I read somewhere that when Teddy Roosevelt was attacking San Juan Hill, he was so paranoid about breaking his glasses that he had six or eight spare pairs with him. Now I'm not sure if this is fact or just legend, but it does bring up an interesting point: If you wear corrective lenses daily, what would you do in a PAW/SHTF/TEOTAWKI situation? Short of that, do you keep spares in you BOB?

I wear disposable contacts 95% of the time. For the most part I forget I even have them in, and I wear them for a couple months at a time, not even removing them to sleep. But there's been a time or two when Mr. Murphy struck my contacts at very inoportune moments, including once when I ripped on while I was driving. My eyes are pretty bad, nearly 6 cylinder power. Without contacts or glasses I'd be really screwed. There's no way I could hit anything smaller than a 5 gallon bucket with open sights at much over 30 yards, and I definitely can't drive. I can't even read a book at arms length.

At the moment I always keep a few extra pairs of contacts and one pair of glasses, but in a SHTF situation it would be a good idea to have at least 2, maybe even 3 pairs of glasses. And ideally they'd be something durable and protective, maybe something like these. They're bulletproof and would be great safety glasses, plus they seem like they're really rugged.

If you're the type of person to keep several years worth of food and really think the wheels are gonna come off eventually, it would be smart to have as many pairs as you can afford. You prescription will change over the years as your eyes change, but even an outdated pair that wasn't perfect would be a helluva lot better than nothing. Of course, you could also buy a few pairs that were a couple steps beyond your present ones, too.

How do you guys and gals handle prescription lenses in an emergency situation?

Not a terrible question.

I have my old pair in my BOB. They're several years out of date, but "good enough" to get things done: drive, cook, see something out in the distance. I won't be winning any awards for seeing a deer at 1000 yards or anything, but it should be OK.

I actually wear contacts too. I keep a travel size contact solution bottle and spare case at work. I have the mandated 2 spare sets of glasses that my job requires, though they're actually too strong and I stick with my regular pair of slightly out-of-date lenses (notice a recurring theme here?) when not wearing my contacts.

I'm short-sighted and need glasses to drive and watch TV/cinema. I sometimes find it helps to wear them at other times, but for the most part I can get by without them. I don't use contacts, partly because I enjoy being able to see things that are close to me.

My prescription changes slowly, and I have upgraded my glasses many times, so I have plenty of old pairs to use as spares. They don't wear out and most are well-made enough not to break, so they last virtually forever. They aren't really consumables like contact lenses.

I keep spare glasses in the car so I can drive home if something happens to my main pair. That's mostly for convenience.

Zenni Optical is a great source for cheap glasses online. My wife bought a backup pair for $35. They might not fit as nice as the optometrists selection and you are buying sight-unseen but you can't beat the price.

Without my eyeglasses I can barely see as far as my feet, so I couldn't even safely move around to gather firewood or build a shelter without them. So I keep spares in my BOB and another location when I'm out. As well as a tiny eyeglass repair kit.

Hello can't see the soylent green without my glasses.

Ah good ol soylent green...

Lee

I have spares.
I keep construction safety glasses as backups because I wear them at work.
Plastic lenses are much safer than glass and the polycarbonate lenses in safety glasses is almost bulletproof.
You should have a set of sunglasses too, especially for using in winter or on water.
The safety sunglasses come with sideshields that are tinted too.
Snowblindness is a real pain.

If conditions deteriorate you may find you can use visual correction more.

If you have less than perfect vision you might get by if the lighting is good but start to suffer if you are forced to work with emergency lighting. With very good lighting I can read for hours without eye strain but my less than perfect vision betrays me if I'm trying to read with dimmer lighting typical in post-disaster or emergency situation. I can just about read well enough for a while if I use a very bright propane lantern but my eyes give out in a short time if I try to do the same thing with kerosene lamps. Ten minutes trying to read without corrective lenses and poor lighting and I go cross-eyed and develop a headache.

Stress, dehydration, exposure to dust or smoke, and fatigue can make marginally good vision deteriorate temporarily. Point being that if you are sliding by and avoiding getting corrective lenses you really need to break down and get them. Even if you don't routinely wear them they could be important if things go south.

Zenni, and other discount supplier, can make this a lot easier by dropping the cost of glasses. The most expensive part of the process may be the examination and prescription.

