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The Eyes have it - All things Vision-related

FormerRecruitingGuru said:
What do you think made the difference? Like did you feel more rested with the civilian eye exams?
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The setup was definitely different. My RPS eye exam consisted of dingy plastic goggles instead of the exams that I was given at an actual optometry clinic. RPS did a single Snellen Test, and the optometry clinics had the little projectors with several slides. Dunno if the type of acuity exam matters that much though.

I think the rest definitely plays a factor in the reading. I took an exam at my LASIK consultation with 5ish hours of sleep and knocked a 20/60 (lol) in my problem eye. I don't expect to be well-rested during OCS, but I'm getting a re-read if I decide to continue with surgery.
🫠
 
FormerRecruitingGuru said:
What do you think made the difference? Like did you feel more rested with the civilian eye exams?
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for what its worth, same thing happened to me. pls look at my post history for reference.

im 20/25, they put me at 20/60 at meps. idk what it is but the machine sucks and I feel like they are just trying the get a close enough number instead of an accurate number. This is just my opinion ofc. When i told the gentleman that I cannot "see" the bottom letters as they are cut out he zoomed in instead of moving the card up, making the correction higher. it is what it is, you can get a civilian consult and re submit.
 
szalona said:
Thanks for the advice. I definitely plan on telling my recruiter haha. My only concern is that he’s adamantly against me getting any corrective surgery and at this point I’m confident I’ll fail the vision exams at OCS/NAMI. He told me that he failed the eye exams several times and just requested a recheck with an optometrist and I don’t think I’ll be granted that liberty at OCS…?
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I will add that the number of people I saw at my recruiting district who failed and MEPS, then received a passing test from a civilian facility who then went to OCS only to fail and get redesignated was high enough that I could not in good conscience recommend that course of action.
 
exNavyOffRec said:
I will add that the number of people I saw at my recruiting district who failed and MEPS, then received a passing test from a civilian facility who then went to OCS only to fail and get redesignated was high enough that I could not in good conscience recommend that course of action.
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Will they redesignate NFO's? I'm in this exact situation, shipping out August 2nd. MEPS said I was 20/30 so under the 20/40 correctable limit, but then denied me until I got a pass from a local optometrist.
 
exNavyOffRec said:
I will add that the number of people I saw at my recruiting district who failed and MEPS, then received a passing test from a civilian facility who then went to OCS only to fail and get redesignated was high enough that I could not in good conscience recommend that course of action.
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I’m getting surgery, haha. Don’t want to gamble my odds of keeping my SNA slot. 🤙
 
Was going to apply for SNA this upcoming board went to meps and I’m not qualified to apply for pilot. My recruiter can’t tell me anything about a waiver or anything. If I correct to 20/20 and I’m within the standards for a waiver, can I still apply again in 6 months even if I’m dq’d I’ve been searching for an answer in this but haven’t found one.
 
Yaboydelly77 said:
Was going to apply for SNA this upcoming board went to meps and I’m not qualified to apply for pilot. My recruiter can’t tell me anything about a waiver or anything. If I correct to 20/20 and I’m within the standards for a waiver, can I still apply again in 6 months even if I’m dq’d I’ve been searching for an answer in this but haven’t found one.
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Why aren't you qualified? What would you need a waiver for?
 
Yaboydelly77 said:
My uncorrected vision wasn’t 20/40 he called me and said you don’t qualify for SNA because of my vision “I can’t speak or recommend you get surgery” when I asked about getting lasik
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What was your uncorrected vision? Never been a recruiter but I am not sure they can actually recommend a surgery or not, but if it get you within limits why wouldn't you?
 
Flash said:
What was your uncorrected vision? Never been a recruiter but I am not sure they can actually recommend a surgery or not, but if it get you within limits why wouldn't you?
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It looks like uncorrected is beyond 20/40.

On the recruiting front, correct, recruiters cannot advise applicants to pursue corrective eye surgery as it is a big liability risk especially if the surgery doesn’t work out (very very small risk here but still). We can advise them the specific vision requirements and from there they can consult an eye specialist on corrective eye options.

Same with ASTB prep and tattoo removals, we can’t provide direct feedback on either of those.
 
FormerRecruitingGuru said:
It looks like uncorrected is beyond 20/40.

On the recruiting front, correct, recruiters cannot advise applicants to pursue corrective eye surgery as it is a big liability risk especially if the surgery doesn’t work out (very very small risk here but still). We can advise them the specific vision requirements and from there they can consult an eye specialist on corrective eye options.

Same with ASTB prep and tattoo removals, we can’t provide direct feedback on either of those.
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Okay I’m -2.5 right eye and -2.0 left myopia and a -1 astigmatism in right and -0.50 astigmatism in left. I went to a lasik consultation before and they said I’d have great results. So if I came back in 6 months with all the correct paperwork I would be able to resubmit for SNA if I’m 20/20 all around and get a waiver
 
Yaboydelly77 said:
Okay I’m -2.5 right eye and -2.0 left myopia and a -1 astigmatism in right and -0.50 astigmatism in left. I went to a lasik consultation before and they said I’d have great results. So if I came back in 6 months with all the correct paperwork I would be able to resubmit for SNA if I’m 20/20 all around and get a waiver
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I got prk and got a waiver for it. Look up the document to see if your eyes are within the limits and ask your doctor too.
 
Yaboydelly77 said:
Okay I’m -2.5 right eye and -2.0 left myopia and a -1 astigmatism in right and -0.50 astigmatism in left. I went to a lasik consultation before and they said I’d have great results. So if I came back in 6 months with all the correct paperwork, I would be able to resubmit for SNA if I’m 20/20 all around and get a waiver
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If you're serious about pursuing SNA, I would get PRK/LASIK. I would definitely start a convo with your recruiter and be like "hey, I'm getting surgery - how does my timeline look?" You're at max astigmatism with the R eye, anyway. I'm -1.25/-1.50 and getting PRK because I wobble between 20/40 and 20/50 uncorrected in one eye.

med.navy.mil/Portals/62/Documents/NMFSC/NMOTC/NAMI/ARWG/Waiver%20Guide/12_Ophthalmology.pdf

This guy above has all the details about what is considered acceptable pre and post op - I'm going over it with my doctor (pages 30-34) before surgery so that I have all the proper write-ups.

* My surgeon is also ex-military, which really helps with the whole process lol. He's been knocking out PRK for SNA applicants for a good long while.
 
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Got PRK! Easiest surgery of my life, lol. <10 minutes, and the only notable thing was that it smelled like bacon when they zapped my eyes.

My prescription is super low (-1.25/1.5) so recovery has been pretty easy. I think I spent one day where I genuinely could not see much, but I've been chilling in sunglasses since, and I was expecting a lot worse. Can't look at a screen for more than 30s-ish. Expecting it to last a little longer before I get 20/20, but at least it's done. 🥳
 
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