Visual Frustration

I told you about my trip to the eye doctor last year and how frustrating I found that to be. Well, I eventually picked out a pair of frames and got myself some prescription reading glasses.  I wish I could say that was the end of my frustration.

When I picked them up, I mentioned that they didn't seem to make me see as clearly as I was expecting. I was told to give them some time and, if I was still unsatisfied, I had a 3 month guarantee period in which to bring them back. 

I gave them time. At first I compared the results to that of the drug store glasses, and decided they did improve things a bit better after all. But that effect wore off within a couple of weeks and I found I was once again closing that left eye while reading. 

I started doing experiments. Cover one eye and read, uncover it and read. Do the same thing with and without the glasses. The glasses definitely improved the right eye.  But with the right one covered, the left eye was seeing letters that were blurry and appeared to be double.  That effect was even worse WITH the glasses!  I've created a little visual so you can see the way my left eye sees now. Imagine trying to read a full page, or an entire book like that.  Frustrating, isn't it.  No wonder my body automatically forces me to close that eye when reading.

I figured, what I said in the previous blog post was definitely in effect. Guessing what I was seeing during an eye exam got the prescription wrong. But first I decided I had to go back to where I had the glasses made, and have them check to make sure the lenses matched the prescription.  They did.

So next I had to make an appointment with the eye doctor and explain that I was having problems with the left lens, and perhaps something had changed.  Something had changed alright. The cataract in that eye has progressed somewhat since my last exam. Between that and the astigmatism, I'm apparently not expected to be able to see as well as I'd like. I still could not get the Doctor to understand that I can actually see better without  that particular lens. She insists that the numbers are correct.  If the numbers are correct, then why does that lens make things worse instead of better?  I'm very frustrated now. I'm tempted to have the left lense replaced with just clear glass.

This is the second time I have attempted to improve my vision with prescription lenses. Years ago I tried bifocals. They distorted my world so badly that I declared that if I had always seen like that, I would have been in looking for glasses years sooner, just to correct that distortion.  It was awful and I never got used to it, and finally gave up.  I don't need to see things at a distance, since I don't drive. I can identify people on the far side of the street by what they wear and how they move. I know yellow things in the grass are dandelions. But I cannot get through the day without being able to read. It's probably what I do most.  That's why I decided just to go for reading glasses this time.

I can tell you one thing though. I have no faith in the corrective lens process.  When it comes time to get my cataracts done, there will be no prescription lens embedded in my eyes.  If I get frustrated with lenses in a frame, I can take them off.  So, they can just replace my natural cloudy lenses with non prescription clear ones. If I feel the need for corrective lenses, I'll wear glasses that I can remove when the frustration gets to me.