Corrective lenses since 1st grade, contacts since I turned 18 30+ years ago. Astigmatism and severely nearsighted. You know your vision is bad when a new optometrist looks at you the first time and says, “Whoa, blind.” I sometimes need reading glasses, but I use non-Rx cheapos from a discount store.
My last ophthalmologist thought it will be good for me when I get cataracts (if I have insurance) so I can get IOC and would only need reading glasses.
I once worked with a woman who wore glasses over what she said were the strongest available contact lenses. I suspect hers were the the strongest available soft lenses. Mine are custom ground GPRs, very expensive but incredibly durable. I ought to get new ones; these are 4 years old.
I had my cataract surgery a number of years apart (five or so?). I gather that’s unusual? But when my first eye needed surgery getting the corrective lens implant was not available for me. I did get the implant for my second eye. It works pretty well. I even passed the DMV eye test without glasses! Yay!
My eyesight progressively got more and more myopic when I was growing up, but I wasn’t really aware of it until college because the process was so gradual I adjusted to it without noticing. In a large lecture hall, I couldn’t read the writing on the blackboard. So, I got glasses. One of the first days I wore them I was working late in the library and left to go home after dark. I was AMAZED at what the moon looked like! The next day the trees looked so weird to me. I could see all the leaves! It took me a little bit of time to adjust to it. It made me feel more visible if that makes sense.
I’ve had to wear glasses for decades. Most of my life. No big deal.
Many, many years ago I tried contacts. I couldn’t stand them. I understand that they’ve gotten better, and I understand that they can correct vision better than glasses, but I don’t really care. I’m perfectly comfortable in glasses.
Also, I’ve tried progressive lenses, and I don’t like them. I’m more comfortable with trifocals. I don’t care about the lines on the lenses. I have my vanities, but that’s not something I care about.
I don’t think that study is accurate, or perhaps, not presented correctly. According to this, about 70% of Americans wear corrective lenses. Perhaps the 6% they’re referring to are people who need correction but don’t have it.
I’m 58. I don’t wear glasses - lasik about 20 years ago. Before Lasik I couldn’t see the 2 letters under the big E.
When I turned 45, I had to go in for driver’s license renewal. They took my paperwork etc. and said, hey, let’s just check your eyes on this machine. They asked me to read the numbers as I peered through the device. “Those are numbers?” I asked:p half joking. I limped through, got a DL with no restrictions…but then I went out and got glasses the next day.
For much of my current life I can avoid glasses. I have non-prescription cheaters for everyday stuff, but I have prescription ones too—if I’m going to do lots of reading, Rx is the way to go. I find I can’t squint, even with one eye closed, and read the fine print on things like the service number on the back of a credit card. Hellooooooo, spend for a larger font on the print people need to be able to read!
And I have glasses for distance reading, because if I’m driving somewhere strange at night, I need to be able to read the sign before I’m on top of it.
Mrs. L and I often talk about “What did people do, back in the day?” I guess you dragged the grandchild nigh and said, “Read this to me.”
When I was in my late twenties, my mom started giving me all of her cast-off drugstore readers. “You’ll be 30 soon, you’ll need them!” Thirty and then 40 and 50 came and went, and no seriously, I’m fine. (I’m reading and typing on a phone, and not even a big fancy one. Cheeses my mom right off to be so wrong.)
I have no idea how I got lucky, because I know that’s all it is. But when the 10-year-old suddenly really really needed an eye exam and glasses last summer/fall? I was almost in tears when I realized how quickly and badly her vision had changed since her previous exam. And both the opthalmologist and the optometrist noticed that I noticed when Lacunae Junior “missed.”
I look like my age. Both eye care pros asked whether I’d had Lasik or something.
But I’m not going to brag too much. I’m beginning to notice really early presbyopia. Not gonna complain too much either, though, if I can read ~ 6-8 point font and it only starts to blur closer than ~ 10 inches from my face.
I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 40, which, among other things, means a yearly visit to the eye doctor for an eye exam.
At that time, the doctor would, every year, ask me, “wearing reading glasses yet?” When I’d say that I wasn’t, he’d smile. “Just a matter of time.” By 43 or 44, I did start to need them, at least in dimmer light.
Now, at 55, I’m wearing them close to all day, as I’m on a computer all day. On the other hand, I still only need 1.00 or 1.25 reading glasses, and I still don’t need corrective lenses otherwise, so I have that going for me. Which is nice.
I had been wearing contact lenses that gave me mono vision for years without difficulty. That probably explains why my ophthalmologist wasn’t worried.
Possibly relevant anecdote: A few years back (after the IOL) I had a very thorough eye exam from an optometrist (NOT ophthalmologist). According to the book “Fixing My Gaze,” optometrists are actually much more likely to care about things like depth perception than MDs. I’ve been under the care of top-notch ophthalmologists most of my life, and none of them ever tested depth perception, but the optometrist did.
He told me I had something like 40% of normal depth perception, which explains a lot of my difficulty in parking lots, I think For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice any difference at all when I moved from “regular” contact lenses to mono vision, and subsequently to mono vision IOL.
I have bifocals, but I take them off and leave them in my hat while I’m at home – there’s nothing in the house that’s far enough for me to really need them, and it’s easier to read and use the computer without them.
For me the biggest surprise was the first time I wore them outside at night. We were out in the country, and I was amazed by how many stars were up there.
I’m using my tablet right now (about 6 inches from face), but yes if on computer.
I have progressive bifocals but it is still more comfortable to go without for close work.
One of my clearest childhood memories is walking out of the optometrist’s (optician’s? ophthalmologist’s? don’t rmember) office wearing my first pair of glasses and looking at a tree. All of those leaves, every one bright and clear in the sunlight –
Never mind distant. I knew trees had individual leaves, if I put my face close enough to a branch I could see them just fine. But I had had no idea that most people looked at trees from the ground and saw anything up there, except maybe the lowest and closest branches, as anything other than a green blur.
Yes, readers+computer, but only recently. Now that I’ve started using them, I’ve found that I can’t do without them, which kind of sucks. They’ve quickly changed from “nice” to “essential.”
I guess I need readers for the bed, too. Now that I’ve started using them, I find that I can’t read my magazines (actual, physical magazines, Wired and Cooks Illustrated).
“They” say the glasses don’t change your vision, but I can’t believe that my native vision changed so much in a matter of a few weeks, i.e., glasses from “nice” to “indispensable.”
For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice any difference at all when I moved from “regular” contact lenses to mono vision, and subsequently to mono vision IOL.