If you do get glasses for emergency use you might consider the various benefits of scratch resistant and anti-reflective coatings. I have found them to be so beneficial that they are just about essential and insist on them on any but the cheapest and most expendable glasses far down on the list.

I second using Zenni Optical. Glasses are cheap enough that you can almost consider them disposable. I get the memory titanium frames (~$13) and bifocals and they're still <$50/pair. The pair I have on are > 1 year old and despite daily wear are almost like new. Some of my acquaintance have bought the plastic frames and been very disappointed in the durability. I have several spare pairs for the car,in my BOB,at the office, etc and have less invested than most places charge for a single pair.

I cannot endorse LASIK surgery enough. I was so blind that I could not find my glasses without my glasses. In 1999 I had the procedure and I have been seeing well since then.
I am getting ready to go back in to get my presbyopia adjusted as I find life without glasses very preferable to life with them. In any kind of emergency, it could be more than slightly inconvenient.

try this: make a pinhole in a lens sized piece of 3X5 card, or by folding up an index finger. look through it from a variety of angles or positions. some positions will provide a marked improvement of visual clority, cuz the light is focused on the least distorted portion of your lens-maybe enough to get by without the lens grinder.Reliance on spare lenses ignores the possibility of prescription change over time, which many of us with visual acuity issues experience annually.
But take it a step or two further. What if your infirmity is sleep apnea, and you need your c-pap machine-does one go into your bug out bag? Or maybe it's chronic renal failure, and you need hemodialysis 3 times a week? Do you teach yourself to do home peritoneal dailysis just in case, and toss 15 liters of sterile dialysis fluid in the bob? At what point do you accept the inevitability of death absent the support of a pretty sophisticated support system?

If you go for LASIK get a doctor that does a lot of them and has a track record for success. Avoid Billy-Bob's LASIK-taxidermy-septic pumping & stump removal. Who knew you could do LASIK using lasers from discarded CD players, a drill-press, and an industrial vacuum?

When LASIK goes well you can end up with near perfect eyesight without glare or aberration. When it goes bad you can end up with glare and star-patterns around lights that makes functioning at night almost impossible, constant eye irritation that feels like you always have something in your eye, and, worse case you lose sight altogether. Patch and parrot time. The more serious consequences are much rarer and failures come disproportionately from doctors who don't do many of this sort of operation.

Doctors who do this operation a lot, particularly when they are working with the same group of techs and nurses, have higher rates of success and better result overall.

I too ride the near sighted train. I wear contact lenses 99% of the time. I wear my glasses occasionally for a break and or late night, or itchy eyes.

I can't see well at all without corrective help (-4, -5.5).


I EDC a small case and some lube drops-this is for comfort and to ditch them in if i need my glasses (also EDC rx glasses and regular sun glasses.

My contingency plans though does host a true backup plan ( I scale this down when backpacking-due to weight only(but not by much)-but do pack it all when traveling)

small case-happens to be a freebie pelican

hosts:
-2 contact cases
-3 pair contacts (always current rx-i would go nuts with old RX ie headache)
-full size bottle of solution (this would not get a person over a month or 2 by rationing, but again we all hope it never comes to that-nor would i "survive" in contacts anyway-to high risk for infection esp. considering you probably wouldn't have access to medical care
-rx glasses (from edc bag)
-contacts lube drops
-use to have rx sun-currently just using clip on or , and don't' laugh-solar shields -the granny type-but hey they work if Truly needed sun protection and had to wear glasses-i consider the granny's to be emergency-ha ha!!
-one could always improv sun glasses-ie slit glasses, or even just rip some lenses out of sun glasses if your that desperate to see clearly w/sun protection
-quality sun glasses-oakley straight jacket at the moment
-small repair kit
-good head strap for any pair
-i really would like to have the spare pr glasses-i used to think rx sun, but in reality a cheapie regular pr with clip ons or fitovers would be better in the long run-i think I will get some new lenses in a newish extra pr of frames i have lying around here n toss them in the kit!!
-my rule of 3 will be contacts to glasses to back up glasses


-if and when I travel on water/snow (not that often mind you), i carry 2 pr sun glasses


One final thought-yeah I'd love to have backup after backup, but cost kills us all, and at some point, everytime you change RX the dollar signs flash. I guess true survival, would be some sorta of fit over sun shield and 3 pr glasses(rule of 3 again!!) and just skip silly contacts-again talking survival, not vanity in this case.

