Ugh...I'm getting glasses.

[bobdole369]

Most folks who get contacts have been wearing glasses their entire lives and are tired of that noise. Contacts are a definite expense and time sink in and of themselves. Lots of people just can't wear them for one reason or another.

 

[boomerang]

won't be long and you'll be needing a cane old man!

Ahem - Viagra. The eyes go first.

 

[JulesMaximus]

won't be long and you'll be needing a cane old man!

I've got a cane here for you Mosh...not sure you could handle it though.

 

[meltdown75]

haha, welcome to the club. i had trouble reading signs too, but i didn't really even realize it, i'd just squint. it was only when i jokingly donned a co-worker's pair of glasses that i knew i needed some of my own.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I wore glasses from 1978 until 2002. Had lasik for $3500 and never "looked" back.

edit: And your sight distance measurements work like this -

Mine were 20/400 left and 20/475 right in 2002, so uncorrected what Im looking at 20 feet away would look like its 475 feet away to you. After lasik, it was reversed so what you see at 20 feet looks 15 feet away to me.

Since your correction is mild, I would not go lasik yet. Your eyes will get worse, especially if your home/work moniters are closer than arms length away and you dont focus on distant objects at least once every 90 mins or so (based soley on my experience). I could go on for hours and hours on this topic.

 

[vi edit]

Get yourself a nice pair of perscription polarized driving glasses. The quality they provide over contacts + sunglasses is night & day.

Contacts have their place...good for sports/outdoorsy stuff. But I've got an astigmatism and could never get the clarity with them that glasses provide.

 

[JulesMaximus]

haha, welcome to the club. i had trouble reading signs too, but i didn't really even realize it, i'd just squint. it was only when i jokingly donned a co-worker's pair of glasses that i knew i needed some of my own.

Funny, that's how I discovered what I've really known for a few years. I tried on my boss's glasses and was like...holy shit! Everything looks clearer now! Funny how that works.

My left eye is worse than my right eye. I always thought that since I could pass the eye test at DMV I was good...but I'm not.

 

[MotF Bane]

Even with them most chemical things don't like people wearing contacts.

I saw a paper last summer that contacts aren't actually that much of a problem with chemicals. I'd post it, but it's on a bulletin board at my summer job.

 

[bobdole369]

Contacts have their place...good for sports/outdoorsy stuff. But I've got an astigmatism and could never get the clarity with them that glasses provide.

My RGP's (and soon enough the synergeyes) give me better vision than is possible with normal glasses. I have razor sharp 20/15 with lenses, and only 20/20 with the glasses. Thats corrected from 20/600 20/400 Unfortunately I'm off the deep end with the RGP's, so I've been fitting synergeyes the past few weeks.

It's the horrifying astigmatism (and I recently learned, those afflicted by astigmatism are known as astigmats) that makes contacts rough. Most folks won't tolerate a hard lens that is needed for the bad cases. Once you have it fit well though, its the best you'll ever see.

 

[BoomerD]

won't be long and you'll be needing a cane old man!

HEY NOW!!

Welcome to old age Jules. I finally had to accept that my vision was no longer as good as it once was somewhere in my 40's as well...at first, it was only for reading... Then, slowly, I needed them more and more.

Within about 5-6 years, I had "graduated" to bifocals...

 

[Imp]

At least you can still see your alarm clock in the morning. I gotta put it 3 inches from my face; the clock has at least size 50 font.

 

[MJinZ]

At least you can still see your alarm clock in the morning. I gotta put it 3 inches from my face; the clock has at least size 50 font.

Doesn't an alarm ring at a specific time during the morning? Why is there a need to see the time?

 

[IronWing]

When I first got glasses I was happy, happy, happy. Growing up, before I got glasses, I thought cameras were surrealistic in that photos were always sharper than reality. I figured that it was the fast shutter speed that captured blurred reality. Then I got glasses.

Now, if I ever went to contacts, I'd put my eye out within a week as I'm so accustomed to having shields up.

Bifocals take a bit of getting used to, particularly in steep terrain. As I move my head the ground moves up and down.

 

[IronWing]

At least you can still see your alarm clock in the morning. I gotta put it 3 inches from my face; the clock has at least size 50 font.

I got the giant glowing LED alarm clock for just this reason.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I got the giant glowing LED alarm clock for just this reason.

I can't stand the red dot on my phone charger...I don't even own an alarm clock.

 

[IronWing]

I can't stand the red dot on my phone charger...I don't even own an alarm clock.

The alarm clock is not in the bedroom. On the rare occasions I need to set the alarm, I have to get out of bed and go into the next room to turn it off. No snooze button for me.

 

[Born2bwire]

I can see how glasses can be used as a good fashion accessory, but the convenience and better performance I get with contacts just blows them away for me. I haven't worn glasses in years, I stick with contacts now.

 

[MJinZ]

Most folks who get contacts have been wearing glasses their entire lives and are tired of that noise. Contacts are a definite expense and time sink in and of themselves. Lots of people just can't wear them for one reason or another.

