Association Forum - Sailor's Disease!

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Sailor's Disease!

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Member Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/11/2010 : 13:50:34

No, it's not sexually transmitted!

It's cataracts. Sailors often get them because they spend so much time in bright sunlight without protecting their eyes. I just had the surgery two days ago, and thought I'd pass along a little info to any members who might have it in their future.

When the doctor explained what he was going to do, it was frightening, but, as is often the case, the reality didn't come close to justifying the fear.

Different surgeons might use different techniques, but, as I understand it, my surgeon cut a 1/4" slit in the eye, blasted the lens with a laser, dissolving it. Next, he rinsed away the debris with some kind of solution. Then he inserted a folded, flexible plastic lens in the pocket that holds the lens, and, once inside, it unfolded, like a ship in a bottle. While he was at it, the surgeon also reshaped my eye to correct an astigmatism that I had all my life

All this was done with a local anesthetic, and while I was fully conscious. There was no pain or discomfort of any kind. After the surgery, I went home within an hour with a protective patch over the eye. (Aaaaargh!)

I returned the next day (yesterday) for a quick check, and all was fine, The patch was removed, and my vision was still a bit blurry, but today it appears to be crystal clear, without any corrective lens. The only discomfort that I experienced throughout the whole process was a very slight feeling that there was an eyelash in my eye, but that is gone this morning.

To give you an idea how non-debilitating the surgery was, the day after the surgery, I was approved by the doctor to drive again, and I did drive. In fact, I went home and cleared my driveway and walks with the snowblower.

The only bad part is that I have to put 3 kinds of eye drops in the eye 4 times a day, another kind of eyedrop twice a day, and a thin grease in the eye once a day, and they all have to be done at least 5 minutes apart, so the successive drops don't flush the previous drops out of the eye before they have a chance to penetrate. I feel like my life is one continuous succession of eye drops. That will last for 28 days, but, failure to follow that regimen is apparently one of the biggest hazards, so, I'll do it faithfully.

If you have cataract surgery in your future, don't dread it. It's truly no big deal.

Steve Milby J/24 "Captiva Wind"
previously C&C 35, Cal 25, C25 TR/FK, C22
Past Commodore

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 14:11:39

Great to hear--thanks for that! Glad it worked so well for you. I'm sure it's in my future--both parents had it done.

I've read that another sailor's issue comes from airborne salt in the eyes--it apparently can do more serious and irreparable damage over the long term, and is one more reason to wear eye protection whether the sun is out or not.

Edited by - on

piseas
Former Treasurer

Members Avatar

USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 15:50:08

Steve, Great topic. I just went for my annual eye test, 3 years late, and was told the importance of wearing UV sunglasses, especially due to my age and being a boater. I was warned if not, I may be susceptible to cataracts.
I suspect many here are older and even if not, heed this message and protect your eyes.
Steve A

Edited by - on

JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

1520 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 17:20:03

And another reason to wear protective eyewear is to prevent the early onset of age-related macular degeneration, especially for those at risk of this disease.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 18:33:40

Lets see some photos of snow on the boat!

Glad to hear the procedure went fine.

Edited by - on

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 20:38:40

Glad all went well !

Edited by - on

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5418 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 20:48:06

Good to hear you're on the road back to good eyesight. One issue sailors and other outdoors-men and -women face is cheap sunglasses. If you wear dark sunglasses that don't have complete UV-A and UV-B protection, your retina is at GREATER risk than if you did not wear ANY sunglasses.

Why? Because without sunglasses, you'd shade you eyes with the brim of your hat, you'd squint, your irises would aperture down to a pin point or you'd get out of the bright area. But with cheap, dark sunglasses, you'd stay in the sun longer, go without a hat, and meantime your irises will open wide and allow <i>more</i> UV to enter your unprotected eyes even through the nonprotective sunglasses.

Practical Sailor had an excellent review of UV protectant eyewear last summer, and several <$50 pairs got good marks for eye protection. If there is only one thing you buy for your personal safety this year (aside from a harness, PFD or flares), buy a well made and protective set of sunglasses (and a strong set of leashes!). You will not regret it.

