need some advice regarding eyesight.........

[steam_cannon]

My eyesight in them is terrible as they rob me of depth perception.

Yeah, strong perscriptions can be like that. I've found that thinner closer fitting lenses help, but only so much. Contacts are better.

Regarding stocking up on contact lenses:
I would warn against stocking up on contact lenses.

* In my experience, "Sealed" contacts seem to go bad overtime such that contacts that are several years old have a high risk of causing immediate eye irritation and infection. It's possible the materials degrade over time or harbor slow growing organisms. Whatever the cause, I recommend following the packages expiration date, which is usually only a year or two.

* Lens solutions may get iffy over time as well (either due to the container degrading or slow growing organisms).

With regard to your eyes "working hard" with contacts on, this makes no sense for distance vision, for sure, and probably makes not much sense for short vision. All contacts do is bend the light coming in to your cornea slightly. If anything, contacts should make it easier for your eyes, because your iris isn't straining to try to bend your lens to focus on the retina.

Usually people say what Gramme said because contact lenses don't help with astigmatism as well as eyeglasses due to the lenses being soft. Feeling like their eyes are "working harder" is a common complaint.

Regarding Lasik, the "flap" issues are rare, but if you don't like the idea of having the flap cut and reattached and the risk associated with that, there's a procedure that you can get that actually sculpts the outside of your cornea - same net effect - change refraction through cornea - but no flap, no chance of flap side effects and no flap weakness - that is, flaps that heal are not a strong as normal cornea. Some say it's like a tupperware bowl - strong bond on outside, inside of flap prone to re-tear if mechanical injury occurs.

Regarding Lasik, many people who are myopic or with strong astigmatisms are poor candidates. Though there are new more expensive procedures that involve inserting a lens into the eye. So if Gramme can't get lasik, then he might be able to get something like an Implantable Contact Lens.

Implantable Contact Lenses: ICLs
http://www.docshop.com/education/vision/refractive/icl
http://www.singereye.com/pages/verisyse.php

Like I said - lots of bad info in this thread. Read, read, learn, ask lots of questions. I did a bunch of research before getting mine done.

This thread isn't so bad. I think as gramee mentioned, a lot of what you are calling "bad info" is simply due to language differences.

Side note on eyeglass repair:
I sometimes help people by fixing their eyeglasses. There are many ways to polish lenses and fix broken frames. Here's a link worth saving on that.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-E ... es-Repair/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Eyeglas ... -retainer/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4843938_rid-scr ... asses.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2077107_polish- ... asses.html

How to make pinhole eyeglasses
http://www.paddling.net/guidelines/showArticle.html?269
http://www.instructables.com/id/Pinhole-Eyeglasses/

Note, pinhole Glasses do not correct long term vision problems
http://www.casewatch.org/ftc/news/1993/ ... sion.shtml

Final thoughts, don't worry so much. If the economy crashes or ww3 hits, you can survive looking though a bottle-cap monocle with a pinhole in it. So you'll still get to see whatever comes next, just remember to bring popcorn so you can enjoy the show!

[nocar]

The advantage of being near-sighed is that the normal aging forcing you to have reading glasses will not affect you - you can still read (and sew and pick out bones in your fish for example) without glasses.

[Expatriot]

The advantage of being near-sighed is that the normal aging forcing you to have reading glasses will not affect you - you can still read (and sew and pick out bones in your fish for example) without glasses.

Not true, but perfectly in tune with much of this thread.

Near sightedness is caused by an elongated eye - the focal point of the light entering the eye is not on the retina.

The reading glasses condition that hits around age 40 to which you refer is when your lens becomes less flexible, and you can't focus on close up items because your lens won't compress enough.

[dionisio]

I've been nearsighted all my life(I'm 68). I have always been able to read and "pick bones
from fish" without glasses.

[KingM]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Hundreds of millions of people wear glasses and it's a technology that's not going anywhere, even in a collapse. People have been making glasses for centuries and it can be done with relatively simple equipment (even if it's not at the moment)

[Expatriot]

I've been nearsighted all my life(I'm 68). I have always been able to read and "pick bones
from fish" without glasses.

Awesome! But irrelevant.

The reason bifocals exist is because myopia does not, and cannot, prevent presbyopia.

[nocar]

Well, my understanding is that, yes, myopia is caused by the eyeball being elongated, which makes the focal point of the light entering the eye is not fall the retina, even when the lens is not compressed at all. A young myopic person will be able to see things even closer to the eye (while compressing the lens) than a nonmyopic young person.

Of course there are myopia of different degrees. Some myopics are not myopic to the degree that reading will be comfortable without glasses at an older age, but can not see clearly at distances, and bifocals will be needed. Some will be able to read, but then see distances more blurred.

For my own part, I have one eye that is myopic to the extent that the focal point is too close to the eye for reading, so I usually use a correction glass for reading. Yet when I really need to have close look, I take the glasses off and put the object closer instead of using a magnifying glass (I am 66). My other eye is more normal.