I am legally blind without glasses. No one knew until I was 10. I had some odd questions that my dad told me 'don't ask stupid questions and if I hear you ask your mom that shit, you get the belt.' The questions were things like how come camera pictures look like everything is close up? What is the point in neon signs of you can't read them unless it's in a picture? Weird stuff like that, that really should have made him think.
I did well in school because I am an auditory learner and I can see up close to read, so no one suspected. I just assumed the chalkboards were for the teachers to keep track of what they were teaching. When we had the vision tests and they told me to read the letters off the chart and I said 'what chart?' I was told to quit being a brat and sent back to class.
When we moved to a decent town with a decent school, when I said what chart the nurse asked me to keep walking until I could see the big E. I stopped about a foot away. My mom bitched and moaned saying I was just wanted glasses because other kids had them and that we could not afford them. When the doc showed her my prescription she started bawling and didn't stop crying for hours from feeling guilty. She drove me all over that weekend so I could see leaves on trees and signs and stuff.
No one else in my family has more than a mild astygmatism. I was born not breathing so they tossed me in an oxygen tent with too much oxygen and it causes the severe nearsightedness. It's completely correctable which is great and I can even get lenses for my VR stuff. I'm terrified of lasik and will never do it no matter how much certain docs push. I won't risk what I have. I like being able to see, even if it is with coke bottle bottom lenses.
Wow, quite the story. Especially considering the needlework you posted in the past. Thanks for sharing and sorry for the late reply. I wanted to write up something longer and not forget, so I kept the post on unread for a while.
Got a colleague with progressive retina degeneration. He says it's like his field of view is shrinking from the outside in. He knows the day will come when he'll only be able to make out dark and light shadows. He's using a large monitor and his mouse cursor sometimes is 10 centimeters high. Must be hell, knowing you're going to be blind eventually. He had to give up his car about a year ago. He's been to all sorts of great eye specialists but they say it's inevitable.
I feel the same way about lasik and completely agree on your rationale.
My great grandmother had macular degeneration and I've been told it runs in families. Last time I went to the eye doc, I asked him about it and he said at my age, he'd already see it, so I should be safe from that. My mom had bad cataracts removed a few years ago and I had also asked about those. He said I was good there too since modern glasses have UVA/B protection and I've been wearing them so long. I do have a lot of floaters, but I don't think anything can be done about that. I just ignore them.
I'm just really lucky that it is so simple to correct for.