Would you do LASIK @ 40?

I actually wanted to title this post something like "Cranky Lilian is Back, with the eye & eyeglasses trouble," but it was too unwieldy and negative.

The truth is: I can't stand wearing eye-glasses. They make me beyond cranky and depressed because I'm constantly reminded me of my physical "handicap" of having poor vision. Not to mention that they are uncomfortable, a pain to wear with hats in winter, get smeared & foggy, etc.

I don't like glasses because I never had to wear them, since I was blessed with good vision for the first 18 years of my life and then wore contacts for the 22 years after that. Well, except for the nearly 6-7 months I was forced to avoid wearing lenses last year (because of this, you'll recall), a period in which I was always cranky and upset too, but I tried not to express those feelings in the blog.

The problem is that when I'm wearing contacts, I act like I have good vision & wear them for 16 hours straight (for as long as I'm awake, which most nights is very late, like 1-2 am). I suspect that this is what caused my GPC in the first place. You'd think I'd learned my lesson after having a "sick eye" for most of last year and then having it finally heal, but no! :(

I will probably have to go back to my new doctors -- optometrists this time because the ophthalmologist plain LIED to me about GPC's connection to contact lenses (as I wrote on the post linked to above, he said it had nothing to do with lenses, which left me flabbergasted) -- and get my GPC treated.

I wonder, though, should I even consider getting LASIK*? At 40? (when the chances of needing reading glasses increase every year). It annoys me that to even consider it I have to wear contacts for at least two weeks before the doctor's visit to check surgery eligibility. One good thing is that I don't have to pay for the visit! One other thing to consider is that the surgery is risky, am I willing to run this risk just so I can ditch the glasses for a few years?

After I buy new, more comfortable, eyeglasses, I think I will schedule an appointment. Let's see. One thing is certain, if I new I could safely treat and, most of the time, prevent GPC, I wouldn't even give LASIK another thought because I'm really OK with contacts and I don't mind having cloudy vision in the morning... I can read without glasses or contacts and use the computer, I just can't see far away.

What would you do? I think I'll go as far as having the appointment, for now... and I'll keep you posted.

* I never liked this acronym (thinking to myself that people "had" to say here in the U.S. it because it was a trademark or something, and it IS. In Brazil we call it simply "laser eye surgery"), but I was surprised to learn that it actually means something: "laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis." The description of the surgery is pretty scary!