Laser eye surgery

Candis C. Griggs <griggsconservation [at] earthlink__net> writes

>I am interested in learning if any fellow conservators have opted
>*not* to have corrective laser eye surgery/LASIK due to the future
>difficulties in close-up vision.  Specifically, I have been told by
>my potential doctor that by correcting near-sightedness now, it is
>extremely likely that I will need reading glasses for close-up work
>in 10-20 years (in my forties and fifties), which I would not
>otherwise, based on my vision now.  ...

There was an article in one of our broadsheet papers the other day
that showed the legal claims on laser eye surgery are soaring both
here and in the US. Whilst they may not all be justified it does
suggest that this surgery goes wrong from time to time.

How can anyone tell you that you would not otherwise need glasses in
your 40-50s. Most people seem to need them and their needs keep
changing. I had exceptional eyesight until I was 40 and have since
needed increasingly strong reading glasses and will soon need long
range ones or bifocals too. It's a typical part of the ageing
process. The good thing about glasses is that you can have your
prescription changed as your eyes change. The bad thing is losing
the glasses.

Conservators may be able to slow down ageing in paper; noone has
found the trick of arresting human ageing yet!

Simon


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:76
                   Distributed: Friday, May 30, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-76-006
                                  ***