glasses since the second grade. graduated to contacts in college. about 14 years ago when my eyes settled down, i had lasik, because even with glasses/contacts in use i was having trouble judging distances between cars while driving. very not good.
worth every penny of the 3,400 it cost me. i gave up close-up vision for vastly-improved distance via lasik and still have about 20-25 vision today. i don’t need eyewear to drive, watch tv, or go see a movie at the theater.
for close-up work like cellphone texting, computers and reading, i have about eleventy-billion walmart/sam’s club reading glasses scattered throughout the house, car, and office.
My eye dr. flipped out a few years ago over this, and I wasn’t even wearing them overnight! I was told that this explained two issues that I apparently had and didn’t know about: 1. my eyes were producing more blood vessels in order to get oxygen in there, and if it continued I had a risk of going blind (sounded to be a bit of an exaggeration, but there’s nothing like saying “you’ll go blind” to make me change my ways) and 2. my eyes had a more pronounced curvature which did change very slightly the shape/size of my contacts once, during the 10+ yrs I wore them steadily.
I always wondered how much of an exaggeration it was, but wasn’t willing to risk my eyesight to find out.
I used glasses exclusively until college, then went to contacts exclusively. Now, at 39, my contacts tend to give me a headache if I use them while on the computer, which is what I do 99% of the time while working. So, I use glasses during the week, and contacts on the weekend.
My doctor told me that that used to be true, but is no longer. The newest contacts actually let air through. They’re gas permeable.
He did recommend taking them out, though, but for a different reason. Apparently leaving them in can cause them to wear out more quickly. And if it wasn’t so hard to get them in my tiny eye–at it’s widest it can just fit the lens–I’d have listened They were expensive.
And for that same reason, I’m back to glasses now and have been for the past few years.
Same thing, and apparently the blood vessels were beginning to grow in the backs of my eyes. Considering that it’s taken 10+ years to get to this point, I’m not terribly concerned, and I do hope to get LASIK at some point so it’ll be a moot issue.
Yeah, new contact technology is pretty neat. The brand I’ve been wearing for the last three years was specifically suggested to me for that reason.
Glasses exclusively. I’d consider LASIK but I’m not entirely comfortable with the procedure; as more and more data is compiled, then I might become more comfortable with it and get it in the future. I don’t wear contacts because they seem to be as much of a hassle as glasses and I hate touching my eyes.
I had an eye exam when I was 36, and was told I was fine, but to come back when I was 40; I asked why and was told that’s when “most people start needing glasses”; I kind of forgot all about it, but when my youngest (born when I was 38) was about two and needed some baby Tylenol, I tried to look at the dosing information on the package and couldn’t read it! So I went back to the eye doctor and got glasses. The idea of sticking something in my eye squicks me out so bad I can’t even watch my husband put his contacts in! About six years later, I went to progressive lenses.
I put my glasses on in the morning and only take them off to go to bed. Things are pretty damned blurry without them.
I started needing glasses about 16/17, but I didn’t get them until 19 for nearsightedness. I’ve never worn contacts. I don’t drive, but I absolutely need them to watch TV. I actually take them off to read. I used to take them off when I used the computer, but now I keep them on.
Wear glasses from sun-up to bed. Tried contacts for a year or so but was beaten by the astigmatism. I didn’t get them until I was 19, though I’d been constantly getting on the wrong bus (I was sure that was the number 3!) since I was 13 or so, and fainting regularly from eyestrain from 16 - my doctor thought I was a bit emotional, it was a new employer that suggested I have an eye test.
As I’ve hit middle age, I’ve gone from needing the glasses to see all the way to the book in my hand, to being more comfortable reading without them.
Reading small labels and the small print on brochures is now a matter of finding the ‘sweet spot’ over the top of my glasses and having good lighting as well.
Glasses all the way. I used to wear contacts but started having major problems with dry and itchy eyes. No fun.
Then I found that glasses, for me anyway, are a lot less fuss and aren’t the constant financial drain contacts are. I vastly prefer them. I’m also young enough that I guess I missed the worst of glasses=loser growing up so I don’t have the silly vanity issues.
It drives me batshit when people in movies or TV are constantly taking their glasses off. Mine are on me from when I get up to when I go to bed and when they’re not on me there’s only a couple of places I will leave them.
Me, too. If I’m in bed, my glasses are on top of my alarm clock on my night stand, or possibly on hubby’s side of the bed (on top of my book) if he’s not home. If I decide to take a little doze in the living room chair during the day, I just leave my glasses on.
Well now s/he may have a point. “Two week” contacts are meant for you to use during the day only, for two weeks, at which point they should be discarded.
Mine are specifically designed for maximum oxygen transfer. The material, IIRC silicon based, has only been available to the public for a few years. They seem to be thicker than the normal disposables - they feel ‘cold’ - but you get used to them, then you forget they exist. I have to set a calendar reminder every month to make sure I remember to replace them.
I have glasses but I only wear them when I feel they’re necessary. I can see fine for everyday purposes but my right eye has awful vision so when I need to see tiny things or things far away I need my glasses (either that or I turn my head to look at it through my left, like Atticus Finch). It also messes with my depth perception. But I don’t like wearing glasses in general.
Back in the 1980’s I had a pair of hard contact lenses. Remember those? One night, I fell asleep with them in. “Oh my God!” I thought when I woke up. But, no problems developed. Pretty soon I was leaving them in all the time. It got to where I took them out once a month to clean them. 13 years later I was camping in Arizona and the sand and dust blowing into my eyes was so irritating. I noticed that I was then more comfortable in glasses so I went back to them. i had a good run.
Talk to your opthamologist. They can adjust the power of the contact lens in one of your eyes to compensate for the focal point for reading, with minimal impact on your near sightedness, so that you may not need reading glasses.
I wore contacts for 32 years. I had no problems with them, but gave them up for glasses about 4 years ago. Because I liked how I looked with glasses better than with contacts. Also, they’re simpler to operate. I think I’ll stay with glasses for the rest of my life. The only downside is if they get damaged or destroyed, I’m out a big investment, while any loss of individual contact lenses is minor.
As I understand it (my eye doc touched on this in passing at my exam last week, but I didn’t really get into an in-depth conversation with her), the need for two different prescriptions for near and far is an age-related thing. This was the first time she mentioned the possibility of reading glasses for me, which she explained as “as you get closer to forty, you start needing two different prescriptions.”
She had asked if I wanted my contacts changed so they’d be sharper at distance, which would then require reading glasses. For now I’ve opted to keep my prescription the same, since 95% of what I’m doing involves reading or working on the computer or photographing things that are right in front of me, and near to middle distance is pretty much where I live. Neither is my distance vision terrible with my current prescription. (Yet, anyway.)
I didn’t discuss this with my eye doc, but from what I’ve read, the two-prescriptions thing comes about because the lens in your eye becomes less flexible as you age, and less able to change shape easily to focus the light in the right spot on your retina.
So, to answer your questions, yes, I could see fine, because I have only needed one prescription, not two. That may change in the next few years.
Related question, in the event that I eventually opt for two prescriptions, despite the fact that it seems standard to correct for distance with contacts and use reading glasses for close-up, is it possible to do it the other way around? So I’d only need to grab my glasses if I really needed to see something far off (like driving, which I do far less often than reading/computer/camera)?
