Grumble. Bifocals

[mariness]

So yesterday I managed to pull myself out and down to the eye doctor/glasses store. It was a bit iffy since I wasn't feeling great, but I've been putting off going to the eye doctor for about...oh, a year now, and in another few weeks I won't be able to go without assistance or pick up my new glasses. So I off I went.

Unfortunately, when I'm tired, my double vision gets considerably worse, so, one eye exam and various flipping lenses and one eye measurement later my eyes were constantly watering and I had a hellish headache, bad enough that lunch did not stay down afterwards. Grr. The test also confirmed what I have been figuring for a few months now -- it's time for bifocals. Grumble. It's not bad yet, but I feel all old. (And now you know why I was avoiding the eye doctor.)

This, plus the dizziness/vertigo, the trike and the double vision also means a) no progressive lenses (those can induce/worsen dizziness) and b) I'll be using two pairs of glasses -- one pair of bifocals for normal use when I'm in the wheelchair/most times on the scooter, and a pair of non-bifocal sunglasses to use with the trike/some times on the scooter.

Anyway, on good news, I don't have glaucoma, just increased blurriness in my left eye, I don't have cataracts, and I will have red sunglasses. So, mixed yay?

Comments

[brigid]

Prescription sunglasses! How very swank!

Glad the exam ultimately went well, sorry it was stressful at the time.

[mariness]

I've had them before and usually forget to wear them. However, bifocals+dizziness+trike can be a deadly combination, so since I pretty much only use the trike when it's sunny anyway (it's not really safe to use it at night) this will be my visual reminder to use the non bifocals on the trike.

I hope they look ok. It's so hard to tell when you are mostly blind in the store :( The store people tried to talk me into metallic frames and I was like EVERY TIME I have had metallic frames I have HATED them so NO. It took me forever to realize that Hollywood puts their actresses into colored frames for a reason, and that I needed to ignore the store people and their "go gold!" crap, but I'm still nervous about the sunglasses.

[brigid]

I'm very near sighted and what I wind up doing now is taking phone photos of myself (or having my husband do it) so I can see what I look like in the various glasses. But I've also been wearing glasses for almost 30 years so I have a fairly good idea of what looks good with my face. But the squinting and leaning close to the mirror and peering... yeah. Not so much fun.

I'm really dreading bifocals not because OMG SOOOO OLLLLLLLLD but because I worry that the discrepancy between the near and far lenses will be really great and distorted or something. If I take my glasses off to do close work then put them back on, I have a hard time focusing my eyes. I worry that I'll have problems switching between fields with bifocals. :/

Sunglasses as reminder is a really great idea.

[mariness]

Mostly because of the prisms (which are a much bigger need than the bifocals; worse comes to worse I can pick up a cheap pair of reading glasses and pull those out) the optician put the line for the bifocal part down fairly low in the lens. This should reduce the distortion. Still, that's the exact worry the eye doctor, the optician and I all had about the bifocals -- would they trigger dizziness (which I can handle) or vertigo (which not so much; hi floor). So I can see that.

The phone photos suggest that the black Ray-bans I got for the regular glasses should be fine. I was very sad to see that fashions seem to be moving away from the square lenses that I liked on me :( And sad that basically I only liked two sets of frames -- and since one set was a nice $725 which was just SLIGHTLY beyond my budget, Ray-bans for the win! (I was like, um, optician, I realize we are are right next to Windermere, but I'm looking at the cheap children's frames and not the designer petite frames for a reason!) With the sunglasses -- unfortunately I was choosing those after the eye exam when I was really having problems thinking/seeing anything. The optician said they looked good and they were red and cheap, so, there we go.