Advice on progressive lenses?

[penk]

So 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.

Comments

[recalcitranttoy.livejournal.com]

I have progressives. Yes, they take awhile to get used to. However, I am used to them now, and it's almost as if there's nothing over my eyes at all. I guess YMMV.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Do you have issues with 18hr a day computer work at 24"?

[recalcitranttoy.livejournal.com]

No. I am generally on the computer about that much at between 20 and 24 inches.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I got some a while ago. Honestly, I don't have a problem with horizontal eye movement (just checked now, and they're fine). The vertical, now...the business where you have to find 'the right millimeter' is actually true; the thing is, I suspect your eyes will automagically find the right millimeter when you've gotten used to the lenses. I don't even notice the process anymore, although I did when I first got them.

Personally, I'm not sure I'll get another pair, but that's because they're stupid expensive, and for me, really close up work (like suturing) still requires me to take them off, and it's easy enough to take them off for reading (the other problem I had; for most of my life thus far, I've read with my glasses on; recently the words were blurred with the glasses on, but clear with them off, and I decided to get progressives rather than just take them off).

Dunno how you feel about refractive surgery, but it's an option if you want to correct your distance vision, and then you'd just need reading type glasses. (I'm still waffling about refractive surgery myself, so I won't blame you if you are as well).

(This comment removed and replaced with correct use of 'vertical' and 'horizontal'. Look! The brain is faster than the hands...)

[recalcitranttoy.livejournal.com]

After a friend of mine had surgery and now sees 6 images plus has amazingly bad glare issues, and has been told there's nothing they can do to fix it by several prominent surgeons, I will never have surgery like that. *shudder*

[ghislaine.livejournal.com]

Dwight has progressives. If he doesn't respond here, grab him on IM?

[naiad.livejournal.com]

Just got progressives a few weeks ago. The distance and reading parts are great, and I got used to them in a matter of days. But the computer screen distance is ridiculously miniscule, so I end up taking the glasses off to look at the screen. So far my eyes can handle that, but if my vision gets worse . . . It sounds as if you really need a pair of computer glasses.

Regarding surgery, I did that too, 7 and again 6 years ago. My vision is MUCH better than it was before, and I can get by without any correction at all if need be, but as you can see, it's not perfect.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks. I actually JUST had an occasion where 'very close up' worked well with the new glasses, but it was at a range of about 12", while doing some assembly work. Rock-solid focus, clicked in great - never was able to see that well.

But that's such a rare occurrence. *SIGH!* I want perfect all over the map! *stomps feet*

[n2mlq.livejournal.com]

I feel your suffering, I tried going down the progressive route about five years ago. I know lots of people who have them and love them, but my eye doctor told me some folks just don't click.

I tried them for just shy of a month, and after some brilliant times, I finally gave up, I kept feeling seasick. The worst was actually driving when I would look at the dash, then at the road.

I now routinely carry five pairs of eye-glasses in my pack:
- walking around glasses which focus from about five feet out, and a spare pair
- polarized sun glasses with the same script
- moderate field glasses which are what I do 99% of my computer work with, they're focused between 18-36"
- near field reading glasses focused between 12-18" for heavy duty reading.

I hope you got them from some place with a 'we'll fix your script for 30 days' guarantee, I wound up exercising mine.

Good luck
alex

[(Anonymous)]

I hope you don't mind me jumping in here, I work at an optometrist's office and I work mainly as an optician there.

It sounds like what you have is a BAD fit for a progressive lens. With progressive lenses, you're supposed to move your eyes, not your head.

There are many different types of progressive lenses (over 300 at last count) but they should be willing to work with you to find a better one for you.

Ones that might work better for you (ones that we typically recommend) are ones in the Varilux lines, particular Varilux Comfort or Varilux Physio (or Physio 360).

It may also depend on your seg height (where the intermediate starts) as to what you can get. I'm not sure if you're wearing a smaller frame, but that might also be something to consider.

Another option (because you mentioned how active you are) is a Definity lens, which has a fourth segment down at the bottom (which they call a "ground view" segment) so you can see the ground with more ease.

Another option, possibly, is to get a second pair of "office lenses" which are just for reading/computer work.

I hope some of that helps.

[(Anonymous)]

I should add that some "warping" is natural on the sides of the lens, in the bottom quadrants outside the reading corridor, this is just a natural by product of a progressive lens and any type you get, this is going to happen. The higher end progressives try to minimize this and maximize the corridor (for intermediate and reading) but they've not yet been able to completely reduce this.

[advorpt.livejournal.com]

Stumbled across this post from I don't know where...but here I am.

I've been wearing progressives since 2003. I started out with Varilux Comfort lenses. It took me about a week and a half to train myself to use them (aie, the nausea and headaches), but then I was fine.

Last year I had my eyes checked again and prescription adjusted, and on recommendation I switched to Shamir lenses. Hooboy what a difference! They are fantastic and required no adjustment period for me at all.

I echo all the previous commenter's points with an added plug for Shamir. As with anything else in the world, YMMV.