glasses

[Brandi]

Ok I have a ?
Last night I got a splinter in my thumb. No big right? Well I had a hard time looking at it up close. I wear glasses but they are for seeing far away. Do I need glasses for seeing up close now too. Old age is setting in huh? Do I just go to the drug store and buy the one's there? I don't need to see the eye Dr for another year.
This is a bit of a bummer I used to be able to see things so well.:(

[LBTC]

Hey, Brandi

I have that to look forward to, also. Guaranteed to happen since the glasses I have now are for near sightedness, as are yours.

Personally, I believe in the eye doctor rather than just throwing on magnifying glasses (that's what they sell at the drug store). But I haven't had to deal with this yet, so what do I know?

Good luck!

Hugs and bright butterflies that help make everything you see clearer,
~T~

[Brandi]

I have a friend who is an eye Dr. Or was he has MS now and had to stop maybe I will ask him what he thinks as well.

[LBTC]

Great idea, Brandi!

~T~

[BeeLady]

I wear Fitovers http://fitovers.com. I love em and they're not too geeky. Mine work really well for me and give me good protection from wind and sun. Hope you check em out.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well maybe you can get away with the drugstore magnifier glasses for another year until your eye doctor appt. But DO see your doctor for a new prescription! You are very typical with age changes.
I wear graduated lenses, you don't see the lines where the lens changes. The bottoms are good for reading up close, the middle part focuses on mid-distance like if you are talking to someone or looking across the room. The upper 1/3 helps me see highway signs far away. Believe it or not, after a month your body adapts to this arrangement and it all becomes second nature to tip your head slightly to bring things into focus without even thinking about it. It's a very subtle thing. Usually when you look downwards you are looking at stuff pretty close up anyway.

It is two different eye/vision problems at work here- nearsightedness, and astigmatism due to aging eyes. Everyone gets the second one, it's due to our eyeballs getting less flexible to focus in close as we get older.

I resisted wearing glasses for as long as I could. But I earn my living with my eyes and seeing/drawing tiny details, and eventually I had to get glasses in order to see. Drugstore glasses did the trick for a few years, but actually if you get a well done prescription you will need LESS strong magnification than if you use drugstore glasses. Over the years it became harder to read far off highway signs, until that became a real problem and I found I was walking around squinting all the time. Not fun. I feel way better now with proper prescription glasses than when I was trying to get away with drugstore glasses- and of course both my eyes are different, which drugstore glasses don't take into account- not good!
I had none of these issues when I was in my 20's and 30's, by the way.

[Kitsune06]

Actually, by and large, myopia is worsened by glasses. I could go on and on about how it actually really is treatable, but who wants to hear that? It's a lot of work, a pain in the azz and has limitations. Free, but limitations.

Glasses are like over-bracing a fracture (or any bone for that matter) the bone will begin to become brittle as it no longer receives the impact or carries the burden it was designed to. It weakens to balance out the effect of the brace.

With glasses to attain 20/20 visual acuity (or better) the eye no longer has to work to focus. It then weakens and adapts to the way your glasses make what's 10 feet away visible the way it would be at a foot or maybe five inches (depending on the severity of your myopia)
Eventually you do reach a point where your eyes lose a large amount of their ability to focus at distance.

For this reason my contacts are half a diopter 'weak', but still compensate for my astigmatism (cant' change eyeshape, but can change focal abilities) to decrease my dependence on the lenses themselves. Unfortunately, I've been too broke to renew the Rx but that's how it goes.

[LBTC]

Yes, Kit, I have heard this and agree with the concept. I'm fortunate that I have a very mild prescription, so function well without glasses almost all of the time. I wear them occasionally - when I'm fatigued, in poor weather when I'm driving, to watch a show where seeing the detail is particularly important to me, and riding my bike. I believe that I'll be a reading glasses kind of lady, rather than a bifocals kind of lady, but we'll see. Hey, who am I calling a lady anyway?

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Kitsune06]

my Rx is unfortunately very strong, so... I hope the info can help someone else more. :( Had I known about this a long time ago, maybe things would be different, but I got my glasses when I was in 1st or 2nd grade... =P

[alpinerabbit]

Actually, by and large, myopia is worsened by glasses. I could go on and on about how it actually really is treatable, but who wants to hear that? It's a lot of work, a pain in the azz and has limitations. Free, but limitations. ......

You know, how MUCH I would love this to be true.

Alas I can't believe it.

If you are as short sighted as I am, in order to see something upclose by the time you get far-sighted, just take them off and put the thing right under your nose. Worked for several of my former bosses, as well as my dad.

