I can see clearly now

[cyrano]

Ironically, the thing people have said made them most happy about contacts may be the dealbreaker for me.

Print is blurry and doubled, and I can't just peek under the lens to see it clearly. This could be problematic, as I cannot easily just slip off my contact lenses, read whatever it is, and then pop them back on. At least, not at this level--maybe once I put more eeps into my 'eyeball touching' skill.

Comments

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Two words: reading glasses.

[jkusters]

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing...

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

It feels kind of silly to pack a pair of glasses around with me to read my phone when the whole point of getting contacts was so I didn't have to deal with glasses.

Is that something I'll get over?

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Welcome to middle age, hon. Don't feel too bad - Brian's needed them since he was 20.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

What I like about this arrangement (middle age, contact lens plus reading glasses) is that (a) there's a big difference between needing glasses all the time and needing glasses only for reading, and (b) there's a big difference between >$N prescription bifocals and $5 Costco nonprescription reading glasses - you can sit on, scratch, misplace, lose, break, or otherwise fail with the latter and Not Care (because you bought them at Costco and they came in a 3-pack and they were $5 anyway.)

But your situation may be different - I have been wearing a single contact lens since I was 15, so dealing with it is completely background noise, like brushing teeth, and reading glasses are a minor (and still sporadic) inconvenience. Dealing with contacts as a new thing, when it doesn't even relieve you completely of the glasses annoyance, might be a very different experience.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

A single contact lens like 'close one eye and you can read up close'? Or am I misreading this? (Thank you for the voice of experience, btw.)

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

A single contact lens like "right eye is 20:16, left eye is 20:200". With the single lens, my eyes have - for 30 years - been corrected to work the same as one another, with nominal focus from a decimeter to a hundred million light years.

But now in my mid-40s, I'm slowly losing close-up vision in both eyes. I can still pop out the left lens and read close with my uncorrected left eye, should I choose to, but reading glasses are much nicer, and lack the side effect -- if I let my eyes stay dimorphic, I can function with only a slight depth-perception problem, because between them they cover everything. But over time my eyes would start doing the lizard thing and wandering independently, as was happening in my mid-teens till I got the lens.

I'm still at the point of needing/preferring reading glasses only occasionally, generally when fatigued, but I expect I'll use them more and more as time goes on. I keep one pair in my laptop bag, another by the bed, and a third by the den computer, and pull them out when my eyes feel tired.

(I've promised myself cyberpunk Borg headgear with attached monocle that can swivel into place, if I ever go completely bald.)

[yukonsally]

Sounds like the lenses don't fit quite right. I sneeze mine out of place sometimes.

[jakejr.livejournal.com]

Is it an astigmatism thing? Back when I gave contacts a whirl, mine wasn't bad enough for the contacts that would correct for it, and I found myself similarly frustrated.

[my-aerie.livejournal.com]

I remember similar issues when I tried contacts for my mild astigmatism.

But besides, glasses are sexy!

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but glasses are not good for times when my head is at an unusual orientation, or when I'm on set and there are bright lights in play, or a few other places. I'm told that with good goggles I can wear contacts to swim.

However, I'm not in a rush to throw the glasses out.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I do not have an astigmatism. (To my knowledge.) However, this sounds like the exact same thing the doctor said would happen if I got lasik surgery--I'd gain far away vision but I'd need reading glasses probably.