glasses

[Sessy]

I've experimented with all sorts of lenses over a period of almost a year until the shop that sells the lenses said we had tried everything that exists in the market and that I was an ideal candidate for lens implant surgery (normal laser surgery also not being an option apparently due to complications with my eyelids) and no lens ever allowed me to see even close to 70%, let alone close to 100 (which is what I see with glasses). Also, lenses simply don't stay on my eyes (even very large ones) because the outside of my eyes is the wrong shape, it's not round like other people have it. And those lenses that do stay on do not stabilize (which, having -4.75 cilindre is very important that they stabilize perfectly).

So lenses are not an option and I'm pretty much of a bat without my glasses. When I don't have my glasses I seem to rely on my hearing more than on my vision. I also get headaches and nausea.

What would you do? Risk collisions practicing without glasses? Do competitions without glasses and run the risk of screwing up because it's so awkward and unusual without them? Do competitions with glasses on and just accept that it harms the way you look? Try to save up for lens implant surgery? (we're talking like 15 000 US dollar or something, not paid for by my insurance).


be noted that I've never lost my glasses so far and they don't fly off or anything like that.

[Derek]

I have never got on with contacts either, so face the problems of glasses myself. I solved the problem for running, which created a similar situation, by attaching an elastic lead to the arms, which kept the glasses firmly on. I think opticians may have proper glasses suitable for sports use, it is worthwhile checking out.

[Sessy]

No, I've never had a problem with my glasses staying on (sometimes they just slip a little on my nose but it doesn't affect vision, just feels funny), it's purely how it looks that worries me.
does it really hurt your points?

[rlichtefeld]

Sessy,

Just wear the glasses. That's what I do, and I've been competing for about 7 years. If the look bothers you, get the frame-less or wire-framed glasses with the bottoms of the lenses exposed.

There are quite a few skaters in the US that wear glasses.

Rob

[jskater49]

I don't believe that any judge would consciously mark you down because are wearing glasses. I was at a critique once where the judges actually told the girl to get contact lenses (shrug) I wear contacts only to test and compete and cannot see very well with them because I'm too cheap to buy the kind that both fix my stigmatism and are bifocal and fix my original problem - near sightedness. I like to see when I practice, but I don't find it all that necessary to see well while doing a program. Since I'm quite blind, I do run off the ice and immediately take out my contacts and put my glasses back on.


j

[flo]

Wear glasses, and also go to someone how fits difficult contact lens cases. If you decide to have any surgery, go to someone who does bazillions. Anyone, just about, can do the easy cases, but you need someone with experience for difficult cases. I worked on the research to get the first lasers approved. PM me if you have any questions.

[Mrs Redboots]

Wear your glasses. You most certainly wouldn't be the only skater to do so.

Why does this sort of thing never trouble the men? All the men in my rink, wear their spectacles, and even one of our female elite dancers trains in her specs as often as not, even though she has lenses for competitions.

If you're worried about them coming off, you can buy special straps called Croakies (http://www.croakies.com/) to help them stay on. One of my friends found that the only time she had a problem was when trying a camel spin!

[Clare]

one of our female elite dancers trains in her specs as often as not, even though she has lenses for competitions.

She certainly does, I think I've seen her with her glasses more than I've seen her without. I figure that if she can train at that speed and be lifted without her specs flying off, there's no danger of me losing mine at my current pace :)

I'd be a hazard to everyone around me if I went without mine and I have failed in my previous attempts to get used to lenses (impatience, of course). If I ever did compete, I'd probably hit the barrier before I realised it was there if I didn't wear my specs!!

Clare

[flo]

I tried to wear glasses for a bit. I had problems with laybacks and death spirals.

[Sessy]

I think you've quite calmed me down. thanks guys! (girls). :lol:

[Team Arthritis]

I can't do a sit spin (not even a bad immitation) in my glasses, of course they are 10 focals LOL. A couple of the kids that wear glasses get special sports glasses that are made with a built in headstrap. I think that they look cool but others think they are too bulky and go with thin wire frames.

One thing to consider about surgery is that your eyes continue to change shape as you age, so surgery may help for a few years but then things can get worse again.