I'm aware that LASIK can be a great option. A good buddy of mine had it done a few years before you did and is still very happy. That said, the procedure is coming under renewed scrutinay as some of those early patients have begun to have problems. And it's not cheap. Sure, it may be cheaper than a lifetime of glasses or contacts, but not all of us can pony up a lifetime's worth of eye care in one check. Most of all I'm just chicken$hit- my eyes are nearsighted but they're healthy. Will that change after I let a laser poke around?

To quote Sting of The Police, "They would kill me for a cigarette/but I don't even wanna die just yet." You can speculate on what nature should select for extinction, but in the spirit of the good ol' Natural Selection Derby I'm gonna do what I can to stay alive. I hope that doesn't mess up any bets you have somewhere.

I fully appreciate the inevitability of death, no matter how strong or healthy you are so long as you're mortal. The point I'll accept it for me is when I can't knock the shovel out of the gravedigger's hand.

\
Well said, and I could never bet against Phaedrus.
Natural selection is maybe more about passing along the genetic material to the next generation than perpetuating the survival of mature organisms that aren't actively producing offspring. Oddly, when I was at the stage in life where producing offspring was the issue, I was less interested in stocking survival supplies and more interested in...well...producing offspring, or at least engaging in activities that might so result. At this point, my survival is of little interest to the species.

For the record I'm not all that interested in survivalism; survival is my focus. If you're alluding to the fact that people seem to think they can plan well enough to survive the end of the world, well...I'm not that guy! Nor would I want to be. I enjoy art, music, literature, nice restaurants, films, etc etc; it other words, I enjoy living as part of human civilization. If things hit the fan to the degree that human existance is like a Mad Max film, well I'm probably not really interested in that. I might feel differently if I had to face that but right off just existing doesn't seem to be enough.

But it's fun to contemplate "what-ifs." And even a short term, relatively minor situation could turn very serious for me in a heartbeat if I lost or destroyed my prescription lenses.

I use glasses most of the time. My eyes dry out if I wear contacts and stare at a computer screen or drive. Lenses are for playing, in particular if there's a water oriented sport.

Let's just say that I've broken a few glasses over the years due to me being too lazy to put the contacts in. It would make sense to keep spare glasses and lots of spare contacts ...

My previous pair of glasses took an incredible amount of abuse, some kind of flexible high-tech frame. They've survived skiing with some serious nosedives, swimming, soccer ball to the face... It took a 2 year old and a deliberate toss to the bathroom floor to kill them.

Sorry Brangdon, but I got a good laugh out of this!

In American English, "short-sighted" means "don't anticipate future events," or "don't look ahead." Like driving 300 miles into the wilderness, when your gas tank is only good for 400 miles, and you didn't bring extra gas (petrol).

I'm guessing in real English, it means "near-sighted."

Thanks for livening up my morning.

In English English, 'Short-sightedness' usually means Myopia, but can also mean the inability to predict future events as in American English. The context of the words can usually be decoded by most English English speakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTxD49qBDvs

Near-sighted as close to all my life as doesn't matter.

Anything beyond about 18" is out of focus.

I have my previous pair in a hardcase in my GHB in my trunk. When I replace my current pair, they'll go in the GHB and the prev. ones will go in the GOOD (Get Out Of Dodge) bag.

In a world where prescription lenses aren't available any more? I'd be up the creek without even a canoe. And something brushing my leg.

Good thinking. You can now order prescription glasses online for as little as $25. ( I'm wearing mine now.) Get a few spares.

I have spare pairs of contacts, but I'm concerned about how well they'll store in my BOB. My BOB is kept in the trunk of my car most of the time, so it's subject to 100+ degree temperatures in the summer and below freezing in the winter.

Does the collective wisdom here have a sense as to how well contacts and solution last in various conditions of heat and cold?

if subjected to varying degrees and conditions, i'd just go with a pair or pairs of glasses. I use contacts, but I would not consider them suitable for serious situations where you are without adequate backup or supply. As they are, contacts are just too delicate. get something in your eye? better be able to take out that contact with clean hands because otherwise you are not going to put it back in.

i have several pairs of glasses stored in various bags and drawers, all with hard cases. They make the package more bulky but i rest easier knowing that they can take some knocking about.

