On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:24:17 GMT, spivey wrote:

Well, for a rather alarming 45 minutes or so. Is this a common problem
for contact wearers? I was in a 9' pram right on the water. (salt
water). I could see better than ever for an hour or so. When I went to
take out my contacts later- they were stuck to my eyeballs. It took 45
min. of adding "instant tears" or something to pry them out. I called
the dr. but he denied everything of course. Any experience from salt
water sailors? Thanks and carry on.

Must be soft contacts. I have gas-permeable "Boston II" lenses, which
are semi-rigid and pop off into one's palm once the eyelid tugging
maneuver has been mastered. Soft contact wearers have complained to me
that their lenses can "roll up" under the eyelid or get badly "glued"
if they fall asleep in them (not, obviously, the type that are meant
to be worn constantly for a week and then changed).

While not everyone finds gas-permeable lenses comfortable, I do, and I
find the durability (they can last 10 years if your prescription is
stable), ease of cleaning (just rub them under running water or even
use a mild soap and thorough rinse) and the fact they are easy to find
if you drop them to be well worth their extra cost.

One thing I would NOT recommend for the sailor is laser keratomy or
other forms of corrective surgery. Fellow sailors report that while
near-sightedness is almost always "cured' in such procedures, it is
not uncommon to have astigmatism *induced* and to lose a portion of
one's night vision acuity, necessitating glasses in the dark!

Not a good trade off when contacts or glasses suffice. If one lived in
an exclusively urban environment, maybe, but my (corrected) night
vision is good, and I own a sextant...the last thing I want is
compromised night vision.

Sorry for the tangent...

R.

rhys wrote:
On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:24:17 GMT, spivey wrote:

Well, for a rather alarming 45 minutes or so. Is this a common problem
for contact wearers? I was in a 9' pram right on the water. (salt
water). I could see better than ever for an hour or so. When I went to
take out my contacts later- they were stuck to my eyeballs. It took 45
min. of adding "instant tears" or something to pry them out. I called
the dr. but he denied everything of course. Any experience from salt
water sailors? Thanks and carry on.

Must be soft contacts. I have gas-permeable "Boston II" lenses, which
are semi-rigid and pop off into one's palm once the eyelid tugging
maneuver has been mastered. Soft contact wearers have complained to me
that their lenses can "roll up" under the eyelid or get badly "glued"
if they fall asleep in them (not, obviously, the type that are meant
to be worn constantly for a week and then changed).

While not everyone finds gas-permeable lenses comfortable, I do, and I
find the durability (they can last 10 years if your prescription is
stable), ease of cleaning (just rub them under running water or even
use a mild soap and thorough rinse) and the fact they are easy to find
if you drop them to be well worth their extra cost.

One thing I would NOT recommend for the sailor is laser keratomy or
other forms of corrective surgery. Fellow sailors report that while
near-sightedness is almost always "cured' in such procedures, it is
not uncommon to have astigmatism *induced* and to lose a portion of
one's night vision acuity, necessitating glasses in the dark!

Not a good trade off when contacts or glasses suffice. If one lived in
an exclusively urban environment, maybe, but my (corrected) night
vision is good, and I own a sextant...the last thing I want is
compromised night vision.

Sorry for the tangent...

R.

I wore gas permeable lenses for many years under every sort of awful
conditions imaginable and had no problems. I loved em but after years
I got sensitive to them and had to give em up. Tried soft lenses, good
lord what a pain they were. I went back to glasses

I assume you are recommending also against lasik. I have been considering
that for a couple of years, but I hesitate because there's no going back.
However I did try a new technique called CRT. Corneal Refractive Therapy.
You wear special gas perms at night, don't need them during the day, for up
to 3 days after 1 night's use. It's amazing, but my vision (quite bad) is
right at the limit they can usually correct, and it just couldn't quite give
me the vision I need. So I've beenwearing them just like regular contacts,
and when they are removed, I have much better vision "naked" than I ever
did before.As I said, it is amazing.

"rhys" wrote in message
...

Must be soft contacts. I have gas-permeable "Boston II" lenses, which
are semi-rigid and pop off into one's palm once the eyelid tugging
maneuver has been mastered. Soft contact wearers have complained to me
that their lenses can "roll up" under the eyelid or get badly "glued"
if they fall asleep in them (not, obviously, the type that are meant
to be worn constantly for a week and then changed).

