I was thinking how to use a special application to the windshield to fix this - apparently I completely missed the point.
ITT people with astigmatism (whether they know it or not)
Can you get astigmatism from LASIK/PRK?
I never had this until I had PRK.
Nope but the starburst/halo thing comes from either Lasik (not sure what prk is) or astigmatism. I have both.
and that’s without the LED headlights pointing at you!
Literally me for decades. My astigmatism wasn’t diagnosed until 2-3 years ago despite yearly (or semi-yearly) visits to the optometrist. Thought that was just how lights looked in the dark lol.
I’ve NEVER noticed this; but I did notice that my vision was getting worse over time, I finally went to an optometrist, and yeah, I needed a bit of correction, but I also found out I have an astigmatism. so that’s something.
Lights don’t look any different than they always have, no blooming or streaks or halos or star lines or anything; but I still have it, and it makes things blurry and it sucks.
I was at the optometrist explaining the streaky lights AS I WAS WALKING OUT WITH A PRESCRIPTION FOR MY ASTIGMATISM and the doc was like “you were probably squinting, causing that effect”. Bro
I was getting my pupils dilated for the optometrist to properly measure the extent of my astigmatism.
Had never had that procedure done before.
…As I am leaving, with eyes blurry as fuck from being dilated…
Receptionist tells me if I leave now, I might be able to dodge rush hour.
… I wish I could have actually seen the expression on her face when she said that, but I couldn’t.
Due to being temporarily legally blind.
From the procedure that she had just-
sigh
So yeah I made it about two blocks in my car, said NOPE, and just fucking sat in a parking lot for something like an hour, till I could fucking see again.
American health care just literally is a sadistic joke.
the fuck. here the doc tells you beforehand that you are not allowed to drive after the procedure and asks you to bring someone to drive you if possible
I was prepared for this when I went to see an optometrist. I went to a local one, just a couple blocks away from me on purpose because I knew I wouldn’t be able to drive home.
Even though I walked I also had someone with me who could help guide me home, because I was worried that the summer, midday sun would be too bright for me to bear, even with sunglasses, and I would not be able to see well enough to follow the path home. Everything turned out fine, but I’m glad I took the extra care anyways. It just wasn’t nearly as bad as I had planned for it to be.
I was unfortunately super busy with work, did not live within walking distance of any optometrist…
… and despite telling multiple friends and family who had had this procedure done before, none of them mentioned anything about it to me, oh and no medical staff anywhere in the entire process between telling me I should have this procedure done, to scheduling that procedure…
…none of them told me that the procedure makes you legally blind for ~1-2 hours either.
I am glad that you knew this was a procedure that required planning for.
Lol I had the same procedure and sat in my car after calling someone to come pick me up, but they took too long and I decided to just drive myself anyways. I couldn’t read signs, but traffic lights and other cars were visible enough. I bet there are a lot of old people on the road driving around regularly with eyesight that bad or worse.
To your last point:
Oh yeah, I am of the strong opinion that everyone should need to fully redo their drivers test, written and practical, every 5 years, hit 60, every 3 years, hit 72, every single year.
There are way too many idiots who don’t know how to drive, and driving is such a … multi faceted skill that requires so many of your body processes to be working well… and basically all of those start to nose dive after a certain age.
Receptionist isn’t an opthalmologist, and she probably had no idea that you’d just been rendered temporarily legally blind.
You know, I don’t think you have a good eye doctor?
Same. “If you get laser surgery you might get a starburst” but that’s what I see already, I don’t know what you mean. It took a while to get the rotation properly tuned in too.
(Since they tuned in the astigmatism and with the risk of side effects I decided no laser.)
Consider that once the laser you, your astigmatism is gone: even if you need corrective lenses, they’re much simpler than they could be.
