I started wearing glasses at 7 years old. I’m pictured in the back row here in 5th grade (10 years old) with the HUGE glasses, lol, they were the same size as my Dad’s. Kids were mean, I was the first kid with glasses and one of my “friends”, Jimmy Hadler and another boy, Jack Sullivan who used to knock them off my face in the school yard causing them to get scratched, twice even stepped on and broken, once by me, once by one of them accidentally.
My Mom and Dad weren’t loaded and spending $100+ every few months because of some mean kids wouldn’t be tolerated. My father, Paul Cimins told me, sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, people can’t break your things, people shouldn’t put their hands on you with bad intent and he quoted a famous Kenny Rodgers song, “Sometimes you gotta fight to be a man.” And fight back I did physically, getting suspended, parent conferences, etc., one mother actually pulled her son from school because I beat him up every time he knocked my glasses off. Sadly, in my hysterical state of mind, I didn’t remember hurting these people, I just “blacked out”. My mother told me one boy, Jack had huge bruises on his head, as per what the principal told my parents, “kneeing him in the head.”
I’m not proud of this because it was the MAIN reason why my parents never allowed me into martial arts, they thought I would hurt people. I didn’t ever share with them that I was standing up for myself, because I blocked the physical altercations from my mind, but the confidence damage would become a “cross to bear” for many years to follow.
By age 12, I was legally blind without vision correction and my mom, Phyllis Cimins, offered to let me try contact lenses, even after several doctors yelled at us saying, “I would NEVER prescribe contact lenses to a 12-year-old, please go somewhere else if that’s what you are here for.” My mother never gave up, she knew how important my vision clarity was in baseball and at 12-years-old in my last season in Little League with my new contact lenses, I hit .680 with 11 inside-the-park homeruns – I could SEE again!!!!
Sadly, in college, my eyes started rejected contact lenses completely, causing my eyes extreme strain and completely bloodshot, I looked like a drug addict or had severe Pink Eye – neither were true. I tried gas permeable hard lenses, I lost them during martial arts training and walking to class one day at Stockton College.
It was 1994 and laser eye surgery (other than cataracts) was not approved, except in Canada. I was training to fight shootfighting, compete in submission grappling and become a Black Belt instructor in Hapkido, Karate and Japanese Jiu Jitsu – I couldn’t wear glasses to compete, racquetball glasses weren’t an option. I started researching “vision correction” after my grandfather’s cataract surgery left him with 20/20 vision. My mother remembered me saying, “I hope I get cataracts one day and get that same laser surgery to make MY vision perfect.”
My father and mother were VERY hesitant about helping my quest to find a Laser Surgery correction procedure, the only legal surgeries were being performed in Canada. I had sold some domain names (ReadersDigest.com, BarnesandNoble.com and BillClinton.com) and had the $10,000 for the surgery.
I was about to book my airline ticket and go alone to get a surgery and my mom brought me an article from the local newspaper. It was a “Free Lecture” with Dr. explaining his revolutionary “Vision Correction Laser Surgery”. I was 100% sold and even though young age, my severe vision level and pupil size being too large, Dr. started performing surgeries on my at age 18. By age 21, Dr. had performed 4 different type of surgeries, failing on two different occasions, turning my corneas into swiss cheese.
All in all, my vision quality was damaged from 9 lasik procedures including two “aborted flap”.
To this day, I cannot drive comfortably at night time due to SEVERE night blindness and halo effects which are directly connected with my LASIK Surgeries.
My wife, Lucia Lee Anton Cimins has been my savior and drives me everywhere in the evening. It’s really hard explaining to people and business partners why I can’t stay out late without hiring a limo service everywhere I go. I hope now some people understand why I’m a “DAY WALKER”, just like Wesley Snipes in BLADE.
Lesson: Be nice to everyone you meet – don’t pick on less fortunate,
better yet – as martial artists, SET THE EXAMPLE – stand up for those who need your help most!
Also, my father always told me, “Never buy the first year model of a car – they always make it better in 1-2 years or drop the model. Why rush it and take a chance? Wish I listened to him about LASIK surgery – it was the first year approved in the United States, although the Dr. had performed hundreds of cataract and lens replacements, the laser vision correction was a whole new beast in 1994 – I jumped the gun, before the technology’s time which could have produced better results. There are new technologies that can and will fully correct people who had bad LASIK experiences and I will FIND that doctor and share my TRUE success story with a happy ending and tell the entire WORLD how this doctor can help millions of people worldwide who have similar stories, but just are embarrassed or depressed to share. I will help you, Your Lasik Healing visionary, Brian John Cimins
P.S. Please, just be careful, be cautious and research your surgeon, ask to speak to other successful patients who had positive experiences with your proposed Laser Surgeon. You only have ONE set of eyes, protect them and research the possible side effects of Laser Eye Surgery
Brian Cimins 