Seriously? It took me long enough

[mandru]

Okay I can laugh at myself.

A couple years ago I had to admit that my eyes weren't as sharp as when I was younger.  I finally broke down and got a prescription for glasses and went into a shop who was doing a lot of advertising on national TV at the time.  I thought for general wear driving or reading I'd get glasses with progressive lenses  that corrected for near and far vision depending on how you tilt your head forwards and back.

As I have a wide face and spaced eyes to match and found that the shop's Seymour frames were a perfect fit but when got them home and sitting at the computer I found that the acuity offered at closer than three feet and a half feet rapidly dropped off to pretty much unusable with my monitor.  So I went back in after several months of squinting at the computer and ordered a pair of lenses set in their Ames model (which was another well fitting frame for me) with lenses specifically for use in reading and time on the computer.

It's been almost two years since I purchased the second pair of glasses and only recently has it occurred to me that the Seymour frames let me see more and the Ames allow me to aim better  when gaming or using the mouse when typing or editing on the PC.  ( )

[PZ]

 

I have had problems with glasses for many years now. I go in for yearly eye exams and explain that the reading glasses are of little help - I still squint and it does not matter what range of strength I use. They continue to tell me that I do not need glasses. The last time they agreed to prescribe progressives for me, but I just cannot become accustomed to how they w0#k - I'd rather squint with my reading glasses.

[Dweller_Benthos]

After having worn contacts for 30 years, they no longer can correct my vision enough. So a pair of glasses with progressive lenses was the way to go. They do a fairly good job but for real close up stuff they could be better. I think they just ran out of room on the lens to make them more close focusing on the bottom. I'm thinking of getting a second pair for computer w0#k and better close focusing. These currently are OK for computer stuff but I have to rock my head back to be able to see anything clear at the top of the screen. Having a set that is a single focus for close up and let me just move my eyes would be better.

[fragger]

I know what you mean, PZ. I've been a glasses-wearer for about 20 years now. When I got examined for my last pair, my opto talked me into getting progressives for both reading and driving, but I didn't like them. They were okay for reading and driving, but unsuitable for the computer because I could only focus on one tiny area of the screen at a time while everything around it blurred and distorted, which was no good when I was working on images and stuff. I sometimes need to clearly see the "big picture" as it were, and the progressives wouldn't allow me to do that. So I ended up exchanging them for two pairs of regulars, one for PC/reading and one for driving.

After I had cataract surgery on both eyes during the last couple of years, the foci of my eyes had almost been completely restored, rendering my old glasses superfluous. I actually don't need to wear any while driving now, but still need some for reading and PC. Since my eyes are far more "in sync" with each other after the surgery, I've found that the best thing of all for reading/computer are those simple magnifier-type glasses that cost about five bucks from the pharmacist. A 2x pair works fine for both reading and computer w0#k, so I haven't had to fork out for any new prescription specs. Yet...

That will change with the advance of time and decrepitude, of course Sooner or later, I'll have to get prescriptions again. But as far as driving goes, I'm enjoying the liberation while I can!

[Dweller_Benthos]

What they can do with cataracts now is amazing, considering not to long ago having them was essentially a slow descent to near blindness. And the fact that you get better vision than you had even without the cataracts is a nice bonus!

[PZ]

Sounds like you had a great experience fragger 

My mother did cataract surgery decades ago and never regretted the huge improvement in her vision!  I've been lucky so far in that I only have the focusing problem, but I've given up on the progressives because I feel kind of like I am looking through a keyhole in order to achieve clear focus.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Did you get the wide field progressives? Or it's called something like that, the way they explained it to me was that the lens was made with the short length part wider to give it more focus area. Or something like that. Sounded like a good idea so I went for it, not sure how much extra it cost, wasn't much though. But really without a pair of the normal type lenses to directly compare, it's not something you can say is better or not. But I don't have much issues with mine, just that the closest it can focus could be better, as I mentioned, but again, that could be a limitation of the physical size of my lenses.

[fragger]

What they can do with cataracts now is amazing, considering not to long ago having them was essentially a slow descent to near blindness. And the fact that you get better vision than you had even without the cataracts is a nice bonus!

Indeed it is, Dweller. Even just fifteen to twenty years earlier it could be an iffy proposition, if it was doable at all.

PZ, we really are very fortunate to have the ophthalmologist that we do in this area. This is the same doctor who restored the sight in my father's left eye after he'd been all but blind in it for about 60 years following an accident as a young man. Of course, improvements in knowledge and technology have played their roles, but even so, any tool or instrument is only as good as the person wielding it.

The standard of medical services in our area is remarkably high, considering we live in a nondescript little coastal town which few people in the big smoke have even heard of (I never had before I moved here, even though I must have driven/ridden past the turnoff to it dozens of times in the past). Apart from the excellent medical centre which is located in our community itself, anything else we may need is just a ten-minute drive into the nearest town. I've had three colonoscopies at the big hospital in town during the last ten years or so, and the professionalism of the staff and their level of care is faultless. We're very lucky.

[PZ]

Your town sounds idyllic fragger!

[fragger]

I can't find much to fault it, PZ. Sometimes we lose power for a while if there's a storm, and if the solitary road in gets cut for some reason we can't get in or out - which happened during those awful bushfires a couple of years ago but we had already gotten out beforehand, just couldn't get back in - but otherwise yeah, I'm very happy here. It's becoming more populous though and thus the traffic volume has increased, but it's still heaven compared to the near-gridlocked nightmare of Sydney. I'm never going back to live in that place.

[PZ]

Seems we have similar circumstances, fragger. We have only one rod in and out, and I hope we never need to emergency out because if a fire ever happened half a mile away, we'd need to jump into the lake to save ourselves. We too experience increasing power outages, these days at least a few times a season due to the high winds that become increasingly severe. I purchased a generator because we lose power enough to make it worthwhile.