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Bill Hogarty wrote:
Tom: Have you considered Lasik surgery?. I had been wearing trifocal lenses for years and was desperate for a solution.
I had the procedure on both eyes in one afternoon back in 2000 and was very pleased with the results. The only drawback is starting from day one, your eyes begin to age (normally?) and now I am back to using readers for the closeup work. Might have to have the procedure repeated????
My procedure was done in Concord , CA by a Dr.G.V. Simon who is board certified in Ophthalmology and also is a senior medical examiner for the FAA. You might want to look into Lazic if you havent already.
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Bill,
You hit on one of the specific reasons I will not use ANY ELECTIVE, SURGICAL OPTION. How do I know that my eyes will not change further as I age, requiring a repeat surgery?
The more important reason, though, is that I know of no technique that is anywhere close to 100% effective in giving 20/20 vision near and far at the same time. If I still have to wear some form of corrective lenses after surgery to fly, what good does it do? There is also the potential of permanently degraded night vision.
BTW, bi and tri-focal contacts are prohibited by the FAA. Assume yours were "glasses", right? Multi-focal contacts are permitted. The multi-focal intra-ocular lens replacement surgery is also permitted by the FAA. Of course, that is not elective surgery. Think it is correction for patients with cataracts or some other serious eye problem. An eye defect that requires surgical intervention is the only reason I would ever consider the knife.
With the current solution, I can always go back to standard contacts plus readers or even back to glasses. Everything I am doing is reversible. Surgery is permanent. For a few individuals, corneal surgery has even permanently prevented night flight. It happened to a (now ex) Southwest Airlines pilot here in AZ. That is a risk I will not take for an elective procedure.
Tom Thibault
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