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