My Eyesight Is Atrocious

[Razors Edge ★]

...and slowly getting worse.  Went to the eye doctor today to get an updated prescription.  Sat down and she ran through the "which is better A-B" sort of thing.  Eventually, we got it good, but definitely stronger prescription than a few years ago.  Onto the nearsighted/reading part. She threw up the chart and casually said, "You can probably read all the lines", and I paused thinking "Are you effing kidding me? I can't read the bottom four lines."  She sensed my hesitation and looked at my file.  She laughed and said, "Of course you can't!  I thought you were in your 30's!! Let's try this again." That made me smile.

I now am gonna give progressive lenses a try

[dinneR ★]

Brilliant. I just ordered my second pair. Life changing. 

[Razors Edge ★]

6 minutes ago, dennis said:

Brilliant. I just ordered my second pair. Life changing. 

Good to know.  I hope I can adapt to them.  It's that or owning different sets for different activities.  Have you gone progressive lenses in sunglasses? Or single distance? I will be getting new sunglasses for active stuff, but wasn't sure of the need for progressive out there, but I do read the Garmin or even my phone when outside with sunglasses on.

[sheep_herder ★]

I have regular lined bifocals, and getting them back in the 70s was indeed life changing.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

2 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Good to know.  I hope I can adapt to them.  It's that or owning different sets for different activities.  Have you gone progressive lenses in sunglasses? Or single distance? I will be getting new sunglasses for active stuff, but wasn't sure of the need for progressive out there, but I do read the Garmin or even my phone when outside with sunglasses on.

I have progressive lenses on my sunglasses as well as regular glasses. Progressives let me see you in the distance and my cycling data and map on my handlebars.

[ChrisL]

I don't wear my glasses outside much but they are progressive. No issues except when watching TV lying down in bed. You have to look over the part of the lense that magnifies or it looks wonky.

I have my contacts set up monocular but I'm starting to have trouble seeing small print again. Time for an adjustment...

[2Far ★]

The only reason I'm not legally blind is that I'm correctable to 20/20.

 

And I have a cataract in my left eye.

[dinneR ★]

I adapted quickly. Your eyes just naturally go to the clearest spot on the lens. 

I bought prescription sunglasses that are not progressive. I wear them for driving and cycling mostly. I have to lift them to read which gets old, but works. Progressive sunglasses are pretty expensive. I need new ones now. I'm considering some that have pop out lenses that I could switch between prescription and non to wear with contacts.

 

[maddmaxx ★]

Wanna trade?

And oh by the way I'm changing back to bifocals.  The trade offs for having no line are not in my favor.  For example if you are a road rider and like those little mirrors that clip on to your eyeglasses or helmet and sneak looks at through the top left corner of your eyeglasses........that's where the most distortion is............yes, there is extreme distortion in the upper corners of the lenses as a compromise to make the rest of the progressive lens work.  2nd, with progressives you will have only one really good head tilt for each range. As the distance goes up point your nose farther down.  As the distance closes point your nose farther up.  You won't be able to read an eye chart if your head is tilted at the wrong angle.

You have a long learning curve ahead.  I wish you the best of luck.

[jsharr ★]

You should ask her if she wants to go see a movie

[JerrySTL ★]

14 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Have you gone progressive lenses in sunglasses? Or single distance? I will be getting new sunglasses for active stuff, but wasn't sure of the need for progressive out there, but I do read the Garmin or even my phone when outside with sunglasses on.

I've owned many pairs of prescription sunglasses and I recommend neither! Save some money over the progressive sunglasses and get some old fashion bifocals. When riding or driving, you are either looking down the road or up close to the Garmin or dashboard. With progressives you'll find yourself bobbing your head up and down to get focused. With bifocals it's just an either/or situation. If you don't care for the look of lined bifocals, there are some call lineless bifocals. That's what I have now. I think that I'll go back to lined bifocals next time.

I also have experiences with sunglasses with inserts if it comes to that for you.

Oh! If you spend a lot of time looking at computer screens, do yourself a favor and get a pair of single vision glasses for just that. Well worth it. They can be cheap without things like anti-glare coating.

[sheep_herder ★]

2 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

I've owned many pairs of prescription sunglasses and I recommend neither! Save some money over the progressive sunglasses and get some old fashion bifocals. When riding or driving, you are either looking down the road or up close to the Garmin or dashboard. With progressives you'll find yourself bobbing your head up and down to get focused. With bifocals it's just an either/or situation. If you don't care for the look of lined bifocals, there are some call lineless bifocals. That's what I have now. I think that I'll go back to lined bifocals next time.

I also have experiences with sunglasses with inserts if it comes to that for you.

Oh! If you spend a lot of time looking at computer screens, do yourself a favor and get a pair of single vision glasses for just that. Well worth it. They can be cheap without things like anti-glare coating.

