PQing and vision

[will]

Do vision problems keep a person from getting PQed? Do issues arise from wearing contact lenses or glasses on the Ice? I will be be trying to get a Raytheon job within the next couple of years and I would like to know if I will need to get lasik eye surgery before applying.
 
Thank you for any help.
 
-Jessica

[FNGWannabe]

From what I understand, glasses are fine as long as the frames aren’t metal (you wouldn’t want them freezing to your face).  Also, Raytheon will even reimburse you up to ~$170 in order to get prescription sunglasses.  Don’t take my word for it though, go to http://www.polar.org, they have a pdf information brochure that discusses a lot of these things.

[thepooles98]

No worries about glasses. You can wear them here. There is the occaisional problem of your breath icing up the lenses, but you can stick them in your parka for a few minutes to thaw them out. In the summer it doesn’t really get cold enough to cause problems. Contacts work fine here too. You would want to send down the solutions as you never know when the store could run out.
mike

[Zondra]

Yes, everyone is right, glasses are just fine.  However, I got Lasik, and I’m so glad I did.  I remember the hassle of glasses, fogging up, swaping back and forth between outside glasses, and dealing with contacts.  Having good vision & not having to deal with that is such a treat.  Now all I have to deal with is my regular sunglasses, and that’s nice.  I recomend lasik…  It makes life on the Ice easy

[MightyAtlas]

Jessica —  I’ve had surgery on both of my eyes.  No, not LASIK, but to repair some retinal stuff.  I’ve also worn (hard/rigid) contacts since I was seven years old.  This is my fourth season down here, and haven’t had any problems at all with my eyes…except for the dust. 
 
When people ask me what the worst part of being down here is, they expect me to answer with ‘the cold; the wind; the isolation; the desolation; etc.’, but no…it’s the dust. 
 
In the summer, our little corner of Ross Island melts away, and exposes the volcanic ‘dirt’, underneath.  This is non-arable soil, and more akin to sand, than actual dirt.  Anyway, when the wind gets to blowing you’d better be wearing some form of eye protection.  Still, some way, those microscopic boulders always end up in your eyes.  A good tearing, though, washes them away.  Calm days are a blessing…
 
C’mon down.  You’ll have a great time. 
 
atlas

[Author]

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