Posts by Taylor Flores6

Terry Gray60 said:Zachary James84, would you actually go through with surgery if your prescription finally stabilized? Like, would you do it once things settle down?
I don't think I would. Honestly, dealing with contacts every day is less of a headache than taking the risk. It's not even that the lenses bother me; it's the fear of complications, and the risk just scales with how bad your vision is. I wouldn't want my sight to keep slipping regardless. At a certain point, whether it's -5 or -15 doesn't matter much when you can't see anything anyway.😁
I've been lucky enough to stay healthy, meaning I don't have any underlying conditions that could mess with my eyes further. I really hope it stays that way.
It's good to hear from you. Personally, I don't know anyone else with a prescription this high. Are you wearing hard lenses, I assume?
I don't feel any different from anyone else, really. Contacts don't hold me back from anything. I don't care much for diving, so I'm fine as is. If that were the only thing, though...

@jadesailor14 - why did you switch away from hard lenses? Did they give you trouble? I heard they're supposedly better for high prescriptions because they help stabilize things (for some people). I was actually thinking about switching to soft lenses myself, since I'll be getting new ones soon anyway.

@Taylor Flores6 - can you give me the full title and author of that book? What's it actually about, and can I find those exercises in there?

The book is called Seeing without glasses, though unfortunately, it's only available in English. It was written by Dr. Bates. Personally, I’ve been mixing his techniques with five basic exercises designed to wake up some "dormant" muscles. I might be able to send those basic ones to you via private message if you're interested..

http://www.eyeexercises.net/

That’s a direct link to the book. You’ll see the chapters listed on the left side; if you've ever navigated a PDF before, you should find it pretty easy to get around. I would suggest not jumping straight into the exercises right away. It might be better to spend some time with the introduction first, where they explain the root cause of the issue and what the exercises are actually meant to achieve. I guess if those two points aren't crystal clear from the start, it might be best not to try the exercises at all.

One thing I worry about, I suppose, is that if you start the exercises and your prescription begins to improve, things could get a little tricky. For instance, if your vision shifts toward a -7 but your lenses are set for -9, you might end up struggling to see clearly both with and without them. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'm not quite sure how that works with such high prescriptions.

I know you can't just shake off contact lenses overnight right from the jump. I guess nobody is asking you to do that, either; when you have a high prescription, it really should be a gradual process, one step at a time. Maybe for the first week, you could just focus on the exercises, but make sure you take the lenses out while you're doing them. Then, during the second week, you might try going without them at home. I realize it’s tough with such a strong prescription, and maybe someone more specialized than me should be giving you advice on the specific techniques, but that's not really what this is about if you're just asking $1000 Mladen Pavić or whoever else. There are no guarantees of success here. I don't want to push you into anything; I just wanted to offer a suggestion because, honestly, you don't have much to lose except a little bit of time. For the actual "how-to" details, you should probably check out the Bates book. Again, I think it helps quite a bit—there's some truly useful advice in there, and the only real cost is your time. Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck 🙂

jadesailor14 said:Oh boy, your -2 and 1.25 don't mean much compared to someone dealing with a massive -9.5 or -10.5!
Plus, a couple of months just isn't nearly enough time to really see if any of this stuff actually sticks long-term.

That’s exactly what I was getting at, so maybe give my previous post another read. I think it'll definitely be much harder and more uncomfortable for her to ditch her glasses and commit to those exercises, especially since her prescription is several times higher than mine.

If I were in her shoes, I'd probably try something harmless first rather than jumping straight into a permanent surgery with unknown side effects. I also suppose five to ten years isn't quite enough time to truly see the lasting consequences of LASIK.

Laura Williams4 said:And you tried laser surgery just so you could talk me into your nonsense?
Everyone I've asked had their prescription return, and for some, it didn't even improve. There's plenty of info on that in the thread dedicated to clearing prescriptions; do a little searching. Based on that, I could easily say you're just on that doctor's payroll. 🙄

If you want to call it foolish that I managed to get rid of my glasses, then fine, go ahead. Or maybe it’s just a little bit of jealousy talking. Personally, I haven't tried laser surgery because I don't think I'm crazy enough for that. There are just too many risks involved, and I guess you might not even see the real consequences until twenty or more years down the road.

I didn't say that it doesn't work for everyone—just that it isn't working for ME. I think anyone who actually understands the goal of these exercises gets it: it’s about correcting how you perceive things, not some intense workout to build up eye muscles. If you actually stick to that philosophy, I guess you’d probably have a much better chance at keeping your prescription from creeping back up. People with myopia tend to stare too hard, and honestly, breaking those old habits is incredibly difficult. I suppose I really am one of that doctor's biggest success stories. Maybe I should just write the book myself...

Laura Williams4 said:Laser surgery is the only way to go, and even then, only once your prescription stops changing. Don't waste your time with any of those fake vision exercises.

Please, I beg you, don't post things like that unless you're speaking from direct experience. Personally, I actually did those exercises and managed to reduce my prescription significantly (by about -2.00 and 1.25), and I haven't even done them for a month or two now... nothing has reverted back. I think it's mostly nonsense, probably just some fluff spread by a rookie optometrist who doesn't want people helping themselves. I guess it’s more in their interest to have people constantly buying contact lenses or glasses for $200 or more, only to replace them again a few months later.

People often start these exercises, but maybe they aren't reading the instructions carefully, or perhaps they just don't stick with it long enough. If someone is thinking about starting, I suppose they need to clearly understand the goal of the routine, as well as what they have to give up—like wearing corrective lenses, some time, and maybe 20 minutes every morning and evening.

If you have a very high prescription or if you've worn contacts or glasses for a long time, it's quite likely it will take much longer for you to see results than it did for me. In my case, I saw a change in my prescription after about a month of consistent daily work.

Laser surgery is permanent and you might run into issues like dry eyes or issues with astigmatism. No, thank you. This approach doesn't cost you anything to try, I guess. Good luck.