As an example, my twin got his eyes done when he was rocking some serious coke-bottle lenses and working the fancy FAANG jobs and livin’ large. He’s had a coupla tune-ups, but never for the astigmatism. (and, even now, they’ve tuned one eye for close focus and the brain still copes, drastically reducing his need for presbyopia lenses)
I have 20/15 with glasses and astigmatism correction has eliminated the starbursting issue, so my (difficult) decision was that unnecessary surgery that could leave me with some combination of still needing glasses, poor night vision, starbursting, and especially dry eyes led me to decide to just settle for glasses.
I’m up to about $700 a pair these days (high fashion frames ain’t cheap, and they match my sweatpants) every two years or so, but it’s almost 100% insurance covered and they’d only cover 10% of my eventual laser bill.
Don’t think you get dry eyes and the sticky eye lid with LASIK. My buddy who got PRK (army boon lol) does complain about it though.
The only thing I got now is minor starburst, but I regret nothing. Ten years in and my vision got a bit worse, -87 diopter to -0.5 on both eyes after surgery to -1/1.5 now. But I’m above forty five so it’s normal. I could probably go for a corrective surgery.
However you know how trans people feel before transitioning? Body dismoprhia or dysphoria. While I was not in distress, looking into the mirror while I was still wearing glasses I was not seeing myself, but a stranger. Getting the surgery helped with that to an immediate effect, along with boosting my self confidence.
really? I like my glasses and I think they bring some personality to my face
I look amazing in glasses, but not so good I’ll put up with not having peripheral vision
Long-time glasses-wearer. My face looks wrong without them, like someone missing their eyebrows. It is interesting how many little things around us are so different for us, like finding sunglasses that sit nicely, protective eyewear that isn’t kept too far away by my glasses’ corners, hats (less commonly a problem), any kind of helmet that approaches or covers the ears, headsets (I swear by earhooks). Not to mention the circumstances that fog them up, like sudden temperature changes (exiting a cooler building or car into a hot outside) or getting hit with a blast of steam from the kettle, oven, or whatever. Fog city, takes awhile to clear up during which I’m either blind because of fog or because of no glasses.
During the pandemic time where everyone had to wear masks, my glasses fog up like every second and I had no other option, either remove my glasses or remove the mask, I picked neither and continued to struggle. I hate fog with a passion lmao
I used to see images like this explaining what an astigmatism was and just thought “well your windshield can cause this too so that’s probably what I’m seeing”
I genuinely don’t know why this was the conclusion I came to. Got an Rx for glasses a few years ago now and like most of my family I have a mild astigmatism.
As long as they stay vertical you’re fine.
Except for you know, the almost completely invisible truck in front of Op
Young friend of mine was checking out my new red-dot sight.
“Why does it look like a star?”
“Oh. I have bad news for you.”
Don’t think he believed me but he’s in the Air Force now and no corrective lenses. 🤷🏻♂️
At least the starbursts make street lights pretty at night 🫠
How accurate
This can also really depend on the windshield. It looks exactly like this in my ~40 year old car due to all the microscopic scratches the glass has accumulated over time. I should probably have it replaced at some point.
This is me, but replace the windshield with my eyes.
hopefully you have corrective lenses for your astigmatism.
My astigmatism is not my biggest issue with my eyes.
You’ll need eyes at least two times larger to fit a car, Derek.
The streaking was so bad on mine that I bit the bullet and just replaced the windshield.
If yer in the state of Florida just hit it with a rock.
Insurance companies are required to replace it, and your rates won’t go up.
Mine isn’t that bad - only 20 years old but has seen all sorts of things from rocks and sand to hail and is just pitted bad enough to be annoying. But it’s that fact that I’ve seen the abuse it’s gone through without the first hairline crack that makes me cautious to get rid of something that’s stood the test of time. It’s either the angle or the glass (doubtful), but at this point it can’t be just luck, right? I just hear horror stories of replacement glass that isn’t fitted right, leaks, or breaks early on. I can deal with it a bit longer.
Polish it.
i’m pretty sure you can buff those out with special glass polishing stuff
I’ve watched someone do it before but the results were not that convincing. It was a small improvement though.