While not everyone finds gas-permeable lenses comfortable, I do, and I
find the durability (they can last 10 years if your prescription is
stable), ease of cleaning (just rub them under running water or even
use a mild soap and thorough rinse) and the fact they are easy to find
if you drop them to be well worth their extra cost.

One thing I would NOT recommend for the sailor is laser keratomy or
other forms of corrective surgery. Fellow sailors report that while
near-sightedness is almost always "cured' in such procedures, it is
not uncommon to have astigmatism *induced* and to lose a portion of
one's night vision acuity, necessitating glasses in the dark!

Not a good trade off when contacts or glasses suffice. If one lived in
an exclusively urban environment, maybe, but my (corrected) night
vision is good, and I own a sextant...the last thing I want is
compromised night vision.

Sorry for the tangent...

R.

In this discussion about sailors wearing contact lenses I'm quite surprised
that nobody has mentioned the extended use soft lens. I use Focus Night &
Day and wear them for about six weeks at a time.

I'm also over 50 so reading glasses are the norm for someone like me. I use
a system called monovision which means one eye can read the chart or the
hand bearing compass and the other is for distance. Its an excellent system
for sailors but saline eye drops are a must a couple of time a day to
prevent lens sticking or falling out.

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
news:WW5of.39791$ih5.23827@dukeread11...
I assume you are recommending also against lasik. I have been considering
that for a couple of years, but I hesitate because there's no going back.
However I did try a new technique called CRT. Corneal Refractive Therapy.
You wear special gas perms at night, don't need them during the day, for
up to 3 days after 1 night's use. It's amazing, but my vision (quite bad)
is right at the limit they can usually correct, and it just couldn't quite
give me the vision I need. So I've beenwearing them just like regular
contacts, and when they are removed, I have much better vision "naked"
than I ever did before.As I said, it is amazing.

"rhys" wrote in message
...

Must be soft contacts. I have gas-permeable "Boston II" lenses, which
are semi-rigid and pop off into one's palm once the eyelid tugging
maneuver has been mastered. Soft contact wearers have complained to me
that their lenses can "roll up" under the eyelid or get badly "glued"
if they fall asleep in them (not, obviously, the type that are meant
to be worn constantly for a week and then changed).

While not everyone finds gas-permeable lenses comfortable, I do, and I
find the durability (they can last 10 years if your prescription is
stable), ease of cleaning (just rub them under running water or even
use a mild soap and thorough rinse) and the fact they are easy to find
if you drop them to be well worth their extra cost.

One thing I would NOT recommend for the sailor is laser keratomy or
other forms of corrective surgery. Fellow sailors report that while
near-sightedness is almost always "cured' in such procedures, it is
not uncommon to have astigmatism *induced* and to lose a portion of
one's night vision acuity, necessitating glasses in the dark!

Not a good trade off when contacts or glasses suffice. If one lived in
an exclusively urban environment, maybe, but my (corrected) night
vision is good, and I own a sextant...the last thing I want is
compromised night vision.

Sorry for the tangent...

R.

Nicholas Walsh wrote:
In this discussion about sailors wearing contact lenses I'm quite surprised
that nobody has mentioned the extended use soft lens. I use Focus Night &
Day and wear them for about six weeks at a time.

I'm also over 50 so reading glasses are the norm for someone like me. I use
a system called monovision which means one eye can read the chart or the
hand bearing compass and the other is for distance. Its an excellent system
for sailors but saline eye drops are a must a couple of time a day to
prevent lens sticking or falling out.


G'day Nicholas
How do you go with monovision at night? I'm land based a the moment but
will be boat based in a couple of years. I'm finding that monovision
for me is a bit less than perfect at night and am a litle concerned that
it won't be adequate on the boat. Comment?
JM

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 23:04:17 -0500, "Garland Gray II"
wrote:

I assume you are recommending also against lasik. I have been considering
that for a couple of years, but I hesitate because there's no going back.
However I did try a new technique called CRT. Corneal Refractive Therapy.
You wear special gas perms at night, don't need them during the day, for up
to 3 days after 1 night's use. It's amazing, but my vision (quite bad) is
right at the limit they can usually correct, and it just couldn't quite give
me the vision I need. So I've beenwearing them just like regular contacts,
and when they are removed, I have much better vision "naked" than I ever
did before.As I said, it is amazing.