Well, if SHTF then I guess I can't hold onto vanity and will have to go back to this all the time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christinarodriguez/3495125184

My options are pretty limited, sadly. I have the retinas of a 65-year old and have a very expensive perscription. My contacts aren't supposed to be worn for longer than a year, according to my doctor, so keeping backups or disposables isn't really an option. To top it off, Lasik might do more damage than good (already had my retina detach once, thanks).

So, I must rely on glasses as backups. They haven't improved much since that picture was taken, but at least I can hold onto them much longer.

New to the forum here. Every time I go in to update my prescription (I wear glasses only), I get a new pair of glasses & tuck away the old ones somewhere useful, always keeping the most recent pair in the car. I also keep a few anti-fog lens wipes in all of my toiletry kits, though plain soap & water will work fine. I used to keep one of those cheap repair kits in my BOB too, but realized none of the screws would fit any of my glasses. Duct tape worked fine the one time a set of glasses fell apart, at least until I got to a fresh set.

I've also used duct tape as a glasses holder: During a weeklong offtrail hike, I realized in the first few minutes that I'd forgotten to bring a sunglass holder to keep the brush from ripping my glasses off. Can't live without duct tape!

If space in an issue, like an EDC kit, I had a set of prescription lenses fit into "optical quality" folding reading glasses. If the folding frames are too cheap, the optometrist won't like putting prescriptions in them. I think Myspex brand was the one I settled on at the time, but I think there are some less expensive ones out there. When tucked away in their case, this spare set is about the size of a small & fat cellphone.

Hi, welcome to the forum. I wear lenses for play and glasses for mostly everything else. I like your thinking

You make many valid points. LASIK, and other surgical interventions, won't work for everyone. Contact lenses have their own burdens, weaknesses and contraindications. For many people eyeglasses are their only practical option. And I suspect that eyeglasses remain the backup of choice for anyone with anything less than perfect vision. Glasses, developed in the 14th century, are still a simple and reliable answer.

A little history for those so inclined:
http://www.teagleoptometry.com/history.htm

I wear glasses, but it's a very mild perscription. I keep a spare pair of sunglasses in the kit and clip-ons in my briefcase. My regular sunglasses live in the car. If you're looking for rugged and inexpensive glasses for your BOB, I'd give serious consideration to persciption safety glasses. They're (generally) a cheaper and tougher then the fashion frames most of us wear.

P.S. I know SHTF and TEOTWAWKI, but what's PAW?

PAW = Post Apocalyptic World. It's the favorited term at ZF.

And ZF means Zombie Forum.

Well, Zombie Squad Forum. I shoulda mentioned that.

I need corrective lenses for sight at any distance and I have central serous retinoplasty (bubble in the retina)that leaves me nothing by peripheral vision in my right eye, a condition that cannot be corrected. I have prescription sunglasses, distance glasses and reading glass that I hope to replace in one set of glasses so that I can use the others for spare. Contacts just won't get it done for me and LASIK scares me to death - if they damage - however unlikely - my good eye, I'll be SOL.

I hear you, Saniterra. Even with two healthy eyes I'm to chicken for LASIK.

I wear contacts moslyt. Glasses at for for Tv. This thread has got me to thinking that maybe I should try and anyone else who is so interested to try some backyard time lense free. Just take em off and see how well you can get by. Whether you just want to tend the garden for an hour, or spend the whole night. I think it would be cool and productive to see how far or long we could all go. Are your lenses just for accuity (spelling) or for serious sight issues). After thinking about this the other night (mostly due to me stepping out on a hot night and not wanting them to fog up) I looked around and found that I have become rather handicapped relying on m lenses and came up with the idea of no I'm not going to spot a deer if its too far away but I feel that I could do just fine around camp all night, up to gathering wood, taking a trip to the lamode and what not. Hope to test it this weekend.

I have worn glasses regularly for about thirty years. When away from home, I carry at least one spare pair.

I have tried to make the most of the situation by always paying a little extra for hardened, impact resistant lenses, usually with UV-A protection, thus protecting my vision.

I have better than average vision (20-10) but both of my folks wear glasses.

Make sure at least one of your party has good uncorrected vision and depend on them? thats not really my style but it has worked well for people around me for years.

my vision is a 2 edged sword. glare gives me blinding headaches and my night vision takes awhile to kick in. like walking outside at night it takes a good 15 min before i have reached an acceptable level of clarity. apparently because i am used to better than normal i am not as adept at making due with less quality.

i keep 2 pairs of sunglasses in my truck at all times. one saftey and one "cool." during teotwawki i would only grab the saftey pair. they are tough and easily repaired.

