My Background with Nearsightedness

I've had terrible vision since I can remember.  In 3rd grade I got my first pair of glass - big pink ones nonetheless.  (I'll try to scrape up a picture.)  I played a lot of sports - had rec-specs for soccer (I mean, Chris Sabo had them!) and finally Hard (Gas Permeable) Contacts for swimming.  Hard contacts - what a pain.  It took me 15 minutes to put them.  I don't miss those.  


Finally,  I got soft contacts.  Much, much better, but still I've always experienced the same irritability that others face - dry eyes, stuff getting in them, itchy, red eyes, ...and don't get me started on trying to take the things out to clean off something and not ruin my makeup.


I travel a lot, and it's such a pain to have to deal with contacts on overnight flights - taking them out and putting on glasses on a plane -ugh.  I also encountered a very terrifying experience when traveling (which I'm not going to go into), but one of my contacts fell out and it made me realize how anything to correct my vision would be worth it.


Fast forward many years...I went to a Lasik Plus to get the pre-screening done to see if I was a candidate.  My eye depth (corneal thickness...or whatever you call it) was actually really good for my vision.  But, my myopia (very high nearsightedness, -9.5 in contacts) + dry eyes + a type of Scleraderma (localized morphea) that I have, meant I was rejected.   They suggested ICL and gave me the name of two places they'd recommend.  I jotted down the info and went home feeling quite defeated.  I did shed a few tears as the dream of seeing without contacts seemed to diminish (which I'm sure many of you with terrible vision can understand).


A few month later, I went to the eye doctor - a very thorough doctor.  I decided to start asking him questions about Lasik & ICL, etc since he was full of great information.  He said he wouldn't recommend Lasik for me, but ICL would be a good option.  He gave me the same name of the doctor that Lasik Plus had given me.  I saw it as a sign and started to research the doctor (Dr. David Schneider).



In early 2011, I called up the doctor's office (Midwest Eye Center in Cincinnati) and made an appointment to see if I was a candidate.  They were great, thorough and all signs pointed to me being able to have the surgery....BUT the price-whoa! ($7,000 and I still had to find a way to pay for my wedding that year).  So I held off, but it was always in the back of my mind.