I also skate in contact lenses that leave me blind to anything within 10 feet of me but I feel much better with the added peripheral vision.
Lyle

[flo]

Hi Team -
Actually once you're past 17 or so, your eyes don't change that much in shape, unless there is a degenerative disease like kerataconus.

[Sessy]

Except... if you're near-sighted, and you have that fixed, and get far-sighted from old age... :D
(happened to my biological father).

[flo]

Hi,
The shape of your eye really does not change. What changes when we age is the flexability of the lens. It becomes less flexible and can no longer accomodate, or change it's shape to allow focusing on smaller objects, such as in reading. When someone has cataracts, it's the clouding of this lens. In cataract surgery, this lens is removed and an artiificial one is inserted, the power of which is based on the length of your eye. This is one reason why no one with a developing cataract should have laser vision correction (they will be getting a new lens).
The laser corective surgery is based on the length of your eye, which is stable after 16 - 17 years old, and the shape of the cornea, the clear window of the eye. Patients who have laser vision correction for myopia (nearsightedness) will still develop presbyopia and require reading glasses.

[Sessy]

Yes you're right. I need more coffeine, I misread.

But I can't have laser surgery because the problem isn't the length of my eye but the lens itself or something. I don't quite get their explanation but whenever the eye doctor looks at my eyes who's never seen them before, you know with the drups that dilate your irises and make you look fuzzy, they go like... hmmm that's weird, your eye has the color albino's have and you're not albino, and your eye looks like you'd have 100% vision from the inside... And my lens is like flat instead of round on the outside instead of the eye itself or something like that... As I've said I don't get it, but then, neither do normal eye doctors... We got sent from one academical hospital to the other (my eyesight degenerated extremely quickly at some point) for a few years before they figured out what's wrong and they told me already then that I'd never be able to wear lenses and advised against attempts at laser surgery, but I was stubborn and had to try lenses... Ohwell. :) Popitka ne pitka, in Russian (an attempt isn't torture).
Not to mention I'll have to have eyelid surgery at some point because they turned inside (that's what you get when you pull our your eyelashes for 15 years, scarring up your eyelids).

[sue123]

If youre concerned with yhow they look, you could always get Silhoutte glasses. They're rimless, and just have some very thin things that go on your ear. If you get one that's a goldish color, it may not even be that noticeable. Or you could get black if you're a darker skin tone. Anyways, I own a pair, and when I wore my backup pair of glasses because I needed to change the lenses in those, and I had so many people come up to me saying "Oh, you wear glasses?"

Also, they're unbreakable, so you can fall on them, twist them, and they always bounce back into shape.

[Team Arthritis]

[QUOTE=flo;312692]Hi,
... What changes when we age is the flexability of the lens. It becomes less flexible and can no longer accomodate, ....QUOTE]
OI MY WHOLE BODY YOU MEAN! Wait need to make the letters bigger.
Lyle
8O

[Sessy]

If youre concerned with yhow they look, you could always get Silhoutte glasses. They're rimless, and just have some very thin things that go on your ear. If you get one that's a goldish color, it may not even be that noticeable. Or you could get black if you're a darker skin tone. Anyways, I own a pair, and when I wore my backup pair of glasses because I needed to change the lenses in those, and I had so many people come up to me saying "Oh, you wear glasses?"

Also, they're unbreakable, so you can fall on them, twist them, and they always bounce back into shape.

No, I'm really pale... Do they sell those in Europe? I hope they do. Sounds ideal. I keep sitting down on my glasses and bumping into things with my nose. :)

[cathrl]

Sessy, how much do the lenses which stay in help? I mean, you don't need anything like perfect vision to skate. Only to see where the barrier is and which way round the rink is. And movement enough to avoid other skaters when practising/warming up. They might be no good for general use but good enough for skating.

A couple of years ago they were talking about letting my daughter have contacts just for skating and wearing glasses the rest of the time when she got a bit older (fortunately her eyesight's improved over time, we no longer have to do the figuring out what landmarks she can see without her glasses thing every time we go to a new rink). If you explain to your optician exactly what it is you want them for and that it doesn't have to be 100% correction since you will only be wearing them for a short time, they might come up with something.