Can't compare to progressives, but I certainly agree with what you said about lined bifocals and particularly computer glasses.  I've have been wearing computer glasses since the 80s. Sure saves on neck strain.

[Prophet Zacharia]

I went to progressive lenses within the last year, I love them. Got Rx progressive sunglasses, too, because while expensive, my vision hasn't really changed in many years, so I figure they'll be cheap on an annual basis, eventually. 

I got progressive contact lenses, too. But they aren't as good for reading, so I only wear them when I am doing outdoor activites, then switch to glasses when I come in.

[dinneR ★]

39 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

 

You have a long learning curve ahead.  I wish you the best of luck.

Define long. I bet it takes him less than 60 minutes to figure it out. It's not rocket science.

[JerrySTL ★]

6 minutes ago, dennis said:

Define long. I bet it takes him less than 60 minutes to figure it out. It's not rocket science.

Best advice that I got: Don't look at your feet when walking up or down stairs. Of course I did it just to see what might happen. I got dizzy.

[maddmaxx ★]

8 minutes ago, dennis said:

Define long. I bet it takes him less than 60 minutes to figure it out. It's not rocket science.

I guess that would depend on his prescription and how much difference there is between the two limits.  For me the useful area of lens at any one distance is so thin that variations between the two eyes sometimes leave me with no head tilt that works perfectly for both eyes at the same time.    Things were bad for me before when my good eye was 20/400 but since cataract surgery with fixed focus lenses (think box camera), an astigmatism and some damage to the retina, the differences are huge.  Some folks do well with progressives some do very poorly.

In addition it depends on how you've used your vision for most of your life. You could be one of those people who moves their head constantly to center the target of your look or you could be one of those who just move the eyes.  If you are in the latter group you will have quite a bit of muscle memory to relearn.

[Prophet Zacharia]

6 minutes ago, dennis said:

Define long. I bet it takes him less than 60 minutes to figure it out. It's not rocket science.

I think it took me a nano second. Put them on and was like "wow!". 

[dinneR ★]

1 minute ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I think it took me a nano second. Put them on and was like "wow!". 

ditto. I bet RE will have the same experience.

[MickinMD ★]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

...She sensed my hesitation and looked at my file.  She laughed and said, "Of course you can't!  I thought you were in your 30's!! Let's try this again."

Actually, for some of us in our 60's, our eyesight is better than when we were in our 30's - or even our teens!

Our eyesight tends to get more far-sighted as we age. Many of us who are near-sighted when young can see our distance vision gradually improve significantly beginning in late middle age.

At my last eye exam, last summer -a few months before turning 68, I was told, "You no longer need glasses to see distance."

My distance vision isn't quite 20/20 so glasses do help a little, but I can read distant signs with no problem, see the blades of grass on the field while watching an NFL game, etc., without wearing glasses.  I couldn't do that at age 12 when I asked my father what the menu on the wall at a deli counter said and he realized I was near-sighted.

On the other hand, I never needed glasses to see close-up and, with very small print and my bifocals, which had plain glass in the bottom until about 5 years ago, now have corrective glass. It's only an occasional problem now. I carry a 1" retractable-into-its-plastic-case magnifying glass attached to my keychain so I can read some labels when I'm shopping.  With some tiny-print books, I wear 1.0 power drugstore reading glasses.  Fortunately, I can enlarge the letters on the screen for most webpages to where they are comfortable, usually 120% (where 100% is "normal") on a 17.3" laptop screen.

[Tizeye]

Where is Eyes when you need him!

I have had progressives since the 1990's. They have been great, but those were my first pair of glasses so not dialed into other types, such as bifocals, to experience 'problems.' My exam last year was doing the a-b thing as well and reading the lines. Then I asked her if those letters were supposed to have a serif as each had a kind of curved loop up. OOPS...Then came more tests. That what I get for opening my mouth. 

[Olas Nah]

It took me about 2 months to finally get a working prescription. Something was off either with my eyes or the doctor. 

[sheep_herder ★]

5 minutes ago, Olas Nah said:

It took me about 2 months to finally get a working prescription. Something was off either with my eyes or the doctor. 

Welcome back, and yes I have had troubles with prescriptions once or twice over the years.  I started wearing glasses when I was 7 years old (69 years).

[maddmaxx ★]

7 minutes ago, sheep_herder said:

Welcome back, and yes I have had troubles with prescriptions once or twice over the years.  I started wearing glasses when I was 7 years old (69 years).

This, but only for 66 years.

[ChrisL]

1 hour ago, Olas Nah said:

It took me about 2 months to finally get a working prescription. Something was off either with my eyes or the doctor. 

Whoah hey look who's back! I thought for a moment this was a zombie thread.  

Good to see you back.