️ Assist Funding A Vision Correction Surgery ️

Hey, everyone. I’m e-begging with the hopes of being able to fund what will be a life changing eye surgery with a high success, satisfaction, and safety rate. Unsurprisingly, insurance does not cover this, and given my history with financial disparity, housing insecurity, and significant mental health issues, this isn’t really something that I can realistically afford on my own. I’ve gone through with scheduling and am currently planning on paying with my credit card, but I’m trying to convince myself that attempting to ask for help isn’t an entirely shameful measure here.

LONG WINDED BACKSTORY: I have a funny little thing that my current optometrist likes to refer to as “significant myopia”. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was seven years old, and my vision had a tendency to drop substantially between yearly appointments. Contacts weren’t an option due to a severe phobia of touching my eyes (which I’ve dealt with! very proud of myself), and by 16, I had coke bottle lenses, even after they were thinned. I distinctly remember going to a Pearle Vision with my mother and being led to a drawer that had frames that were covered by Medicaid, and having a grand total of four options to choose from.

There were other issues, of course–physical activity was limited due to the risk of my glasses being flung off of my face due to their weight, eyeliner and makeup experimentation were impossible, small details with cleaning/art/etc started to be missed, and my dysmorphia took a nosedive. I know that probably sounds like minor inconveniences at worst, but it makes me deeply upset knowing that I just can’t do things that most people take for granted. I can’t see anything when I wake up in the morning. I can’t see anything in the shower. My job involves a lot of staring at tiny text on computer screens and IDs, and apologizing to clients because I take extra time to verify digits because everything is out of focus is depressing. I have no peripheral vision because of my glasses, and I can’t drive because I’m terrified of having something fuck up my glasses while I’m on the road.

What finally convinced me to pursue surgery, however, was a moment earlier this summer when I went stargazing with some friends and had the realization that I just…couldn’t see the stars. My astigmatism made things difficult, but I couldn’t see anything outside of the bare minimum of little glows, and it made me feel this intense sort of devastation that got progressively harder to hide over the weekend. It still makes me upset.

As of February 2024, my prescription is -11.25 and -12. That’s bad, but stable–I only had a -.25 increase since the year before. When I inquired about the possibility of getting LASIK, my optometrist immediately said no, and after microdosing despair with dilated eyes, we decided to attempt contacts. This was a big deal for me because of the entire “intense phobia of having anything even remotely near my eyeballs” deal, but we were able to do it. Sort of. They couldn’t actually get an accurate prescription for me, and because of the astigmatism, it takes up to an hour to get those things in. Being unable to get an accurate lens for my left eye made this disorienting and nauseating. It still made me giddy, though, especially looking in the mirror–I could see! Sort of. My face felt so much lighter.

Acknowledging that this is a disability is painful. In 2023, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was disabled after my endometriosis diagnosis, and that took a while to adjust to, but I feel mostly ok about it now. My eyes, though? That actively fucks with me. My vision will eventually get worse, and it just feels shitty. I don’t feel good about myself. I don’t like the way my face looks, and I don’t like the way it feels to be dependent on my glasses to see anything. I wish I could just exist like I did in those first few minutes of getting the contacts in.

IN SUMMARY: I have a surgery scheduled for September 26th at Sharpevision to get EVO ICL. ICL is essentially an implantable contact lens, where they wiggle on in there with lens in eight to ten minutes and it just stays there for the rest of your life (unless you want to reverse it). It’s a permanent fix! I still may need reading glasses when I hit my forties, but having the ability to do SO much more (driving! increased confidence! the ability to pluck my eyebrows and see what i’m doing!) would be incredible.

Like Lasik, this surgery corrects vision. Unlike Lasik, it has a significantly higher price—think $3,395 per eye. Here is a cropped pic of the costs:

I am personally opting for the Lasik4Life option as a safety precaution. ICL can be reversed in a worse case scenario, but I’m trying to stay focused on the 99% satisfaction rate.

I don’t really have a set goal for this, because any assistance would help immensely—I’m listing the base cost of one eye for the time being. Thank you so much for reading the walls of text and even considering donating. It means a lot to me.