If I were forced into a survival situation without corrective lenses everything would be much more difficult, but hopefully I'd survive! I'm extremely nearsighted to the point that I can't read a book unless my nose is almost touching it.

The precautionary principle applies for me. My brother went to a VERY accomplished Lasik surgeon who does a good many of them. 4 years later, he now wears glasses again...only now he has to add eydrops several times a day due to some sort of complication. I'll muddle through with my relatively healthy eyes and just wear glasses. The gamble is too great when my eyes make a good portion of my living.

I need off the shelf reading glasses -- 1.25 for most stuff, 1.50 or 1.75 for really close up. 20/20 vision at distance.

My sister had both lens's replaced surgically. She went from close to legally blind to 20/20 in both eyes. Didn't know they could do that with artificial lens's.

I carry spare contacts that are wearable for a month or more. Additionally, I carry my glasses in my "murse" just in case too.

Finally, I think I'm going to go back in time and get another pair of these:
http://www.uscav.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=7039&TabID=548&cs=1

I was issued them in the AF and I, regretfully now, got rid of them shortly thereafter. Now, however, I've seen guys on my Hazmat team wearing them on responses and drills.

They take their contacts out in the cold zone and put these on. They wear their SCBA masks over them and they seal quite nicely. They're also VERY robust. Those guys don't want their contacts to become contaminated and don't want to have to switch back and forth between mask inserts and street glasses at a chaotic Hazmat or Fire scene. One guy says that's what he wears on late fire calls if his eyes are tired and he's already removed his contacts for the night.

Mine are are order. I am glad that I won't be picking up on the babes when I'm forced to wear them WSHTF. Although, maybe The Uber-Preparedness Man that will be exuded will be really sexy to those women

Wow, those combat glass frames make the celebrated, but seldom coveted, US army 'birth control' glasses look stylish and sophisticated. Clark Kent couldn't pull that look off.

For general use I prefer prescription aviators with a cushioned brow and springy arms that wrap the ears, so don't fall off. I can go without glasses for gas mask and breathing apparatus use but inserts, either frames or stick-ons, are options.

Has anyone tried edc'ing spare contacts ? Seems an easy pocket sized solution.
( I'm also thinking of keeping my old - last prescription - glasses as spares in the car.)

I do carry spare contacts and solution whenever I'm traveling, but not as part of my EDC.

My big concern about spare contacts is temperature -- I would keep them in my BOB or my laptop bag, both of which can spend a great deal of time in the trunk of my car. This can lead to conditions that would destroy the contacts. Other than carrying spare glasses, I haven't figured out a good way to deal with this.

I keep spare contacts and solution in my Jeep through the heat of summer and freezing of winter, and haven't detected any issues. I do rotate them every six months, either through need or as part of standard kit maintenance. I also have spare distance and reading glasses in the car.

This is also true of my EDC, GHB and BOB, though minus the distance glasses in the former two.

BTW, Zenni Optical is a good source for cheap, spare eyeglasses. I bring all my prescription glasses and my sunglasses with me on my annual eye checkup, and get them refitted. Since I buy the contacts and an occasional distance glasses from him, he has no problem adjusting them for me. Most of the eyeglass chains will do the same for free.

That is really good to know, thank you.

suggestion for bifocal wearers and shooting.. I have asthigmatism and have been wearing bifocals for about 20 years, and have been competitive shooting for a little over 27...I've tried to have several optical firms make a pair of polycarbonate lenses,with no success... polycarbonate wrap arounds with prescription inserts, no luck...tried moving the near prescription to the top of the lens (tilt head down slightly to shoot) no luck... what worked was to have a single vision lens of my near prescription for my dominant eye, and move the bifocal line up a couple of millimeters in my non dominant eye. Depth perception is off for about 1/2 hour, but your brain compensates...my shooting box is next to the 72hr bag in the car, and I have 2pairs of shooting glasses...my optician is a shooter friend, and the optometrist he works with has me bring my pistol or carbine into the office...

good resource for buying on-line glasses ( and discounts)

glassy eyes blog

Vets out there who may not know it..if you have a service connected disability for anything you can get free glasses from the VA.

I keep a spare pair in each hiking pack, bob and each vehicle. I'm not blind without them yet but they do make things clearer. I should probably EDC an extra pair, as I do with sunglasses.