My eye doctor told me I'm officially OLD!!!

[Tim Morton]

placed my order for new glasses today becuase for the past year or so i have had blurred vision...and she MADE me get bi-focals:mad:. Do any of you have to wear bifocals? I went with the progrsive kind at her advice, but i wonder what if any affect this will have on woodworking. It can't be aby worse if i can actually see the lines on my rulers. Some of you may have noticed i have more than my share of typo's...its more to do with poor eyesight than poor spelling abilities. By the end of the evening its brutally hard for me to see after 12 or more hours at a computer screen.

PS...I turned 44 in march.:cool:

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tim.....wait until you have to get tri-focals without any lines. You'll have a certain "break in" period if you're like me. When I first went to bi-focals and later tri-focals, walking with them on especially down stairs took some getting used to! Shortly, you'll enjoy being able to see that cutline!

[David Fried]

Yes. All started right after hitting forty.
Bifocals were one choice. The other was not to wear glasses. I can't read a ruler anymore with them on. Of course, I can't drive with them off. Most of the time I leave them off and just wear them to drive. Eventually I'll get the bifocals.

[John Cole]

My doctor pushed the progressive (no-line) bifocals on me. - three weeks later I could still not get used to the "tunnel vision" it seemed to give me. I went back and got the good old lined type - way better (for me). Officially old !

Funny, but my wife had exactly the same problem.

[Karl Laustrup]

Tim, I've had bi-focals for well over 10 years now. As was said they did take some getting used too. Walking down stairs was one especially strange time. It seemed that I was much taller and my depth perception was screwy. I have blended bi-focals and now like them very much. A doctor about 6 years ago talked me into a different type of bi-focal, but I just couldn't get used to them and went back and got my prescription redone into the blended type.

By all means, give them a chance, but after a few weeks if you are not comfortable with them take them back and get something else. You should make sure that the eye doctor will work with you on finding something that suits you.

[Kent Parker]

Tim,

I've had progressive lens for about 8 years. Really cool because you just need one pair of glasses. If you do a lot of computor work you'll find that positioning of your screen is very important as you will be looking out of the bottom of your glasses once you get progressives. This tends to make you raise your head and can make your neck sore. I solved the problem by getting a 19" Dell flat screen and positioning it about 28" to 30" away from me.
I tried contacts (they make progressive ones). The freedom of not wearing frames on my head was tremendous, I just could not consistantly get the things in my eyes! They might be too good in a dusty environment.

Took me about 2 days to get used to them.

Good luck:)

KP

[Tim Morton]

Thanks for the encouragement....anything will be better than where I'm at now.:cool: (catch the glasses?):D

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Tim

I got my first bifocals back in '99, and on my doctor's recommendation, I went with the progressive lenses. By the end of the first day I had called him back saying I wanted my money back and that I could not wear them. I was staggering around so badly a friend of mine asked me if I had been drinking! :eek: The doc told me to stick it out for a few days, and I got used to them. I really like the progressive now that I am used to them, as I can look at a whole range of things at all sorts of distances.

Contacts are a different story. I have a very severe astigmatism, so I cannot wear bifocal contacts. However, I can wear monovision ones, where one eye is corrected for close and one for far. It works pretty well most of the time, but when my eyes get tired, NOTHING is in focus. Then it is time for the glasses to go back on.

Good luck with it. The older I get, the less sanding I have to do.

Bill

[Tim Morton]

Good luck with it. The older I get, the less sanding I have to do.

I'm a bit worried about that some of the projects i have worked on this year might need to be cleaned up a bit with the new specs!!

[Jerry Olexa]

Tim, you're not old. You just have old eyes.:) I have worn progressives for probably over 10 years . I still do not wear them all the time e.g., driving or watching a movie and try to not be too dependant on them. For close up detail work (in the shop) they help and I keep a set of cheap drug store cheaters at each of my workbenches plus in the garage. Check w your MD if he OK's that and save those good progressives for office etc. Your eyes probably went bad watching all that Redsox and Patriot TV!:D Hang in there, old man!:)

[Bruce Foley]

placed my order for new glasses today becuase for the past year or so i have had blurred vision...and she MADE me get bi-focals:mad:. Do any of you have to wear bifocals? I went with the progrsive kind at her advice, but i wonder what if any affect this will have on woodworking. It can't be aby worse if i can actually see the lines on my rulers. Some of you may have noticed i have more than my share of typo's...its more to do with poor eyesight than poor spelling abilities. By the end of the evening its brutally hard for me to see after 12 or more hours at a computer screen.

PS...I turned 44 in march.:cool:
Tim, you cannot imagine how timely this post is. I've been stalling for a week after my exam, with the same result. My wife says that I'm in denial, I say all these popular small lenses aren't worth THAT much money! Darn things look like you're looking through contacts in a frame- if I'm paying for it, I want some LENSES! :confused:

I know that I will have to settle on a pair of frames but the week of denial is helping me to wrap my arms around the fact that I cannot see in the shop. The days of measuring joints to the 1/32 or 1/64 are not in the cards unless I give in to reality and get the darn things. Those shadows now are impossible - so I guess and get sloppy fits... :mad: Well it looks like this tool will cost me more than most of my stationary equipment! As Red Green says, "Remember we're all in this together!!!" Let us know how you come out as I'm right behind ya.