[sue123]

No, I'm really pale... Do they sell those in Europe? I hope they do. Sounds ideal. I keep sitting down on my glasses and bumping into things with my nose. :)

I would imagine they do. My aunt got them in Israel, so I would think that you could find them in Europe.

[Sessy]

They did not help enough to let me dance (with a dancing partner who leads you), let alone skate. In fact I am better off without the lenses because they simply do not stabilize and with cilinders that feels like youre REALLY drunk when theyre just swimming on your eyes and turning in all directions.

However it messes with my jumps when I try to skate without the glasses... I need the lines for my loop, flip and lutz entrances... though that necessity might go away in time. I can do the sal and toeloop without glasses at least.
But when I was 4 years old I got kicked out of figure skating a few months after starting cuz I kept skating up against the boarding - they didnt know I needed glasses back then... They figured I was stupid for quite a while because I kept running up to people I didnt know calling them mama or grandma and just walking into everything.

[Sessy]

I would imagine they do. My aunt got them in Israel, so I would think that you could find them in Europe.

I discovered they are produced in Austria, so they must be available here too. I will ask for those next time I need new glasses! :)
(For now I wont be doing major competitions anyway so if folks dont think it will harm that much, that should be okay but in a few years I hope to do the KNSB cup and eventually I wanna go to the nationals (at least the qualifying rounds). Even though that is a crazy plan.

[flo]

Hi, there are also toric lenses for high cyls. I think the frames available in Europe are great! I loved the ones I saw when I was at Mountain Cup in Villard. There are also frames that have stems and nose bridges that can be an assortment of colors and interchangable.

[morgan]

As a skater with keratoconus, let me offer you some unsolicited advice: visit an expert in difficult to fit contact lenses. Normal contact lens fitters cannot fit someone with eye problems. However, there are specialists out there who can do wonders with fitting people with eye problems. I was fit 30 years ago by someone who really knew how and it has made all the difference in terms of functionality in skating and in life.

If you can't wear contacts, suggest you wear glasses while skating. It's better to be able to see.

[mikawendy]

I've seen people compete wearing eyeglasses and the only thing that really takes away from the presentation is if they stop in the middle of their program to push their eyeglasses up if the eyeglasses have slipped.

[Sessy]

Toric as in, with little weights put in right? We had those, they wouldn't even hold up enough for ballroom dancing let alone figure skating. And eventually, all lenses just dropped off my eye slipping under my lower eyelids no matter what we tried - I'm guessing the fact that my upper eyelids are turned inside because of the scar tissue has something to do with this.

I also barely have a fluid layer on my eyes (we tried dripping fake fluid but I needed to drip every several minutes to keep up a normal fluid balance) and we tried some special air-permeable lenses that absorb fluid and thus don't need fluid from your eyes which apparently works for just about everybody except me and some other weird case the optician heard about at a seminar. He also consulted a ton of his collegues and the producers and nobody seemed to have a solution.

We even tried lenses that you never take out (yeah those exist as well). Those were the most comfortable of all, and we did get the best results with those, but nowhere near enough. They're also expensive as hell so not really an option to have just for skating.


I'm thinking I *might* try it with soft, disposable lenses sometime in the future that correct only the non-astigmatism part and leave the astigmatism alone. Maybe I'll see enough to see the boarding with those, but with -4.75 cilinder I'm guessing I'll still be pretty disoriented even with the rest of the problems corrected.



Anyway thanks for your views :) If glasses don't hurt, we'll stick with glasses.

[Mrs Redboots]

I've seen people compete wearing eyeglasses and the only thing that really takes away from the presentation is if they stop in the middle of their program to push their eyeglasses up if the eyeglasses have slipped.
This was why I started wearing lenses for skating - not that I ever did that, but one of my coach's other adult skaters did, and he said if you can wear lenses, please do.

And now I use bifocal spectacles, so couldn't possibly skate in them. If, for any reason, I can't wear my lenses, I skate "blind", which I hate, but can do. My lenses don't give me totally perfect vision (plus I need reading-glasses with them!), but good enough for skating and driving, and shopping afterwards! Toric lenses aren't quite as good as spectacles for people with severe astigmatism, but I do find them a superb second-best!