[Kitsune06]

heh. If it's in detail, I have to look over/around my glasses. Hence my reading glasses when I wear my contacts. *sigh*

Really lousy for when I'm doing detail work on jewelry. Do I wear the reading glasses with the safety goggles, or nothing under the goggles and then take them off to put glasses on or... *sigh*

[DebW]

My eye dr actually recommended drug store reading glasses. But I chose to get bifocals instead to avoid swapping glasses constantly. My prescription is mild (1.25-1.5x reading, mild for distance too).

[DeniseGoldberg]

I don't know how good these things are, but they look interesting - stick-on magnifying lenses to allow you to read using your distance (or sun!) glasses, essentially turning them in to bifocals. It's probably not a long term solution for at home use, but might be useful for reading a map while you're riding.

http://www.neoptx.com/

If anyone tries them, please let us know how they work!

(Oh, and the only reason I haven't tried them myself is that my Lasik vision correction did not correct me to 20/20 - so in spite of the age of my eyes I can still read...)

--- Denise

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I don't know how good these things are, but they look interesting - stick-on magnifying lenses to allow you to read using your distance (or sun!) glasses, essentially turning them in to bifocals. It's probably not a long term solution for at home use, but might be useful for reading a map while you're riding.

Just don't gaze at the sun while you're wearing them, or your eyeballs might catch on fire! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

(just kidding!!)

[Aint Doody]

Brandi, did you get the splinter out? I read somewhere a really neat trick with wooden splinters. I've done this several times, and it does indeed work. Put some Elmer's Wood Glue over the area--a good-sized blob. Let it dry. Then just peel it off, and voila! Out comes the splinter. Really good for little children who run when you get out a needle.

[Kano]

Brandi --

I wear glasses for distance. They've been the multifocal lenses for close work too for years now, but there's another thing that I do for sometimes...

NO GLASSES for close, picky stuff like splinters. Since my correction is pretty big, this means my fingers are near my nose, but it works, and could do the job for you too!

Another two things that can make a surprising difference: clean your glasses. Every time I do, I wish I'd done it much sooner! (funny how I"m always thinking they need cleaning next time I get to the kitchen where the lens cleaner is stored so it's handy for all family members until I'm actually in the kitchen...) And the other, good lighting for those close up tasks.

Karen in Boise

[jobob]

I don't know how good these things are, but they look interesting - stick-on magnifying lenses to allow you to read using your distance (or sun!) glasses, essentially turning them in to bifocals. It's probably not a long term solution for at home use, but might be useful for reading a map while you're riding.

http://www.neoptx.com/

If anyone tries them, please let us know how they work!

My husband uses them on his cycling sunglasses and he likes them a lot. Snapdragen first told us about them.

I'll be needing them myself any day now. :p

[divingbiker]

I don't know how good these things are, but they look interesting - stick-on magnifying lenses to allow you to read using your distance (or sun!) glasses, essentially turning them in to bifocals. It's probably not a long term solution for at home use, but might be useful for reading a map while you're riding.

http://www.neoptx.com/

If anyone tries them, please let us know how they work!

I have some, but couldn't make them work for me. I tried to use them on my cycling sunglasses, but it always seemed that there was a fuzzy blob in the lower part of the glasses, which was very distracting. Right now they're sitting in a drawer...

[Mr. Bloom]

Bifocals made all the difference for me and reduced eyestrain as well. I use a standard lens on the bike though...

[KnottedYet]

I've had various prescriptions and gone for years here and there without glasses. (had glasses starting when I was about 5) My eyes seem to change all the time.

Right now I'm in a "glassless" phase. One of my eyes turned nearsighted, and the other turned farsighted. My eye doc said the dominant eye switches now depending on whether I'm looking close or far, which is saving me from needing glasses or bifocals now.

She also gave me eye exercises, which she said will help keep me from needing glasses for a good long while. If I do them. Which I rarely do. Naughty me...

[Brandi]

Brandi, did you get the splinter out? I read somewhere a really neat trick with wooden splinters. I've done this several times, and it does indeed work. Put some Elmer's Wood Glue over the area--a good-sized blob. Let it dry. Then just peel it off, and voila! Out comes the splinter. Really good for little children who run when you get out a needle.

Oh my gosh that is a great idea! I am going to tell all my mom friends about that one. And I did get the splnter out.
ok this is funny. I went to rite aid yesterday had to get some stuff. I stuck my tweezers in my pocket before I left. When I got there I went straight to the mag glasses and used them to get the splinter out. I made sure no one was watching me of coarse. It would not have been so bad if the splinter had not been in my cuticle. It was starting to hurt.

And thanks everyone for all your insite! I put a call into my Dr friend he has not gotten back to me yet.

[carpaltunnel]

Cool splinter tip, thanks!