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Advice on progressive lenses?
Jun. 9th, 2007 07:30 pmSo on Friday, with much anticipation, I went to my eye doctor, and picked up my new glasses. I had not had my prescription updated for about 3 years, and after being tested a week and a half ago, it turned out my 'close up' vision had deteriorated a ton, and my distance vision had changed slightly.
After a very brief conversation "You don't want 2 pairs of glasses, right?" "Right" - I was prescribed progressive lenses. What I thought was the case with these was they were essentially bifocals, but with a 'smooth' transition from distance range to close range.
I believe that's not the case here at all, and I'm finding them almost impossible to work with.
I'm asking my LJ homies to chime in if you've worked with progressive lenses before - here's where I'm finding my difficulties:
1) Distance range is distorted. As I turn my head to the left and right, I can see vertical lines 'shifting'. This is vaguely nauseating.
2) When I'm looking straight ahead, head position the same, and I turn my eyes to look at something to the side (and by the side, I mean 10 degrees off normal), things are blurry. If I turn my head to point directly at the subject, things are sharp. This means my peripheral vision (and I"m not talking close to the edge of the glass ehre, I'm talking the difference between 2 people sitting across the table from me at dinner) is shot.
3) When I mentioned this problem to the optician, their answer was "Oh, you need to turn your head to look at your subject now, don't turn your eyes." - WTF? That has binged my BS meter. They continued, after I mentioned the blurry and refracting moving images "Well yes, you have a narrower 'corridor' than you used to. You need to turn." - this again bings me - my lenses should change focus vertically, not horizontally. Wha?
Now lets move on to the progressive part.
The optician and dr know I am an avid computer user, and therefore my primary focal range is about 24" from my eyes.
4) With the new glasses, in order to focus on my screen, i have to wiggle my eyes up and down until the line I'm looking at is in focus. The range of motion is _INCREDIBLY_ tight. Text 5 lines up or down is out of focus. I don't know about other people, but I -never- look at just one point on the screen for a length of time. If I'm editing code, I have a screenful of text, and I'm constnatly glancing up and down on the screen to see things I'm referring to. I also glance at the clock, my email, my chat windows, my status displays, I frequently turn to look at my second monitor. Again, Dr says "you need to change your head angle until it's in focus" - if I did that with this narrow range, I'd be in a palsy 18 hours a day.
5) As far as I can tell, the progressive lenses are 100% progressive. From far down to extreme close range. There is no "this is the zone for distance, this is the zone for close up" - it's "find the millimeter in your lens that corresponds to what you're focusing on" - is this normal? Does this actually -work- for a computer user? A book reader, sure, but someone with a decent monitor?
6) My monitor is 17" across. As I sit, looking through my old lenses, the monitor fills 2/3rds of my field of view (vertically) and 50% of my field of view horizontally. If I take into account my second monitor on my right (which i use constantly), my horizontal view is closer to 80% monitor at 24" distance. Does anyone use progressives in this sort of situation?
7) I told the optician that I am very active out of doors. Volleyball, hiking, skiing, bike riding. He sort of hmmed, and said "Maybe you should keep your old glasses for distance vision for outdoor activities." - well, there I have it, my new glasses are not appropriate for a large part of my life.
My take on this is I need to return these and get pure computer-use glasses. I've had a set before, they worked great, but it was, admittedly, slightly uncomfortable to have to carry 2 sets of glasses around. But, given these progressives, I don't think the new setup will work 100% of the time, so I'm already hosed.
Last but not least, there's a lot of talk of an 'adjustment period' - 10 days or so until your 'brain' learns how to use the new glasses. I'm incredibly uncomfortable reprogramming my brain to do something that I feel seems just -wrong-. Do I put up with a week and a half to 2 weeks of headaches and discomfort, and probably end up with somethign that's 'eh, that's okay i guess' - and have lost my peripheral vision?
Advice please - particularly from anyone who has these sorts of glasses and spends a lot of time in front of a computer.
