New Glasses.....
May. 29th, 2018 01:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaAfter many years of poor, but stable vision, I turned 50 with essentially the same prescription I had at 16. I lived in contact lenses. Hard ones, albeit gas permeable. I got up in the morning, they went in. When going to bed, they came out. Few people new just how nearsighted I was, well am. By then end of the month after I turned 50, my arms were suddenly too short to read.
Presbyopia had struck. Now I needed readers. Mind you, I could read perfectly well when my lenses were out. but then being so myopic, that was no surprise. However, when my distance vision was corrected, seeing up close was impossible. As it was impractical to pluck out my lenses to read something on the fly, I had to do something. Monovision was a solution that worked for my sister, the ophthalmologist, and for her husband as well. I however found the experience nauseating. One eye refracted for distance and the other for near just didn't work for me. My solution was reading glasses. Non-prescription readers. Had 15 pairs of them.
And never seemed to have a pair when I needed them. After, 3-4 years of that, I finally decided to go back to wearing glasses and opted for progressives. This way I would always have functional vision.
That was also when my vision started getting worse again. With the onset of my mid 50s, my lenses started slumping according to the optometrist I was seeing. The early formation of cataracts, first in my left eye and then the right, also saw the my own eyes' lenses changing their shape and not just starting to become opaque. The spheric correction required changed almost every 18 to 24 months. steadily getting higher and higher. What once was under -3 is now greater than -5 on the left. While the right eye is better, it's not to say that it's good. The decline has been similar, but it was not as bad as the left to begin with.
Both my husband and I were in need of new specs and I had been waiting for Zenni to have one of its infrequent sales. They finally obliged this weekend, with 20% off the entire purchase. I looked at LJ this morning and informed him he needed to go look at the website because the sale ended at midnight. Finally after dinned he opened the his computer and after 15 minutes was completely exasperated. He does not like shopping. Too many choices. Too many notes.
He became ballistic when I informed him that the new prescription he'd gotten at Kaiser was for bifocals. Note, he has taken his glasses off to read for at least 20 years. While he's not nearly as nearsighted as I am, he's myopic enough that when his distance is uncorrected, he can read just fine. AND thats the way he likes it.
No matter. Cheaper for me to buy him glasses.
He gave me a list of bargain frames and instructed me to get him 3 pair of plain single vision lenses and 3 identical pair in sunglasses. I however opted for more bells and whistles. My prescription is high enough that with the bargain lenses they will look like coke bottles. I also wanted photogray and opted for one pair to be made with Transition lenses. Not cheap, but with the 20% discount, certainly affordable. Those lenses are going into a flexible titanium frame I've purchased from Zenni before, a frame I know looks well on me. In addition, I'm getting a second pair with Zenni's generic photogray lens, in a vintage style frame, as well as a pair of progressives for near work and not driving for when I'm crafting and a pair of dedicated sunglasses.
Between the two of us, we have 10 pair of prescription glasses coming. Total cost after the discount? $433.58. Almost $200 of that is the one pair for me that I splurged on and got the branded Transition lenses. My guess is we'll gee these in roughly 3 weeks. I got the order in 5 minutes before the sale ended.
Presbyopia had struck. Now I needed readers. Mind you, I could read perfectly well when my lenses were out. but then being so myopic, that was no surprise. However, when my distance vision was corrected, seeing up close was impossible. As it was impractical to pluck out my lenses to read something on the fly, I had to do something. Monovision was a solution that worked for my sister, the ophthalmologist, and for her husband as well. I however found the experience nauseating. One eye refracted for distance and the other for near just didn't work for me. My solution was reading glasses. Non-prescription readers. Had 15 pairs of them.
And never seemed to have a pair when I needed them. After, 3-4 years of that, I finally decided to go back to wearing glasses and opted for progressives. This way I would always have functional vision.
That was also when my vision started getting worse again. With the onset of my mid 50s, my lenses started slumping according to the optometrist I was seeing. The early formation of cataracts, first in my left eye and then the right, also saw the my own eyes' lenses changing their shape and not just starting to become opaque. The spheric correction required changed almost every 18 to 24 months. steadily getting higher and higher. What once was under -3 is now greater than -5 on the left. While the right eye is better, it's not to say that it's good. The decline has been similar, but it was not as bad as the left to begin with.
Both my husband and I were in need of new specs and I had been waiting for Zenni to have one of its infrequent sales. They finally obliged this weekend, with 20% off the entire purchase. I looked at LJ this morning and informed him he needed to go look at the website because the sale ended at midnight. Finally after dinned he opened the his computer and after 15 minutes was completely exasperated. He does not like shopping. Too many choices. Too many notes.
He became ballistic when I informed him that the new prescription he'd gotten at Kaiser was for bifocals. Note, he has taken his glasses off to read for at least 20 years. While he's not nearly as nearsighted as I am, he's myopic enough that when his distance is uncorrected, he can read just fine. AND thats the way he likes it.
No matter. Cheaper for me to buy him glasses.
He gave me a list of bargain frames and instructed me to get him 3 pair of plain single vision lenses and 3 identical pair in sunglasses. I however opted for more bells and whistles. My prescription is high enough that with the bargain lenses they will look like coke bottles. I also wanted photogray and opted for one pair to be made with Transition lenses. Not cheap, but with the 20% discount, certainly affordable. Those lenses are going into a flexible titanium frame I've purchased from Zenni before, a frame I know looks well on me. In addition, I'm getting a second pair with Zenni's generic photogray lens, in a vintage style frame, as well as a pair of progressives for near work and not driving for when I'm crafting and a pair of dedicated sunglasses.
Between the two of us, we have 10 pair of prescription glasses coming. Total cost after the discount? $433.58. Almost $200 of that is the one pair for me that I splurged on and got the branded Transition lenses. My guess is we'll gee these in roughly 3 weeks. I got the order in 5 minutes before the sale ended.
