Healthcare ‘monovision’ cr@p
Had an optometrist put me in 2 monovisions, one for distance, one for close - made me nauseous, plus they were blurry for night driving - when I went to the ophthalmologist, HE told me I wasn’t a candidate for contacts {SEVERE astigmatism in one eye}
BTW, the optometrist completely MISSED my spousal unit’s cataracts 2 years ago - when I sent him to the ophthalmologist {I’d had to go to the ophtho LONG time before, to ensure shingles weren’t getting in my eye}, HE correctly identified the cataracts & scheduled their removal - prior to the surgery, the BEST correction my husband could get was 20/200 - he’s now seeing 20/25 in one eye, 20/30 in the other ......................... 
Semper Fi’
DMPosted by Diamond Mair
08/19/2010 at 06:25 PM
I was born that way.
Nearsighted on one side, farsighted on the other, that is. For a while, I wore one contact lens but in my 40s, as things hardened up, I ‘graduated’ to reading glasses over the contact lens, and then in my 50s, progressive glasses. But without the glasses I’m still nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, so I can sort of manage without the glasses, only without depth perception. But I was able to pass the (MA) motor vehicle test without glasses. One minor victory in the aging process, I guess.
Posted by larryr
08/19/2010 at 08:39 PM
I simply wish I could get back into contacts - DM whoever told you you can’t wear contacts is wrong. Since I was 13 was wearing them - bad vision & a terrible astigmatism on the left. Contacts allow me the peripheral vision glasses don’t (it’s like things come out of no where). Anyway the guy in TX did an in house deal (and never gave me a script) - so I’m having a terrible time up here in OCD OH attempting to get a new set (broke one). I can’t buy glasses as we are still paying off the ones I got when we got here. I can’t wait until my hubby graduates and finds a job - maybe then for the first time since I was a child - I will have vision insurance. Or not, now it seems kind of idiotic to get some insurance this late in the game.
Sadly, as your eyes age and dry ou,t contacts can become less of an option. When I wore them I loved them - perfect peripheral vision, they never got dirty, they didn’t fog up, etc., etc., etc. Then my physiology changed, I guess, and after the third corneal abrasion in less than a year, my doc and I decided to not tempt the fates. YMMV
(Definition of middle age: Things that are supposed to be wet are dry, and things that are supposed to be dry are wet :(
Posted by larryr
08/20/2010 at 07:40 AM
I’ll try and get the Mrs. to put in some info here, since she works for an ophthalmologist surgeon. The monovision approach can be done either with contacts or with IOL surgery. It is a great solution for some people but not for others.
Contact lenses exist for people with astigmatism, and the level of astigmatism they can handle gets better all the time. These days they can correct for some pretty strong cases, but those lenses (called torics) are not cheap. I think she said they are also more difficult to fit.
Hard to accept that an optometrist would miss cataracts, but I gather from her this happens all the time. The level of eye exam you get from a modern ophthalmologist is far superior; it makes sense for anyone over 40 with vision issues to go there instead.
And you contact wearers - please follow the instructions. My God, the horror stories my wife brings home from the office. Dimwits who put in daily wear contacts and leave them in for 3 months. People who never clean theirs. People who moisten them with saliva and then complain they get an eye infection. Corneal ablations from poor fit or from using dried out old lenses. People treat their eyes with no more respect than a rusty old hammer found in the dirt.
I was told at age 18, about the time contacts first came out, that I was not a candidate and could never wear them. The grumpy old Doc fitted my new pair of “coke bottle bottom” glasses and sent me on my way. 3 years later, you could get contact lenses for 40 bucks in a little shop across the street from one of our Naval bases in Japan. I’ve been wearing them ever since. (You could even get them in #3 grey...no need for sunglasses, but you kinda looked like Little Orphan Annie. Freaked people out.)
I discovered monocular lenses about the time I was faced with having to go back to glasses because I had trouble reading with regular contact lenses and thought I was still too young to be sporting bifocals. I’ve been wearing monocular lenses now for almost 20 years. The slight disorientation and depth perception problems (for me, anyway) went away after several weeks. You have to be extra careful during the “brain training” period. Put a big ol scratch in the boss’s truck. I think he’s still p.o.’d about that.Posted by BoynSea
08/21/2010 at 12:11 PM
OldCatMan:
For me, the specs were so damn thick and heavy, I had semi permanent dents in my nose from the weight. And the close quarters of working on boats don’t work well with glasses; not to mention losing them in an oily, black bilge that you can’t see because, well, you don’t have your glasses.Posted by BoynSea
08/21/2010 at 08:25 PM
Update:
I’ve been using the monovision contact for a few days now. No problems, unless you count the fact that I do have trouble reading my computer screen with the contact in. Not a real problem since I normally remove the contact when I get home from work.
Let me reiterate, I’ve worn contacts before. But I didn’t need bifocal contacts then. This is an attempt to avoid the expense of bifocal contacts.
I have many personal faults.
VANITY is not one of them.
I will always wear glasses.
I’m with you OCM. I did order two pair of bifocal glasses. These are for ‘normal’ use, like running out to get bread and milk, watching TV, etc. Stuff I’m not going to take the time to insert contacts.
I’m not getting a contact lens for vanity. As a mailman, I sweat a lot. I carry two or three towels with me, one of which is always hanging from my mailbag strap (the others are draped over the seat in my mail van to dry out). Wearing glasses means constantly removing them to wipe the sweat off my face.
Yes, if I’m on my own route, I don’t need glasses/contacts at all. I know the address of each house. But if I’m subbing or assisting on another route, I need to see the house number and I really don’t have time alloted to me to walk up to each house so as to read the house number.
Another use for the contact: as an amateur astronomer, I find peering through my telescope eyepiece difficult with glasses.
