I’d just gotten these bifocal contacts when Jane got sick—and my eyes have gone further ‘off’ by the month since, until today—well, first we decided to hike a mile down to Pancakes R Us, in the rain—and then I thought I’d have trouble with the hill on the way back, so Jane blazed ahead to get the car and pick me up.
Well, I walked it, and I could generally keep Jane in sight. But I lost her when she crested the Hill and I was still climbing it. I kept looking for the car, but no joy, until I got within a short block of home, and there she was. We waved at each other, she told me ‘good show’ for nearly catching her, and we went off to Walmart for notions needed on the fishtank, like Contact paper for the bottom—when I thought heck, I’ll do it, I’ll walk up to the Walmart vision center where my doc is, and ask for another appointment.
Being rainy, it was a slow day for them, and they walked me right in, ran a test while Jane shopped, and then Jane got to admitting her eyes are ‘off’ too, so she’s gone back now to get checked. And Wednesdays are 20% off for seniors. So…well, my right eye was at .75 and now is 1.75. That was the big change. The left went from 1.25 to 1.50. And I can see! The distance no longer fuzzes!
All my life I lucked out with really good vision near and far, but if I have to choose—and as you age, ultimately you do, I’ll go for correcting the distance with contacts, because the distance is the world you mostly live in; and using reading glasses to correct the astigmatism close up, as for reading, is just fine—because you can always manage glasses at your chair, but not so easily while you’re working outdoors and active. I hadn’t realized how much eye strain I was having…but life is good and rain sparkles again on the branches outside. Love it! Don’t sell the big-box-store docs short: the two optometrists we have at Walmart are the best I’ve had in years and years.
Stress can do things to your eyes – the lens muscles tighten up. With time you should unwind, and your eyes may improve. Back when I was taking three yoga class a week my eyes were changing every three months or so. I got to the point that I didn’t need glasses for a few years – until my folks got ill and I couldn’t take the classes and the stress levels rose.
Carolynn, I’m nearsighted and still rely on glasses. I found the pairing of near and far glasses a PITA. I tried bifocals, gradients gave me headaches, the half and half were marginally successful. I asked for an intermediate distance, and was told by the clinic, I could get near (1′ focal length), “terminal” (3′ focal distance}, and infinity; nothing else. I left them. I found an ophthmaolgist that would write me the prescription I wanted (6′ focal length, added half a diopter?), and I’ve been happy with them ever since. They work for my gardening, well enough for driving (who needs to know what’s happening at infinity anyhow?), and well enough if I have to fill out forms, sign receipts, etc. My presbyopia isn’t that bad, and these glasses keep it exercised. I’m happy. Just an option, never offered, that one might consider.
Oops, I think I meant “subtract half a diopter”! Not sure if my scheme would work for you, spending so much time at the computer. I do a LOT of that too, but this focal distance seems to work for “household distances”. In my annual exams, my eyes aren’t changing much since–Doc seems to think the ‘exercise’ is helping.
Thanks! I never ever could wear bifocals because my eyes’ astigmatism has kind of a ripple that defies any lens-grinder…and I did have the collection of prescription glasses at various distances. But they’ve just recently come out with these bifocal contacts…and while I can’t really read with them, without glasses, they at least let me tell the difference in prescription bottles—gee, this one’s Jane’s. 😉 That’s a real useful distinction!
I’ve got one eye significantly worse than the other eye (what chart?) as in 40/400, and what they tell me is a very flat corneas with ripply astigmatism. Since I work on the computer probably as much as you do, CJ, I went to trifocals. I sat in my desk chair how I normally sit when I’m at the computer, took a tape measure and measured the distance between my eyes and the computer screen, and had that distance set as the middle “focal.” I also had the middle “focal” set a little higher than they usually set them, and make it a little wider top to bottom. That’s so I don’t have to tilt my head to see the computer screen. (I do have to slide my glasses a little lower on my nose when I’m watching TV) — as for reading, I read with my right eye (the 400 eye) and no glasses. That eye sees perfectly at reading distance — but anything past about 2-1/2 feet, forget it. The other eye just “tunes out.” I have had success with monocular contacts, correcting my good eye for distance vision, and my bad eye to close up, and then having a pair of Rx sunglasses that has one clear lens and the other corrects my bad eye to distance which I used as driving glasses. I need new glasses, and I’ve checked out the WalMart optical place. They have exactly what I want but they won’t give it to me until I give them money. . . .Ah, there’s the rub.
