Shiny

[ramtops]

Last night, the Apple Store pushed back the despatch date of the Mac Pro by another 6 days, to 13th Feb, meaning that I almost certainlyu wouldn't see it till w/c 18th. Enough is enough.

I asked a mate of mine if his distributors had any in stock, They do. So one is ordered for a Saturday delivery, and Apple have been cancelled. Lets just hope they process the refund promptly ...

In other news, I am considering (just considering) laser surgery on my eyes. I have obtained a copy of my last prescription, from May 06, and that indicates it's possible, even with my myopia and astigmatism, so I've booked an eye test for Monday to see what the current deterioration is. I expect when push comes to shove, I'll be too squeamish to do it, and too mean to pay out £2k, but it's nice to have the facts before I dismiss the idea.

Comments

I had it done, and I think it's damned good.

[andrewwilde.livejournal.com]

Negative effects? When my eyes are tired (by, for example, spending a long time in front of a monitor in a dry room) I now notice more effect, in that I go short-sighted 'til I've had a sleep. However, I can see when I get up, I can see in a swimming pool / shower, and I don't have the hassle of contacts / glasses. Well worth it, I have no regrets at all...

There are 2 kinds of operations - LASIK ('IK) and LASEK ('EK). Summary here (http://andrewwilde.livejournal.com/82674.html). Basically, one involves doing the correction to the middle of the corneal wall (which heals much quicker, in the order of days to full corrected sight), and one which corrects the surface (more like weeks to full recovery as they have to scrape back the epithelial and replace it afterwards). Both can give the same results. The main difference, when I was doing the research, is the degree of correction that's available (EK is capable of correcting higher levels of error) and the potential in the event of trauma:

IK, though it heals faster and gives the same results, can always be "torn loose" at a later date. Some examples include severe head trauma, cats scratching the surface of the eye, etc. If you're able to get to the right care relatively quickly, it can be put back in the same way as the original operation. But as the corneal wall does not grow as an adult, there is always a joint there. It's held down by the epithelial (which is reasonably strong) which grows back in a matter of days, so it's good for the majority of people. However, due to the nature of the job, it isn't allowed by the armed forces, police, boxers, etc...

Then there's the next choice - wavefront or normal. Wavefront (in essence) corrects the shape of your eye's surface to an optically correct surface, wheras the normal surgery simply puts your glasses perscription onto your eye. Having had wavefront (as the % exceeding 20:20 was better), I think that it depends on your vision with glasses beforehand. If glasses correct your eyes to well over 20:20, then wavefront won't make that much difference. If glasses help, but don't make it perfect, then there's other abberations that the glasses don't catch (dimples and dents, rather than incorrect average radius - myopia; and rugby-ball shape - astigmatism). In this case, wavefront will make the difference. Wavefront, obviously, costs rather more. Simple operations come from £300 per eye.

If you want to read up some first-hand experiences of the 'EK operation (the longer healing version) then mine are posted up here (http://andrewwilde.livejournal.com/87197.html). Over the next few weeks, there's a few more of the healing process... Feel free to peruse, and ask questions if you have any...