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3477 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 21:42:10

Steve,

Congratulations on your surgery. Thanks also for spreading the news for the rest of us...that if we need the surgery...it's not so bad !

My wife went thru a similar cataract surgery ordeal a few months ago..for one eye. We believe that getting hit in the eye by a tennis ball a few years ago may have hastened her need for the cataract surgery. In my wife's case, she was continually having her contact prescription adjusted because she was still having fuzzy/out of focus vision. It was so bad that she was having trouble seeing road signs that should have been fairly easy to read even from a distance. A visit to a opthamologist confirmed the cataract and the day that she went for the surgery, on the way home (she had a patch on that eye), she could already tell from looking out the sides of the patch that her eyesight was much improved. When home and with the patch off (only wore it for the first week when going to sleep to ensure she did not scratch/rub near her eye) her vision had such a vast improvment it was like she had xray vision. Her vision went to 20-20 and also corrected the astigmatism. She still needed a contact for the other eye.

I guess I never really knew that much about cataracts and how they impair vision. I thought that it basically corrected a cloudiness over the eye. Thought that if you want 20-20 vision, you then go for Lazik surgery. But going for cataract surgery as Steve mentioned, it is actually replacing the lens. So, the result is you get 20-20 vision from the new lens.

Edited by - on

Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

Members Avatar

USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2010 : 22:04:52

You may get 20-20, but you will definitely get very good. I have convinced older friends a few times to at least see an ophthalmologist. I have always maintained that of all the things we do surgically, nothing has so dramatic an impact on life with so minimal an intervention as cataract surgery.

Edited by - on

redeye
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

3477 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 06:15:16

To believe that Sailing will increase your chances of cataracts or macular degeneration is an oversimplification of the process.

As for Mac Degeneration, Marketing has changed the name of the "disease" over the years to sell pills and sunglasses. It was originally called SMD ( senile Macular degeneration ) Then AMD ( Age related Macular Degeneration ) and now simply macular degeneration. They left off the idea of a normal age process. If you get cataracts, and you will, regardless of the cheep sunglasses you wear they can be removed pretty easily.

Your diet and exercise level has more to do with it that your increased exposure to sunlight or UV. We are all going to get cataracts and macular degeneration in levels according to our environment and inherited traits. The environmental aspect of this ratio has more to do with what you eat three times a day over 70 years than how much UV you get over the few times you get outside.

IMHO getting outside is helping your vision more than the additional sunlight you get. Our clinic removes cataracts and resolves AMD in more patients that don't get outside that the ones that do.

Sorry to negate your neurosis over sun exposure, but if you want to worry about cataracts and AMD sit at home and eat big macs.

Edited by - on

redeye
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

3477 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 06:34:06

<< blasted the lens with a laser, dissolving it >>

They don't use a laser, they Phacoemulisfy the lens. It is essentially a tube with another tube inside of it with a hole on the side of the inner tube. The inner tube moves in and out and the hole has suction. You eat away at the lens and suck it up into the the hole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phacoemulsification

Edited by - on

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 08:43:54

ugh...

Edited by - on

PCP777
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1225 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 08:58:54

I think I'm going to get a good pair of shades anyway.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 09:20:31

I'm certainly not qualified to debate with Ray, but I do like good eye protection for comfort and safety as well as health. Trouble is, I wear multi-focal glasses and I'm too cheap to buy prescription sunglasses--if I did, they'd be in the drink, scratched up, or broken like the shades I do buy... But I really like my [url="http://www.cocoonseyewear.com/sunwear/product.php?id=46"]Cocoons[/url]--they fit over my regular glasses so I can read a GPS, chart, or distant buoy number. And they'll be fine with the <i>new</i> glasses I need to get.

Edited by - on

Don B
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
317 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 09:36:28

It's great everything went well for you Steve.

