Very OT: My First Pair of Bifocals...or Dazed is Dizzy !!!!

[DazedinLA]

OK, I guess it happens to some of us eventually.....now its my turn.

I've been wearing my first pair of bifocal spectacles for several hours now, and my God what a dizzying experience this is. I guess you get used to it, but I think I'm going to try some progressive lenses next.

Maybe its only fair...I make lots and lots of bifocal contact lenses every day, so now I know how my customers feel.

At least I'm still in denial about being old....

Dazed

[Redwolf]

OK, I guess it happens to some of us eventually.....now its my turn.

I've been wearing my first pair of bifocal spectacles for several hours now, and my God what a dizzying experience this is. I guess you get used to it, but I think I'm going to try some progressive lenses next.

Maybe its only fair...I make lots and lots of bifocal contact lenses every day, so now I know how my customers feel.

At least I'm still in denial about being old....

Dazed

I've flat told my optometrist that I WILL NOT wear bifocals (or progressives, or anything else that disrupts my vision). It's not a vanity thing, but I just can't stand to have my vision messed with in that way (I don't even wear sunglasses). Heck, even a speck of dust on my glasses makes me seasick! I guess, when the time comes (as it is, rapidly), I'll just have to use a magnifier for reading and such...or get regular contacts and reading glasses.

Redwolf

[IDAwHOa]

I have progressives. My eye doctor told me it is a lot more difficult to go to bifocals first and then progressives. It only took me a couple of days to get over the swimming effect. I kept my straight glasses with me for if it ever got to be too bad.

My wife just got progressives and it only took her a couple of days as well.

Funny story. I kept my regular glasses around for working out in the yard. I had them on one day and needed to do some close in work. I caught myself nodding my head like crazy trying to find the sweet spot (which was not there of course) on the lens. THAT is how natural it becomes after a while. I only rarely have to work at finding the sweet spot.

[susnfx]

Ahem. I, of course, don't wear bifocals, but I have a friend who does and she told me that she's never been able to get used to them and continually takes them off and puts them back on, depending on what's she's doing at the moment...losing them in the process, of course. My..er.. I mean her daughter threatens now and again to get her one of those gold chain thingys so they can hang around her neck when she takes them off. Not yet...not yet.

Susan

[Darwin]

I've been wearing bifocals since my late 20s. At one point,--at least 25-30 years ago, I even had trifocals.

You do get used to them. I have a set of non-bifocals that I use for the computer, and the only way I can be sure that I've changed glasses after leaving the office is to run my finger down the glass and see if I feel the ridge. Of course, I do notice if I try to watch TV or read fine print with the computer glasses on, but not if I'm just wandering around the house.

[IDAwHOa]

My..er.. I mean her daughter threatens now and again to get her one of those gold chain thingys so they can hang around her neck when she takes them off. Not yet...not yet.

Susan

Oh, have HER get the kind with lots of those LARGE odd colored beads! They are just the most happening thing I hear.

Speaking of hearing........

[Loren]

Dazed Lives!

Dude, so what's the scoop: You make contacts but wear glases?

I tried progressives and hated them, totally like living in a fish bowl, and I never knew exactly where to look through the lenses to get the best vision for a given distance. It's contacts or bust for me.

Good luck with the glasses thing bro.

(You still in one piece after all the recent storms? Guess I split Florida at about the right time....)

Loren

[burnsbyrne]

I have worn progressive lenses for ten years or so. My first glasses were progressives. As already noted, you do get used to them after a period of adjustment. The worst problem I had with these lenses was when I went to a pro hockey game and our seats were in the upper deck. When I tried to watch the game by just tilting my eyes down I was looking through the reading area of the lenses. In order to see the puck I had to tilt my head down and look up through the top of the lenses. I eventually just took the glasses off and did the best I could with what nature gave me.
Mike

[susnfx]

Don't believe I've ever heard of "progressives." Is that the same as bicycle training wheels?

Heehee, Norcal..."the most happening thing"?? Don't you mean "groovy"??

