Teach me how to use my new reading glasses!

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I was having problems with dizziness and a grey fleck in my right eye that came and went. I saw my eye doctor, and was prescribed reading glasses at the ripe old age of 34!

My problem wasn’t initially noticed as a focus problem, but one of eyestrain and a swimming feeling at times. This kicked in my anxiety, and I was a little freaked out. But the eye doc says that it is normal to feel dizzy with this problem, since my eyes are getting tired and focusing more slowly, which means as I switch from near and far, it takes a millisecond for my peripheral vision to catch up.

But now I can’t decide how to use the glasses. I have a pair of .75 half-glasses, and I have no problem using them. Do I use them only when reading a piece of paper? How about at work, going from the paper file to the monitor? How about my keyboard? Reading the Dope? Every single time? Only with bright lights?

My anxiety is complicating this, I’m sure, so I can’t be sure if I’m focusing right or if I’m crazy or what.

How do you use yours?

2

I would use them any time you are doing close work, the monitor, the paper file, a paper, etc. I think you should adjust fairly soon to sort of a bifocal, the readers for close and above them for distance.

3

I don’t use mine; I need mine.

I only wear them when I can’t read something. This ranges from monitors, to paper, to price stickers, to ATMs. I don’t need them to drive, or to do most other normal tasks.

I’d say you should only wear them when the task at hand requires them, otherwise put them down somewhere and lose them, like I always do. :smack:

4

this is a mistake. Get 3 or 4 pairs. Carry one in your shirt pocket, and leave the others in every room of the house,and at work.

And don’t go to expensive optomatrists—the rack at the local drug store has good reading glasses for $15.

Use the glasses when you find the need, (usually for close up stuff and reading small print)
Just do what is comfortable—if you can read the computer screen easily, take the glasses off or tilt your head a bit and look over the top. If you move your chair slightly, you may suddenly find the computer screen is more difficult to read–so put the glasses back on, or tilt your head to read through the lenses.

There are no “rules” about when to read through the lenses…–just do whatever feels more comfortable at the moment. Put the glasses on, or remove them , whenever you want to.

Dont worry about it!!!

Just get used to constantly putting the glasses on your nose, taking them off and putting them back in your shirt pocket, then pulling them out of the pocket, then putting them back on your nose, then taking them off and laying them down on the table, then deciding that instead of using the glasses, it’s easier to move the chair a bit farther from the computer or hold the book farther away, so you push the glasses up over the top of your head, then you forget they’re up there, so you look for them in your empty shirt pocket, then look for them again, on on the table where you laid them down earlier, then stand up and go to the other room to find the spare pair that you think you left on the top of the TV yesterday, then realize that the glasses are on your head already, so you may as well read through the lenses, except that the print on this page is big enough that you don’t really need to , so you put glasses back in your shirt pocket, then you turn the page and there is a diagram with smaller print, so put the glasses back on your nose,etc, etc.

Eventually, you will get used to treating your glasses like your wallet, always nearby.
But in the meantime, treat 'em the way kids treat their toys—use 'em when you get the urge, then drop them off and forget about 'em till the next time you want to use them.

5

I went full-on granny - I got a beaded chain for my glasses!

Does the print actually blur for you, because what I get is not a focus problem - it feels like I need to squint, but the print is legible. When the doc put the magnifier lens over the words on his eye doctor thingy, I could feel my eye muscles relax - it was quite strange.

6

That’s how I started out about 6 years ago. Now I can barely read any print without glasses. And yes, it’s blurry.

I had to laugh at chappachula’s post. This is exactly and entirely my situation. I have numerous pairs of cheap dollar store reading glasses, because inevitably I just lose the damned things anyway. In fact I lost a pair this week. I had them in the pocket of a lab coat, took the coat off and folded it over my arm for the walk back, and of course somewhere along the path the glasses fell out.

So, I went to the dollar store and got another pair.

7

Other than the dearth of stylish frames to be found at the local drug store, is there any important difference between them and the ones you would get from a prescription from an optometrist that you take to a professional eyeglass maker?

8

The biggest difference is the price.
The professionally-made glasses may be slightly bettter–the quality of the glass may be , I dunno, more dense or whatever, so that the image is sharper, etc.

Make your own decision…
Compare one pair of professional glasses with a pair off the shelf.
Basically, the examination done by the the professional optometrist, with all his expensive equipment, consists asking you “can you see this better now”?.

So do the same exam on yourself–If you can see better , use the pro version. For me, it doesn’t make any difference.

9

My doc gave me a scrip for .75s, which cannot be found in any drugstore in my area. He told me that, and told me to either go online for them, or have a set of lenses ground for my old regular glasses frames, which is relatively cheap. He didn’t push professional ones at all.

I found a sweet red pair online for 11.99.

10

Do the non-drugstore glasses resist scratching any better? The cheap ones I buy scratch pretty easily (the ~ $20 type).