Started wearing contacts when I was 15 or 16 I think. They take 2 seconds per eye to put on, 1 second to take off. Dump solution every night and fill with new solution. The contacts last 3 weeks or so (I never remember to toss them at 2 weeks), so they do cost about $150 a year.

Contacts also let you wear sun-glasses, which is basically invaluable anywhere you go with sun.

 

[Born2bwire]

Started wearing contacts when I was 15 or 16 I think. They take 2 seconds per eye to put on, 1 second to take off. Dump solution every night and fill with new solution. The contacts last 3 weeks or so (I never remember to toss them at 2 weeks), so they do cost about $150 a year.

Contacts also let you wear sun-glasses, which is basically invaluable anywhere you go with sun.

I agree, contacts take less than a minute out of my day. They give much better results for me than with glasses because they provide a lens that covers the entire field of vsion, doesn't get dirty or scratched, and you do not get any aberrations by looking away from the center point of your field of vision. The only real problem is the added cost. Back when I had to get a new prescription every year it was no different than paying for a new pair of glasses but now that my prescription has settled I do infer a larger cost. I think I pay around $150 for a year's worth of contacts and I do go for a rather pricy model. I want to get the ones you can wear continuously for a month but I was told that I could not do that here in Hong Kong due to the air pollution.

 

[KillerCharlie]

I've had glasses since I was 8 and just recently tried contacts. The first brand was blurry. The second brand felt like there was acid in my eyes for the 3 weeks I wore them. The third brand was impossible to get in. I'm about to try a 4th brand, but I don't have high hopes.

Glasses do have quite a bit of distortion on the edges, but straight-on they are definitely better than contacts (especially at really strong prescriptions like mine). Plus, if you're near-sided, my near vision with glasses is much better than contacts. When you look underneath the glasses the near vision is even better.

With distortion, though, you get used to just about anything. Your brain is extremely good at adapting.

I'll probably get laser surgery. Even if I get to 20/40 I'll be ecstatic (I'm about 20/900 now).

 

[marvdmartian]

I remember when it was made official that I needed glasses, by an eye specialist. I had this problem where I kept having to blink multiple times per second. My eyes always felt really cold and weird and it just made me have to blink all the time. Turns out it's because I could hardly see, and I just never realized it. I was mad at the fact that I needed them but I'm used to it now. It just sucks if I want to do anything intense like go to an amusement park, especially a water park.

It's when I put on the first pair of glasses... WOAH, I could see stuff I did not realize I could not see. It was quite something.

RedSquirrel, why not look into getting a pair of sport glasses frames, with the elastic band that holds them to your head? I think it was Dr J who originally used something like that in basketball, wasn't it? Yeah, a waterpark might suck with glasses, but I don't bother going to the one we have here.

So far as amusement parks, I've gone to Six Flags and Disneyworld with glasses on, and rode all the violent rides they had worth riding, and never had a problem with feeling like my glasses would fall off. Even riding the Bat Man ride at 6 Flags, which throws you into a triple corkscrew, didn't throw them off my head! :thumbsup:

 

[kevman]

Get yourself a nice pair of perscription polarized driving glasses. The quality they provide over contacts + sunglasses is night & day.

Contacts have their place...good for sports/outdoorsy stuff. But I've got an astigmatism and could never get the clarity with them that glasses provide.

Acuvue Oasys for Astigmatism are fantastic contacts.

I had polarized glasses for a while, but I found that they were not very quick to go back to clear when I was out of the sun- didn't like that aspect of them.

 

[DT4K]

Contacts have their place...good for sports/outdoorsy stuff. But I've got an astigmatism and could never get the clarity with them that glasses provide.

Same here. I tried 4 different brands of toric lenses and none of them worked out for me, so I went back to glasses. All of them would shift and get blurry and I'd have to blink a bunch to get them back in the right orientation. The contacts were definitely nice for things like golf though. If I didn't have astigmatism, I'd probably go with contacts.

 

[bobdole369]

Same here. I tried 4 different brands of toric lenses and none of them worked out for me, so I went back to glasses. All of them would shift and get blurry and I'd have to blink a bunch to get them back in the right orientation. The contacts were definitely nice for things like golf though. If I didn't have astigmatism, I'd probably go with contacts.

Am no optometrist, let alone yours, but the vision most achieve with hard (that is RGP or Rigid Gas Permeable) or specialty lenses is typically better than glasses.

There is a certain "learning curve" with RGP's though. It really sucks having hard bits of plasticy stuff in your eye for a couple weeks till you learn. There is no toric funny business, just crisp, sharp vision for people with bad bad astigmatism.

The first brand was blurry. The second brand felt like there was acid in my eyes for the 3 weeks I wore them. The third brand was impossible to get in. I'm about to try a 4th brand, but I don't have high hopes.

You'll get it.

 

[vi edit]

I had polarized glasses for a while, but I found that they were not very quick to go back to clear when I was out of the sun- didn't like that aspect of them.

That's not polarized. That's the old auto-grey or whatever they call it now. Polarized lenses have a special process applied to them that blocks out lightwaves from particular angles and greatly helps in reducing glare.

You can do contacts + polarized non-perscription glasses but it's just not the same to me. My perscription lens polarized glasses were easily one of the best $300 I have ever spent.