Speaking of hearing (that's a funny expression), my father, who definitely needs hearing aids, refuses to get them. He says with a straight face that his doctor told him he's got 20/20 hearing.

Susan

[Daryl]

I can empathize. I got my first progressive lenses about 4 months ago. I told the optometrist that they should come with a complimentary supply of Dramamine!

I thought I'd never get used to them, but by the end of the first week I was doing pretty well. After 2 weeks, I hardly noticed them at all. Now, they're completely second-nature. I've actually grown to like them, except that the "sweet spot" for mid-range viewing (like working on the computer, which I do most of the day) is very small.

[IDAwHOa]

Don't believe I've ever heard of "progressives." Is that the same as bicycle training wheels?

Heehee, Norcal..."the most happening thing"?? Don't you mean "groovy"??

Speaking of hearing (that's a funny expression), my father, who definitely needs hearing aids, refuses to get them. He says with a straight face that his doctor told him he's got 20/20 hearing.

Susan

Progressives are a special kind of lens. You get a nearly constantly changing correction from distance at normal eye position down to reading/close near the bottom. Your eye trains itself to find the right spot in a fairly short time. I was told some people just don't get used to them and go to Bi's but that some that don't do well with Bi's or Tri's have done well with Progressive. Worth checking out.

Groovy, boss, cool, dandy, divine, galluptious, glorious, hot, hunky-dory, keen, neat, marvy They all work! SHE'LL be the talk of the town.

[DazedinLA]

Dazed Lives!

Dude, so what's the scoop: You make contacts but wear glases?

(You still in one piece after all the recent storms? Guess I split Florida at about the right time....)

Loren

Thanks, man. Yeah, I don't wear my own products because, well, uh, truth is, I'm just too freakin lazy to mess wit 'em.

The storms were a real trip...worst I've experienced since I came to Florida, but all is well. Last weekend was the first weekend since I can remember that we haven't had some hurricane bearing down on us. Give me earthquakes any day!!!!

So are you an offical FluteMacher yet? How's dat gig going for ya?

Oh, and its been great reading everyone's bifocal experiences...my neck is a bit sore from all the up and down and up and down, but if Y'all can get used to it, I can too. :roll:

[MarkB]

I've been wearing progressives for ten years now and sitting in front of a computer terminal most of the day, they are really handy.

But escalators are another thing. The main up down route in our library is an escalator and progressives always make that first step kind of wonky, because like burnsbyrne I have to look down then up down, all the while the escalator is moving.

Let's see I have to look down to look up and then listen to music in my left ear and to listen to people talking in my right.

No wonder I have a headache.

Welcome all to the age of maturing or ripening or whatever!

MarkB

[scottielvr]

I've been wearing the bestonkered things for about 8 years. The advice above about going to progressives first is probably wise; I was afraid of them, so went for the more traditional ones. Now, I've got a (grotesquely expensive) pair of the progressives, which look so much better on; but I can't frickin' use them for reading as I can't force myself to deal with the frustration of swiveling my head about like one of those little dashboard dogs, "finding the sweet spot." So there they sit, gathering dust (but I can't see the dust, so who cares?)

[edited to remove comment answered above in a flood of near-simultaneous posts] I opted to give the "bifocal contacts" a miss since the way my doc described how they worked, I decided they would make my brain hurt.

[LeeMarsh]

About &*&^% years ago, when my doc prescribed bifocals because my arms were not long enough to hold reading material, I resisted. Longer arms were discussed but we decided that the Orangutan look just wouldn't work, beside the tailor bills would be a drain on my musical instrument funds. So I went straight to progressives, it took all of about 30 minutes to adjust and now I forget that I have them. I have noticed that its getting near time to have them checked again, because I'm tending to adopt the Mr. Snobbery look: chin up, looking down my nose, squinty eyes, even when focusing on things 8 feet away. This gives away my ego-centric, superiority complex which is normal so well hidden.

Deteriating eye-sight runs in my family, with most of us being blind or near blind in our last years, the good part is those last years are usually 80+.

Good luck Dazed! Just close your eyes and ...