KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Hey guys. I am a 15 year old in hci and I recently went to an eye specialist to check my eyes and realused that I have astig 300 on both eyes. The specialist told me that it was completely due to my parents genes and that I could not do anything other than get lasik surgery at age 21. Is there anything you guys can recommend me to do to not worsen the situation or improve it? Any help would be kindly appreciated!

Aloysius Lam wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:34 am

Hey guys. I am a 15 year old in hci and I recently went to an eye specialist to check my eyes and realused that I have astig 300 on both eyes. The specialist told me that it was completely due to my parents genes and that I could not do anything other than get lasik surgery at age 21. Is there anything you guys can recommend me to do to not worsen the situation or improve it? Any help would be kindly appreciated!

Yes. Astigmatism is an inherited condition. Usually if discovered early, you can contain the worsening condition. My kids inherited my astig. DH hv perfect eyesight.

Usually, if the child receives early intervention, the child will not struggle as much I learning esp astig causes blurry or double image & kids usually hv difficulties recognizing alphabets such as ‘c’, ‘o’ or ‘a’ etc. Once a child receives early intervention, like mine all receives adjusted spectacles to help retina focus, then by age 8-12 they shld stabilize and not need for further adjustments.

@ Aloysius Lam It’s amazing that u’ve come to teenage w/o much help and thriving in yr studies. You shld go to KKH eye specialist clinic for proper diagnosis & advices.

My degree as a student passed 400 degrees in my upper primary. I used to wear glasses but had since moved on to contact lenses & my degree had not gone beyond. My only difficulty is w/o prescription I wld hv the bus number totally blur within 200 meters. One time I was misdiagnosed at the optometrist & regretted it big time coz the degree didn’t fit & I had dizzy spells besides seeing awlful bright lights at the sides. Once I ditched the bad prescription & got an accurate one fr the hospital, I’ve never used outside prescriptions since. There are many charlatons out there! Beware!

Don’t worry too much as this condition is better treated at hospital then outside opticians/eye specialist. Get the right prescription & you can go to yr favorite optician with the proper diagnosis

Take care!

Esteema,
what type of prescription did hospital do - as in they help to make the lens and glasses or we can
take the accurate info & go outside to make the glasses n nicer frame?
astigmatism make night driving vision lousy mine was due to bad habits, so my degree is low.. but still irritating

MyPillow wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:20 am

Esteema,
what type of prescription did hospital do - as in they help to make the lens and glasses or we can
take the accurate info & go outside to make the glasses n nicer frame?
astigmatism make night driving vision lousy mine was due to bad habits, so my degree is low.. but still irritating

You can get glasses for astig at any optician. No need to go to hospital for the prescription.

slmkhoo wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:29 am

MyPillow wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:20 am

Esteema,
what type of prescription did hospital do - as in they help to make the lens and glasses or we can
take the accurate info & go outside to make the glasses n nicer frame?
astigmatism make night driving vision lousy mine was due to bad habits, so my degree is low.. but still irritating

You can get glasses for astig at any optician. No need to go to hospital for the prescription.

yah thats my current way - coz my degree not high , but i do know some who are bad.

i curious whether hospital do help to make glasses (?) heee....

i have myopia + astig + lao hua soon - dunno normal optician can help or not ?

now i am wearing contact lens + light lao hua (those market one) if i m reading v small prints (eg scripture ) in low light

MyPillow wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:36 am

yah thats my current way - coz my degree not high , but i do know some who are bad.

i curious whether hospital do help to make glasses (?) heee....

i have myopia + astig + lao hua soon - dunno normal optician can help or not ?

now i am wearing contact lens + light lao hua (those market one) if i m reading v small prints (eg scripture ) in low light

I also have had all 3 since my early 40s (more than 10 yrs now) and have been getting my glasses made at normal shops all this while. Contact lenses for astig can be prescribed by regular optical shops too - I wore those for years until I switched back to glasses. Not sure how contacts can deal with presbyopia as I switched back to glasses in my 30s, before presbyopia hit.

MyPillow wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:20 am

Esteema,
what type of prescription did hospital do - as in they help to make the lens and glasses or we can
take the accurate info & go outside to make the glasses n nicer frame?
astigmatism make night driving vision lousy mine was due to bad habits, so my degree is low.. but still irritating

Only highlighting that prescription of condition as whether astigmatism or myopia/presbyopia, etc shld be done in hospital to avoid mid-diagnosis esp for very young kids.

Physical spectacles/lens can then be done using the hospital prescription. We use a very experienced optometrist but he’s always honest with us that we shld do a proper prescription before going to him.

For kids, it’s always good to identify & get professional early diagnosis (preferably before childcare years or kindergarten years) so as to enable the child to learn correctly right fr start & owise poor vision might hamper reading abilities.

Once proper diagnosis done early for a child, adulthood shld not hv very great changes except for presbyopia.

For adults, to improve our vision or facilitate lifestyle, we can opt for glasses that adjust our cornea focus, or do the ortho-k non-invasive procedure or some will opt for laser. It’s all abt person choices.

For me, i hv all 3 conditions (astig, myopia & presbyopia) But I didn’t want any of those procedures & it’s risks, so I hv my contact lens adjusted. Usually adults’ astig are alr stabilized.

Estéema wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:34 pm

Usually adults’ astig are alr stabilized.

Not for all though. My astig axis shifts constantly, not by much, but enough to affect my vision somewhat. I've got used to always seeing things slightly out of focus! It's been this way since I was a child. My myopia increased steadily till I was in my 30s (when I became a SAHM, if not, it would probably have kept on increasing!). But one of the benefits of age seems to be that my myopia has been decreasing since my late 40s. My degree has come down to about 300 from a high of 500 20 years ago. And my presbyopia has been increasing over the years too. Basically, I have almost never been able to see clearly.

slmkhoo wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 1:16 pm

Estéema wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:34 pm

Usually adults’ astig are alr stabilized.

Not for all though. My astig axis shifts constantly, not by much, but enough to affect my vision somewhat. I've got used to always seeing things slightly out of focus! It's been this way since I was a child. My myopia increased steadily till I was in my 30s (when I became a SAHM, if not, it would probably have kept on increasing!). But one of the benefits of age seems to be that my myopia has been decreasing since my late 40s. My degree has come down to about 300 from a high of 500 20 years ago. And my presbyopia has been increasing over the years too. Basically, I have almost never been able to see clearly.

You’ve got a like which I tap by error. Hee, sorry.

I’ve cataract & waiting to remove it in a procedure which then hopefully get my sight into perfect and not more myopia, which MIL did & she’s so proud to hv no more worries. Looking fwd.

Estéema wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 2:28 pm

I’ve cataract & waiting to remove it in a procedure which then hopefully get my sight into perfect and not more myopia, which MIL did & she’s so proud to hv no more worries. Looking fwd.

Same for my parents. They had their cataracts removed a couple of years ago. But they were about 80 when they had it done - long way more for me.