If this is the therapy where the corneas are essentially squeezed or
"trained" into a shape allowing accurate vision, then no, I haven't
heard anything bad about it and doubt there would be, as it pushes
around the available cornea, rather than shaving or blasting away
layers to create a sort of built-in lens.

Sorry it didn't quite work for you. How was your night vision?

R.

The less light, the worse my vision was. We were aiming for monovision, and
I think that makes night vision worse to begin with.

"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 23:04:17 -0500, "Garland Gray II"
wrote:

I assume you are recommending also against lasik. I have been considering
that for a couple of years, but I hesitate because there's no going back.
However I did try a new technique called CRT. Corneal Refractive Therapy.
You wear special gas perms at night, don't need them during the day, for
up
to 3 days after 1 night's use. It's amazing, but my vision (quite bad) is
right at the limit they can usually correct, and it just couldn't quite
give
me the vision I need. So I've beenwearing them just like regular contacts,
and when they are removed, I have much better vision "naked" than I ever
did before.As I said, it is amazing.

If this is the therapy where the corneas are essentially squeezed or
"trained" into a shape allowing accurate vision, then no, I haven't
heard anything bad about it and doubt there would be, as it pushes
around the available cornea, rather than shaving or blasting away
layers to create a sort of built-in lens.

Sorry it didn't quite work for you. How was your night vision?

R.

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:22:39 -0500, "Garland Gray II"
wrote:

The less light, the worse my vision was. We were aiming for monovision, and
I think that makes night vision worse to begin with.

You're making my case for leaving well enough alone...at least in a
sailing context. I don't object entirely to cutting/lasering eyeballs
in a quest to chuck glasses and/or contacts, but because it's an
inexact, still evolving medical process in regards to "perfect vision"
and particularly in regarding "preserved night vision", it's not for
me at this time.

R.

try a contact in your reading eye or cheap eye glasses for that night time
vision when you want to go sailing at night.

"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:22:39 -0500, "Garland Gray II"
wrote:

The less light, the worse my vision was. We were aiming for monovision,
and
I think that makes night vision worse to begin with.

You're making my case for leaving well enough alone...at least in a
sailing context. I don't object entirely to cutting/lasering eyeballs
in a quest to chuck glasses and/or contacts, but because it's an
inexact, still evolving medical process in regards to "perfect vision"
and particularly in regarding "preserved night vision", it's not for
me at this time.

R.

rhys wrote:
On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:24:17 GMT, spivey wrote:


Well, for a rather alarming 45 minutes or so. Is this a common problem
for contact wearers? I was in a 9' pram right on the water. (salt
water). I could see better than ever for an hour or so. When I went to
take out my contacts later- they were stuck to my eyeballs. It took 45
min. of adding "instant tears" or something to pry them out. I called
the dr. but he denied everything of course. Any experience from salt
water sailors? Thanks and carry on.


Must be soft contacts. I have gas-permeable "Boston II" lenses, which
are semi-rigid and pop off into one's palm once the eyelid tugging
maneuver has been mastered. Soft contact wearers have complained to me
that their lenses can "roll up" under the eyelid or get badly "glued"
if they fall asleep in them (not, obviously, the type that are meant
to be worn constantly for a week and then changed).

While not everyone finds gas-permeable lenses comfortable, I do, and I
find the durability (they can last 10 years if your prescription is
stable), ease of cleaning (just rub them under running water or even
use a mild soap and thorough rinse) and the fact they are easy to find
if you drop them to be well worth their extra cost.

One thing I would NOT recommend for the sailor is laser keratomy or
other forms of corrective surgery. Fellow sailors report that while
near-sightedness is almost always "cured' in such procedures, it is
not uncommon to have astigmatism *induced* and to lose a portion of
one's night vision acuity, necessitating glasses in the dark!

Not a good trade off when contacts or glasses suffice. If one lived in
an exclusively urban environment, maybe, but my (corrected) night
vision is good, and I own a sextant...the last thing I want is
compromised night vision.

Sorry for the tangent...

R.

Another reason to consider corective surgery carefully- the risk of
serious eye injury is much increased if you are subjected to a deploying
airbag and you've had radial keratomy. I don't know if it applies to
laser keratomy but I imagine it, too, would weaken the treated area.
JM