A few years ago I had a some "spots" removed and since then, I've become much more religious about protection from the sun. A few items in my arsenal:

Costa del mar sunglasses
Neutrogena SPF 70
Columbia light weight sunblock gear (shirts and hat)
And am in the process of getting a Patagonia sun mask.

Geez, when it's all said and done, I probably look like the invisible man when he isn't invisible

Edited by - on

crcalhoon
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
303 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 09:57:37

Somebody go ahead and jump all over me for this one. It's old news and I have probably forgotten aspects of it, but. . .About 20-25 years ago I recall reading of a study done with New England lobster fishermen which basically consisted of two questions:
1. Do you wear (specifically) a baseball cap when on the water.

2. Do you have or have you had cataracts.

Their findings were a clear correlation between the two. Those who wore the baseball cap had a markedly lower rate of cataracts. Probably unscientific as Heck, but, food for thought..
I hate baseball caps.

Edited by - on

redeye
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

3477 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2010 : 12:13:32

I'm happy Steve's surgery went well, and his compliance with the post op drops is also great to hear. I'll also tell you cataract operations are easy breezy and the post op drops are very important.

The 20+ year National Eye Institute's AREDS ( Age Related Eye Disease Study ) for is a -bit- larger that the older Lobsterman Study and AREDS found the reduction of free radicals over time to be the most important factor in reducing macular degeneration but "no effect" on changing cataract formation.

http://www.nei.nih.gov/amd/

You can pop out the cataracts, but good luck on finding another retina.

Hey... I love good shades also.

The docs take out the cataracts on you either way, whether you live in an area of high UV near the equator, or in lobsterland... Hat or no hat.. Your body tolerates the operation better when it is done before you are really old, so for me, bring on the cataracts. But this also is an oversimplification, there are many factors, the body being a complex thing, but I can tell you... The American Docs Rock! Just do as the doc says and don't sweat it...

Here's to my Acai Blueberry Mojito!

Edited by - on

aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2010 : 11:08:33

I'm 60, very seldom wear sun glasses anywhere, and am type II diabetic. I've also worn glasses most of my life and with a bifocol the last 10 years. My last I exam actually showed an improvment in my vison. I now no longer wear my glasses playing hockey, when operating a computer, or reading. Imagine that.

Edited by - on

Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

Members Avatar

USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2010 : 13:01:40

I, too, have been glasses free for several years, but the age related changes keep progressing and I am back to glasses. It was great while it lasted.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2010 : 18:35:29

I just had my 7 day exam, and couldn't have asked for better results. The vision in my left eye is now 20/20. I'll still wear glasses, because my right eye still needs correction, and I'll still need glasses for reading, but my vision will be tremendously improved. The vision in my right eye isn't bad enough to need the surgery right now, so, I'll wait until it starts to be a problem.

If I was still working, I'd have gotten the more expensive lenses that eliminate the need for reading glasses, because I did a tremendous amount of reading every day, but, now that I'm retired, I only read for pleasure, and don't mind wearing glasses, having worn them for so many years.

Edited by - on

JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

1520 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2010 : 18:57:46

Congrats!

Edited by - on

Ray Seitz
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
416 Posts

Response Posted - 02/18/2010 : 07:14:34

Glad everything went well Steve! Just in time for the spring sailing season.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 02/18/2010 : 08:38:20

Thanks, Ray. I told the Doc that, if he couldn't get it done before spring, it'd have to wait until next winter. At my age, I wasn't about to miss out on playtime! I have a sailboat and a Harley singing siren songs to me from Maryland!

Edited by - on

osmepneo
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
1420 Posts

Response Posted - 02/19/2010 : 20:30:51

Interesting topic. I had both eyes done last year. The corrective lens corrected astigmatism, and originally my vision was 20/25, but started developing secondary cateracts, which is scheduled for correction in April. Could have been in January, except I've become a snow bird, and winter in North Myrtle Beach.

I had no idea it was a sailor's disease. Guess ya gotta keep your eyes covered on the water.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.