For me vision changes were the first sign of ageing. The realisation that finally here was physical ‘damage’ that was permanent. I’ve worn a weak distance prescription since my 20s (I think without glasses I’ve always just been legal for driving) but round about age 40 I began to have problems reading. First in dim light then all the time. Now at 45 I automatically remove them to read print. I’m also considering removing them to use my laptop.
Next time I have to replace my glasses I might consider varifocals. My Dad thinks they’re great but my eyes have their foibles so I’m not sure. In theory my employer should pay for that under UK law. In practice I don’t know if I have the strength of will needed to fill out the forms and engage in ‘playing silly sods’ with Human Resources and Accounts :-/
From the age of age to my current 61 I was VERY short-sighted plus severe astigmatism, and a collection of different purpose glasses. The aging process was kicking in and moving my ideal reading point when wearing my distance glasses beyond the end of my arm. A year ago I had corrective laser surgery. Every time I get up in the morning and can see without scrabbling for the glasses, every time I swim and can see the shore (and other swimmers), I think “wow, this is great”, and cannot believe I didn’t have it done before … Now I need reading glasses for small print or low light, but they can be off-the-shelf $5 pairs …
… that would be “the age of 8” …
Does age affect ability to type? I’m beginning to think so. I’ve always had a nasty habit of just omitting words (in a recent forum post elsewhere I omitted “n’t” from “shouldn’t” which was unfortunate). Lately I’ve started transposing letters. And don’t get me started about my laptop at home with dodgy right shift. I’m getting sick of click ‘Post’ only to realise that half the sentences don’t start with a capital :-/
My keyboard likes to drop letters, too. 🙁
I’ve found that using the “Preview” button before the “Submit” helps. That way there are only two or three typos in the final post. 🙂
Funny you should mention… I’ve noticed a funny error I sometimes make with a certain type of nonadjacent letters trading places transposition. If the word goes like 1234567, I’ll type 1236547, but it only happens when 4 & 6 are vowels and 5 a consonant, or vice versa. If they’re all consonants, or some other mix it doesn’t seem to happen any more often that normal fumble-fingers. I’m sure I have Asperger’s, but I can’t see how that would contribute.
Over the last year or so, I seem to have developed a peculiar form of typing dyslexia. I often transpose letters with those typed by the same finger of the other hand. And yet I have never had much trouble telling my left from my right …
Hurray for preview buttons (when I remember to use them.)
andruec, replacing your own keyboard, at least on a Dell, is not hard…if you can look up online instructions and find a keyboard for your brand, might help. I have done it about once a year: I’m death on keyboards. Although with the Latitude 3300, they’ve wanted to send out the guy with the pocket protector…I still could do it.
Hint: Call out the guy with the pocket protector and sell him a few of your books if he’s not already a fan. 😀 (Hey, he works with computers, he must like space-age technology.) 😉
The reason I mention keyboard is that if you are having a key hang just a little it can do weird things to your rhythm, ergo what letters you glitch.
Thanks for the suggestion, CJ. I’ll have a look around for a replacement. It’s an Acer laptop but we have a hardware engineer in our office who has taken apart a lot of laptops in the name of data recovery. I’m more concerned about the price. Acer laptops are cheap and if a new keyboard is £100 then I might as well spend £300 and get a new one. The one I have is coming up to three years old.
About 30.00 US.
Yeah from doing some research it seems about £20 and half an hour’s work. I’ll definitely have to look into it. Thanks for that suggestion.
I also have some irregularities in my astigmatism. I used to think that could be straightened out by Lasik or one of the other techniques. I assumed they mapped the eye and then cut to make the shape nominal.
I found out last year that was not the case – they were doing the equivalent of cutting a standard prescription onto the cornea.
However, there is now some new technique called wavefront or something like that and it does map the eye and should take out those irregularities. I haven’t gotten brave enough to try it, having developed retina issues about a year and a half ago. But it would be nice to finally get 20/20 or better vision rather than being stuck with whatever is closest.
I know the prescription bottles was just an example, but mark the tops with bright fingernail polish. My vision prescription is ugly, but I can see shapes and color well enough to walk through the house without my glasses on. Black cats at night are a different matter. With or without the glasses.
I need to find some frames that will accomodate progressive bifocals. The current styles look like cute reading glasses.
Lol, not a bad notion. I’ve also been known to rubberband my own bottle. I can feel the ridge if I can’t read it.
One of my favorite typos is any word that ends in “-tion” comes out “-tino” — or I’ll type the right letters, but my left hand gets ahead of my right hand and types all its letters first. “aptient” is another favorite. If you use Word, there is a feature called “autocorrect” where you can enter your favorite typos and let them “autocorrect” to what they are supposed to be. I use that feature a lot. . .