How is your eyesight?

[dumpster56]

Just wondering how is your eyesight after 50? My wife is 54 and needs glasses for everything. I am 52 and still can read the little letters on a beer bottle & the small letters even in the classifieds in the newspaper without any glasses.

 

[REWahoo]

Please speak up, I'm having trouble hearing you.

 

[Moemg]

20-20 . I've had implants before that I was wearing glasses for everything . And Rewahoo they are lens implants not b---.

 

[REWahoo]

And Rewahoo they are lens implants not b---.

Thanks for the info. Interesting that you can see better with lens implants while others can see you better with the other type. OK, guys mostly...

 

[Khan]

Always had better than average vision (15-20).

Started having problems with small print about age 50; since 53 or so, wear 'reading glasses 1.25' all the time indoors.

At 57, I think it's time to step up to 1.5.

 

[W2R]

I have been pretty nearsighted with a lot of astigmatism for all of my life, and have worn glasses since I was a schoolgirl. Naturally, in my 40's I started needing bifocals. I will be 60 years old on Sunday, and now I wear trifocals.

I can still read the smallest print without glasses. That has always been easy for me, and still is. I just can't see much else without my glasses.

 

[Goonie]

I have been pretty nearsighted with a lot of astigmatism for all of my life, and have worn glasses since I was a schoolgirl. Naturally, in my 40's I started needing bifocals. I will be 60 years old on Sunday, and now I wear trifocals.

I can still read the smallest print without glasses. That has always been easy for me, and still is. I just can't see much else without my glasses.

Ditto for me....'cept the being a schoolgirl part. I got my 1st pair of glasses in 2nd grade, and have worn them ever since. I got bi-focals 3 years ago at age 48, and occasionally have to take them off to read the really, really tiny print. Without glasses I can't see worth a plug nickel.....I just see blurry shapes.

 

[UncleHoney]

I've been wearing glasses since I was about 42. For some reason my arms were getting shorter and shorter.

First it was bifocals and now twenty years later I wear trifocals.

 

[Texas Proud]

I have been pretty nearsighted with a lot of astigmatism for all of my life, and have worn glasses since I was a schoolgirl. Naturally, in my 40's I started needing bifocals. I will be 60 years old on Sunday, and now I wear trifocals.

I can still read the smallest print without glasses. That has always been easy for me, and still is. I just can't see much else without my glasses.

LOL... yes, I am very nearsighted also... once shocked someone back in the early CRT days when I put my nose to the screen and counted their pixels... but could not see anything when I was a foot away...

But, just getting bifocals at 50... if the idiots can grind them right...

HECK, are there people using the no line lenses? I have read good and bad... it would be interesting to read what some others have to say...

 

[W2R]

HECK, are there people using the no line lenses? I have read good and bad... it would be interesting to read what some others have to say...

Both line and no line are fine. Get the line unless you feel self-conscious about wearing bifocals. Usually they are a little cheaper with the line, and IMHO it's a little easier to see what you want to see because you are definitely in the other focal length. But if you'd rather have the no-line there isn't that much difference.

 

[Goonie]

HECK, are there people using the no line lenses? I have read good and bad... it would be interesting to read what some others have to say...

I have the no line lenses, and love 'em. I never had the ones with the lines, so I can't give a comparison. The opti-doc gave me the choice of which I wanted, and he said there wasn't any major diff between them. I chose the no-liners because I thought that having a distinct line might be annoying to me, IF I could see that line like I can see it when looking at someone wearing the 'line' bifocals......I can see their distinct line, but can they? I didn't know.....and still don't.

 

[Nords]

Just wondering how is your eyesight after 50? My wife is 54 and needs glasses for everything. I am 52 and still can read the little letters on a beer bottle & the small letters even in the classifieds in the newspaper without any glasses.

I've been dealing with presbyopia since I was about 43:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/see-last-see-last-thank-god-i-can-see-last-15965.html
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/rant-presbyopic-20367.html
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/lasik-presbyopians-23947.html
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/multifocal-contact-lenses-presbyopian-cure-33599.html

The multifocal contacts are working out "OK"-- not great, not too sucky-- but I still pout about it a lot...

 

[samclem]

I'm lucky--still 20-20 near and far at age 47. Still, I'm noticing that I can't focus nearer than about 12", and this distance is increasing year by year. I think when the time comes I'll go with glasses--contacts appear to be a bother, and the idea of eye surgery and possible complications from scarring, etc 20 years hence is off-putting. But, that's easy for me to say, as someone who hasn't put up with the hassle of glasses yet.

 

[rs0460a]

Before age 55, I needed glasses to drive. At that time had cataract surgery on right side (left side is "going" but not yet "ready to go" 5 years later). This is attributed to my T2 diabetes.

After surgery, I did not need glasses. Even with one side done, vision vastly improved. I'm sure when I have the left side done, I'll have "X-ray vision" .

- Ron

 

[donheff]

After about 45 I started having the steady deterioration that requires progressively stronger reading glasses. About 7 years ago I started wearing a single contact in my left eye for reading - monovision. Last year I added one in my right eye to slightly correct distance. The monovision approach works great for me - I can read normally and see distances normally. The dominant eye for each situation naturally takes over.

 

[Texas Proud]

I'm lucky--still 20-20 near and far at age 47. Still, I'm noticing that I can't focus nearer than about 12", and this distance is increasing year by year. I think when the time comes I'll go with glasses--contacts appear to be a bother, and the idea of eye surgery and possible complications from scarring, etc 20 years hence is off-putting. But, that's easy for me to say, as someone who hasn't put up with the hassle of glasses yet.

