My Mom has scleral buckles in both eyes after retinal detachments. Can she enjoy Avatar in 3D?
December 16, 2009 10:45 PM Subscribe
My Mom has scleral buckles in both eyes after retinal detachments. Can she enjoy Avatar in 3D? History, surgery, and how she sees now backgrounds included.
My Mom has always been very, very near-sighted (She was a preemie at a hard time and there have been immune system and eye problems over the years.) and had complications after cataract surgery that resulted in a scleral buckle in one eye and a non-complete saving of her vision in that eye. She describes the vision in her weaker eye as high-contrast primary colors. Laser surgery has removed a "skwintch" in her vision that she described as her "Mickey Mouse."
She also has a scleral buckle in her stronger eye from another retinal detachment (unrelated to the cataract surgery, but probably from being a preemie), but that surgery was an astounding success, probably because Mom noticed the symptoms immediately and drove herself straight to her great doctor.
Over time, her good eye has been taking over, so her overall daytime vision is actually a lot better than it ever was pre-surgery. She needs reading glasses now for closeup work, rather than taking off her glasses for it.
My Mom went through a lot of hard times and has new "bionic" eyes now. I'm so impressed with her patience, effort, and grace while she handled these things. Oh, she's also been a commercial artist for about 3 decades. (She uses Macs, I mostly use PCs, and we still find peace.)
I've checked the previous posts, because her Xmas present from my Dad is to get taken to see Avatar in an IMAX in the newest 3D. They don't want to pay for the tickets if she won't enjoy it. They aren't going immediately. They just want to know if the extra trouble will be wasted. She'd still enjoy, I think, to see the movie without the 3d, but if she could have that extra bit, it would make her so very happy.
Sorry for the length, but I love my Mom and want her to not be frustrated by the technology and time and money. If they drive an hour and spend the extra money on IMAX 3D and she can't enjoy it, well, my Dad and I will be frustrated along with her. So, we just want to know what to expect.
As a side-note, my Dad has trifocals from being far-sighted. He doesn't expect to enjoy it as much as my Mom, but if the 3D is not going to work for him, they'd rather enjoy it together without. Personally, I'm waiting for the DVD and not planning on going to a theater for it at all. This is all for my folks. Thank you very much for any input.
My Mom has always been very, very near-sighted (She was a preemie at a hard time and there have been immune system and eye problems over the years.) and had complications after cataract surgery that resulted in a scleral buckle in one eye and a non-complete saving of her vision in that eye. She describes the vision in her weaker eye as high-contrast primary colors. Laser surgery has removed a "skwintch" in her vision that she described as her "Mickey Mouse."
She also has a scleral buckle in her stronger eye from another retinal detachment (unrelated to the cataract surgery, but probably from being a preemie), but that surgery was an astounding success, probably because Mom noticed the symptoms immediately and drove herself straight to her great doctor.
Over time, her good eye has been taking over, so her overall daytime vision is actually a lot better than it ever was pre-surgery. She needs reading glasses now for closeup work, rather than taking off her glasses for it.
My Mom went through a lot of hard times and has new "bionic" eyes now. I'm so impressed with her patience, effort, and grace while she handled these things. Oh, she's also been a commercial artist for about 3 decades. (She uses Macs, I mostly use PCs, and we still find peace.)
I've checked the previous posts, because her Xmas present from my Dad is to get taken to see Avatar in an IMAX in the newest 3D. They don't want to pay for the tickets if she won't enjoy it. They aren't going immediately. They just want to know if the extra trouble will be wasted. She'd still enjoy, I think, to see the movie without the 3d, but if she could have that extra bit, it would make her so very happy.
Sorry for the length, but I love my Mom and want her to not be frustrated by the technology and time and money. If they drive an hour and spend the extra money on IMAX 3D and she can't enjoy it, well, my Dad and I will be frustrated along with her. So, we just want to know what to expect.
As a side-note, my Dad has trifocals from being far-sighted. He doesn't expect to enjoy it as much as my Mom, but if the 3D is not going to work for him, they'd rather enjoy it together without. Personally, I'm waiting for the DVD and not planning on going to a theater for it at all. This is all for my folks. Thank you very much for any input.
I see mainly out of one (near-sided) eye, and saw Up in 3-D a few weeks ago. Nothing really "jumped" out at me and I didn't feel the need to gasp when other people did. However, I did notice a subtle 3-D effect, but I think the 3-D effects in Up are MEANT to be subtle. But I didn't notice any OMG-worthy 3-D effects in the shorts and adverts etc. that showed in 3-D before the film.
Since 3-D glasses are now all "one" colour (not different colours in each eye), the movie looks normal to me while watching it, even if I completely close one eye. I can't watch things with the old-style blue-in-one-eye-and-red-in-the-other glasses though.
My opinion is you-don't-know-until-you-try. Seeing it on an IMAX would be pretty cool anyway, even without the 3-D.
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 12:00 AM on December 17, 2009
Since 3-D glasses are now all "one" colour (not different colours in each eye), the movie looks normal to me while watching it, even if I completely close one eye. I can't watch things with the old-style blue-in-one-eye-and-red-in-the-other glasses though.
My opinion is you-don't-know-until-you-try. Seeing it on an IMAX would be pretty cool anyway, even without the 3-D.
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 12:00 AM on December 17, 2009
Best answer: It depends on whether your Mum is using both eyes to build images (stereopsis) or just one. Ask her to try this test of stereopsis, and if she 'passes' there's a good chance she'll be able to enjoy the film in 3D. I'm not sure what will happen to the colours, but if she's using information from both eyes in her daily life I can't imagine it'll be much different.
As for your Dad, if he has stereopsis there should be no problem.
Enjoy the movie!
posted by teem at 1:02 AM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
As for your Dad, if he has stereopsis there should be no problem.
Enjoy the movie!
posted by teem at 1:02 AM on December 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
on preview: seconding teem. The new 3d glasses that they have for these movies usually can fit over glasses as well even if they are a bit uncomfortable. Has your father considered progressive lenses? If it's a viable alternative, many I've known with vision issues have found switching to progressives to be a big boost in quality of life. It won't improve his visual acuity, and depending on the strength of his vision, the sides of the lenses may be distorted, but his central field of view will be continuous and allow him to more easily focus at any distance (which would make movie watching oh so much more fun).
posted by palionex at 4:27 AM on December 17, 2009
posted by palionex at 4:27 AM on December 17, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks very much, all of you.
teem, I'll be sending Mom the link to that test.
posted by lilywing13 at 4:17 PM on December 17, 2009
teem, I'll be sending Mom the link to that test.
posted by lilywing13 at 4:17 PM on December 17, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zachlipton at 11:58 PM on December 16, 2009