Hacker News Reader

> It's important to get your eyes checked, but every year is a bit nuts.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me, and it's not just to update your prescription, it's also to check how healthy your eyes are.

View on HN

Exactly. A couple of years ago at my yearly eye checkup found a small hole in my retina. Pretty common with near-sighted people. The eyeball is elongated and this stretches the retina a little bit. It's also a fast track to complete blindness in that eye. You might see the hole as distortion in your vision, depending on where in your eye it is, or you may not be able to see it at all. If untreated the whole retina will detach and you are permanently blind in that eye, and there's no treatment. If I hadn't gone to that yearly checkup, there's a good chance I would have been blind in that eye before the next one.

The treatment for the hole in the retina was one of the most awesome procedures I've ever had. The doctor puts on this big headset that completely covers his face, with multiple microscope-type lenses and a visible green laser shooting out the front. Looks like the borg. He holds your eye open and using the visible laser to aim, points at the edge of the hole and activates the IR laser, blap, blap, blap (it actually makes that sound) as it stitches the edge of the hole down. It feels like you're getting poked in the eye hard each time so he has to stop after a few cause your eye freaks out and moves. Wait a few seconds till it settles down and continue. My eye felt like it had been punched hard, but that faded by the end of the day. Repair is still holding coming up on 3 years.

Go to to your annual medical checkups.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com