory of it is vague), but despite obviously having some impairment he was able to get through one of the top CS programs.

If you are able to work with computers now then there likely isn't going to be any problem (aside from as the doctor noted any other eye health issues that might arise, but most of them are treatable these days and leave you with some vision).  As long as you have the ability to see at all there is likely a way to work with computers (and in the extremely unlikely case you someday couldn't see, even blind people do work with them, though I've never run across any so I don't have a sense of the scope of what they can do, I suspect the tools for them to use computers are getting better all the time).

These days the  nice thing about the computer world is that if needed you can get high resolution computer monitors and adjust print sizes and position the monitor as close or far as needed, and scroll the view on the screen around, and therefore as long as you have some workable vision you should be able to function. (as long as  you get things adjusted well to reduce any vision issue induced headaches, since headaches can reduce concentration, as I had to deal with after a rare side effect from cataract surgery caused issues with flickering light when reading).