Right now, I've gone back to my old lenses. Working with my new ones just fills me with dread and discomfort. I don't want to deal with them.
After a very brief conversation "You don't want 2 pairs of glasses, right?" "Right" - I was prescribed progressive lenses. What I thought was the case with these was they were essentially bifocals, but with a 'smooth' transition from distance range to close range.
I believe that's not the case here at all, and I'm finding them almost impossible to work with.
I'm asking my LJ homies to chime in if you've worked with progressive lenses before - here's where I'm finding my difficulties:
1) Distance range is distorted. As I turn my head to the left and right, I can see vertical lines 'shifting'. This is vaguely nauseating.
2) When I'm looking straight ahead, head position the same, and I turn my eyes to look at something to the side (and by the side, I mean 10 degrees off normal), things are blurry. If I turn my head to point directly at the subject, things are sharp. This means my peripheral vision (and I"m not talking close to the edge of the glass ehre, I'm talking the difference between 2 people sitting across the table from me at dinner) is shot.
3) When I mentioned this problem to the optician, their answer was "Oh, you need to turn your head to look at your subject now, don't turn your eyes." - WTF? That has binged my BS meter. They continued, after I mentioned the blurry and refracting moving images "Well yes, you have a narrower 'corridor' than you used to. You need to turn." - this again bings me - my lenses should change focus vertically, not horizontally. Wha?
Now lets move on to the progressive part.
The optician and dr know I am an avid computer user, and therefore my primary focal range is about 24" from my eyes.
4) With the new glasses, in order to focus on my screen, i have to wiggle my eyes up and down until the line I'm looking at is in focus. The range of motion is _INCREDIBLY_ tight. Text 5 lines up or down is out of focus. I don't know about other people, but I -never- look at just one point on the screen for a length of time. If I'm editing code, I have a screenful of text, and I'm constnatly glancing up and down on the screen to see things I'm referring to. I also glance at the clock, my email, my chat windows, my status displays, I frequently turn to look at my second monitor. Again, Dr says "you need to change your head angle until it's in focus" - if I did that with this narrow range, I'd be in a palsy 18 hours a day.
5) As far as I can tell, the progressive lenses are 100% progressive. From far down to extreme close range. There is no "this is the zone for distance, this is the zone for close up" - it's "find the millimeter in your lens that corresponds to what you're focusing on" - is this normal? Does this actually -work- for a computer user? A book reader, sure, but someone with a decent monitor?
6) My monitor is 17" across. As I sit, looking through my old lenses, the monitor fills 2/3rds of my field of view (vertically) and 50% of my field of view horizontally. If I take into account my second monitor on my right (which i use constantly), my horizontal view is closer to 80% monitor at 24" distance. Does anyone use progressives in this sort of situation?
7) I told the optician that I am very active out of doors. Volleyball, hiking, skiing, bike riding. He sort of hmmed, and said "Maybe you should keep your old glasses for distance vision for outdoor activities." - well, there I have it, my new glasses are not appropriate for a large part of my life.
My take on this is I need to return these and get pure computer-use glasses. I've had a set before, they worked great, but it was, admittedly, slightly uncomfortable to have to carry 2 sets of glasses around. But, given these progressives, I don't think the new setup will work 100% of the time, so I'm already hosed.
Last but not least, there's a lot of talk of an 'adjustment period' - 10 days or so until your 'brain' learns how to use the new glasses. I'm incredibly uncomfortable reprogramming my brain to do something that I feel seems just -wrong-. Do I put up with a week and a half to 2 weeks of headaches and discomfort, and probably end up with somethign that's 'eh, that's okay i guess' - and have lost my peripheral vision?
Advice please - particularly from anyone who has these sorts of glasses and spends a lot of time in front of a computer.
Right now, I've gone back to my old lenses. Working with my new ones just fills me with dread and discomfort. I don't want to deal with them.