If you are 20/20, then the surgery is not for you... it is to fix nearsighted or shortsighted, not presbyopia (stolen from Nords....)

Now, I have heard there were some experimental surgery for this... but I think it was in Brazil... don't know what happened....

 

[tangomonster]

I'm sitting here at the computer without glasses, but have worn glasses for distance (driving and seeing subtitles at movies and the opera). Now I am wearing cheaters for reading---not absolutely necessary and a very low correction. The optometrist says that my vision is more like someone ten years younger (I'm 54)----except that he sees the beginning of cataracts! And he attributes the problems I have driving at night and dealing with glare to this...

 

[OldGuy]

Much better now than 3 months ago; thanks for askin'.
Been wearing specs/contacts since age 15, even though my vision was never worse than 20/80 or so, and stabilized about 5 years' ago. I "graduated" to bifocals, then no-lines in mid-40s. Got tired of putting the glasses down and forgetting were they were (what's the first thing to go as we age?), and monovision just wasn't a solution for me. The optho-what's-it-called doctor said I was a good candidate for Lasik, so I had it done in March of this year.
WOW!
We corrected to 20/15 with the laser, so now I can SEE the golf ball as it careens off to the right (or the left), and I don't need to invest in the magnified dive mask. Still need cheaters (200s) for the fine print, but my arms apparently got longer because I can read the newspaper with no glasses.

 

[Achiever51]

Wore glasses since age 10 or so; very nearsighted with serious astigmatism in left eye. Vision was 20/400 -- without correction, EVERYTHING more than about 2 feet away was just a blur. At age 16, got hard contacts. Wore contacts for 35 years -- could never wear the soft ones because of the astigmatism, but did "graduate" to the gas permeable hard contacts. Wore one contact for distance, one for reading (really didn't need correction for reading). Without contacts/glasses, I was able to read the smallest fonts, engraving, etc. With contacts/glasses, I could correct to 20/40 or so for distance.

At age 51, I had Lasik and it changed my life! My vision immediately went to 20/15 and has been unchanged since 2002. I do have to use 1.50 OTC readers for close up work -- although I can read the newspaper, etc. without 'em, the readers do help prevent eye strain for very fine work.

 

[Kronk]

Boy, most of you have really great eyesight. I started wearing glasses at age eight. My eyes are around 20/950. I've been wearing gas permeable contacts for seven years or so. The soft contacts I wore prior to that were causing problems with neovascularization (blood vessels growing towards the pupil).

I've also got a whole bunch of floaters that disturb my vision. Got checked for a detached retina, but no issues there. It's really irritating to see movement out of the corner of your eye, then realize it was something inside your eye.

 

[rs0460a]

he sees the beginning of cataracts! And he attributes the problems I have driving at night and dealing with glare to this...

Been there - done that. Wait till it gets so bad that it looks like every car has their high beams on (they don't!)

At least cataract surgery has come a long way - it's actually no big deal.

- Ron

 

[Walt34]

I started wearing glasses at age 11 for nearsightedness in my right eye. The left one was 20/20 until about 40. The right one is now 20/200 but correctable to 20/15. Been wearing contacts since my early 30's, and I'm afraid of Lasik surgery because a couple of people at work had that done and had problems with it. One almost lost his job because of the difficulty driving at night. So if/when the time comes I can't wear contacts I'll go back to glasses. And I use 2.00 OTC reading glasses when I'm wearing the contacts.

 

[Achiever51]

I was very afraid that Lasik would make my night vision worse...as my pupils are very large to begin with, I had problems driving at night wearing contacts as I would see around the edge of the lens.

Before my Lasik surgery I talked with the surgeon -- a doc who was among the first to do Lasik in North America -- and explained my concern. He told me that he planned to make my corneal flap larger than normal and do the surgery on a slightly larger field than is typical. I've had absolutely no night vision problems, no glare or "high beam" vision, no dry eyes-- night vision is as perfect (20/15) as is daytime sight.

 

[Nords]

I think your baseline vision is the criteria for evaluating subsequent "solutions".

Spouse has had crappy vision her entire life and she's thrilled with gas-permeable multifocal contacts. They kept adding more until they went too far (tough time seeing at a distance), backed off one add, and she's happy again.

In my case I can remember what my vision used to look like. When you can no longer pick out the details of that [-]bikini[/-] longboard a hundred yards away because your [-]plastic wrap on your eyeball[/-] multifocal contacts sacrificed your distance clarity for close vision, you realize you've made a compromise. I don't particularly enjoy the compromise and I'm pretty [-]whiny[/-] grumpy about it, but now I appreciate what people are dealing with.

I can see that monovision or cataract surgery are going to be my next decade's alternatives. Until then, dealing with soft lenses is better than switching reading glasses. And if it's any consolation to new contact wearers, it gets better with a few months' practice.

 

[LOL!]

My glasses prescription gets me back to seeing just fine. I wear Definity II progressive lenses.

But I have more floaters than before. Last year, I got hit in the eye and although my retina didn't detach, I now have posterior vitreous detachment in one eye which makes vision in that eye occassionally blurry and my focussing muscles work harder than before without success. Here's a link on PVD: Posterior Vitreous Detachment

I'd like some ophthamalogist to suck out my vitreous in a syringe and filter it or centrifuge it under steril conditions to remove the debris and then re-inject it back into my eye. Any researchers out there that can do this?