Yes, costs very little really (pad, holder for any drill I assume you have and glass polish, perhaps 40 $, mostly for the polishing compound), and only takes about an hour.
I don’t need to imagine.
Clean your glasses!
Astigmatisms can’t be cleaned away.
Not with that attitude
They actually sell polarized glasses for this purpose. I know because my eye doctor recommended it, but I went with regular glasses because clear vision is for the weak.
Interesting. My opthalmologist says I have astigmatism, and I’ve noticed my prescription glasses are definitely polarized.
clear vision is for the weak
🤣
It’s a joke, Joyce.
Oh fuck, how did you know my name?? 😳 This is spooky.
Ah an old-timey pop culture reference. Another spooky coincidence. Maybe that’s what my parents named me after 🤣 Guess I’ll never know, they’re no longer around to inquire of.
Their username, Almacca, can be rearranged to spell Am A Calc.
I wonder if theyre good at calculus.
Or have excess calcium deposits somewhere in their body.
Or if they’re a calculator.
Them being a calculator was my takeaway.
Due to a childhood accident, I have a vastly different astigmatism in each eye so the lines and streaks are all double vision and ghostly.
Rubber band to the eye? C’mon tell us more! My astigmatism is pretty bad too.
When I was 6 our cursed VCR ate my Aladdin tape. I took apart the VCR to try to rescue the tape and ended up with a small spring tearing the cornea and iris of my right eye.
I am insanely lucky that a family friend just happened to be one of the nation’s foremost pediatric ophthalmologists and that my hometown has an excellent optometry school or I may have lost my eye. Somewhere there are case studies that were done on my eye. I ended up having to wear an eyepatch for a few weeks too which made me the coolest first grader ever.
How are you not dead, I’m pretty site VCR’s also have capacitors
Some of which can hold a charge big enough to kill you or injure you especially at 6 years old
Wow! Much more interesting that I would have expected. When I was a kid I met another kid who was blind due to a rubber band paperclip dart to the eye. Well he wasn’t blind just had two pupils that made things weird to see.
I used to think my own sight was bad enough. I get little tiny Starbursts around lights. And I mean tiny. This dot - • - would look like the same dot with a / plastered on top.
Finding out the OP picture is how my wife sees the world at night was a little mind blowing. I knew it could get bad, but damn.
Yeah, driving at late night… especially with more and more people using billion lumen hyper UV headlights?
Basically, its the old starfield screen saver, but with the those starburst patterns.
Extreme brightness/contrast difference between the lights, and everything they are ‘rendered on top of’.
Double or triple polarized lenses do cut it down a bit, but god help you if you don’t have them.
Fuck those headlights are the bane of my existence! Seriously I don’t understand how a chain of supposedly rational actors, from the engineers, through all the way down the supply chain to the end user, thought it was a good idea to sear the retinas of oncoming drivers.
To be fair some people aren’t aware of this, I wasn’t until I saw my uncle dimming lights for oncoming cars when I was visiting him with family and made the connection mentally
We need a public service type ad for this
“Can we sell this for money?”
Thats it.
The entire problem is that there is no attempt at regulating any part of the entire production to consumer process, and cops sure as fuck ain’t gonna be able to pull over and ticket everyone using them, even if they are technically illegal in your area.
And like a driver can get used to things on the windshield, you can also tune out star bursts. I do agree they’re distracting but it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t drive safely with those.
Either your windows need cleaning / defogging, you got some shit coating on it
You could actually need glasses and I say this as someone who wasn’t aware they needed glasses for distance for most of their life, your vision looking like this especially with the the light halos and blurriness in the distance
As someone with astigmatism, this is how some people see the world all the time.
If anyone is reading this thinking that the lines like in the OP are normal and everyone sees them, it is not. go see an optometrist.
Its called astigmatism
That looks like the windshield’s fault. Time to wash your car.
OP might also need glassed, my vision looked less worser than this but similar in the distance before I got glasses