Bruce Foley :cool:
(turned 46 last fall)

[Bob Nieman]

My Mom calls it Forty-vision and soon after hitting Four-Oh I got a pair of the progressive lenses. Last year my eye Dr. told me I might want to try bifocals. I told him to check my prescription (that he had given me two years earlier--I already had them). A year later I am finding it harder to focus close in and frequently look over my glasses if I really want to see something close up (or I move it away, as I have seen others do before me).

I am used to them, but the first few days were something else, especially stairs.

[Michael McDuffie]

Got my first and only bifocals in the seventh grade. Some wacky scheme that was an attempt to reshape the lens by forcing it to focus differently.

Anyhow, now that I’m 44, anything closer than 10 inches requires removing the glasses.


Michael,
nearsightedly in Des Moines, WA

[Michael Perata]

An ophthalmologist/optometrist carry usually tell your age within two years by looking at your prescription.

Remember, the medical term is presbyopia and translates literally, "old man's eyes". (How do you feel now!!!) :o

[Tim Morton]

Tim, you're not old. You just have old eyes.:) I have worn progressives for probably over 10 years . I still do not wear them all the time e.g., driving or watching a movie and try to not be too dependant on them. For close up detail work (in the shop) they help and I keep a set of cheap drug store cheaters at each of my workbenches plus in the garage. Check w your MD if he OK's that and save those good progressives for office etc. Your eyes probably went bad watching all that Redsox and Patriot TV!:D Hang in there, old man!:)

Its getting tough to watch the Sox this year, I know its early but our pitching is not getting the job done...its UGLY:mad:

[Gary Max]

It's been 5 years now with bifocals---Like Bill said---just wear them.
This was no big deal for me because I wear my glasses all day long anyhow.
I had to learn the live with them--if I wanted to read or see something small.
Stairs and steps where the hardest things.
The first week was fun but after that you forget about it. Useing the bifocal just becomes a habit.
Wish you luck

[Steve Jenkins]

I've had progressives for a few years now and really like them. When I first got them i was nodding my head a lot trying to figure out where to took through them. I mentioned this to Margie and she said that as I practiced that I should just keep repeating "yes dear, yes dear" :D

[Tyler Howell]

I went with the LASIKS Mono vision (one eye distance one eye near)2.5 years ago. One of the best things I ever did. Going to need periodic tune-ups but if I get this quality of service, it will be well worth it.:cool:

[Jim Becker]

Do any of you have to wear bifocals? I went with the progressive kind at her advice, but i wonder what if any affect this will have on woodworking.

Tim, prior to my LASIK surgery in Jan 2003, I had been wearing "bifocals" (really, progressive lenses) since I was about 40, even though I was very near-sighted. This need is pretty much normal...as we age, most of us have our eyes change in that they become "stiffer" which makes it harder to make close focus.

Now that I'm no longer near-sighted...actually, quite the opposite with 20/15 in the right and 20/20 in the left after the laser surgery...I still need to wear reading glasses. Fortunately, I can just buy the cheap ones at the drug store! For the shop, I bought a nice pair of safety glasses from Duluth Trading that insure I can see up close properly...something necessary for measuring, etc.

For you, there are two possibilities. Firstly, you may find your regular safety glasses over your normal lenses comfortable and workable. That's what I did prior to the surgery. However, you may also want to consider having prescription safety glasses made which means less on your face and protection 100% of the time. If I had to wear prescriptions in the shop at this point, that's what I would likely do.

The biggest adaptation you'll need to make (both in the shop and out) is learning how move head for for progressive lenses--moving your whole head to do close focusing. It becomes natural after awhile, but early on, it can be, umm...frustrating. This too shall pass!

BTW, the one place I really had a problem with the progressives was for reading in bed. Bad angles.

[Jerry Clark]

Welcome to the club of seniors! I think that you can join AARP at age 50!:D

[Dave Dionne]

Hi Tim
I turned 44 last June and had to get bifocals this past Dec. I still don't think my eyes got worse I believe that my arms got shorter, I could not get my book far enough away to read anymore,:D
They talked me into getting the progressives, I told them that I got cetain types of motion sickness, rollercoaster, planes cars I'm fine simlulater rides even some smooth flowing graphics can kill me but they said I would be alright. I last a week and the glasses were making me dizzy walking into alls and very sick to my stomach, got the regular bofocals and they are great. I did find out thought after that they made my lenses wrong so the center point was off a different amount in each eye so that may have had something to do with it.
It really is nice being ablt to see a rule easly againn.
Good luck and enjoy your "new" eyes

Dave

[Dennis Peacock]

I've had progressives for a few years now and really like them. When I first got them i was nodding my head a lot trying to figure out where to took through them. I mentioned this to Margie and she said that as I practiced that I should just keep repeating "yes dear, yes dear" :D

Tee-Hee-Hee!!!!!! :D :p :rolleyes:

Hey.....I resemble that remark!!!! ;)

I wear progressive lense now and I find that I am looking "down my nose" to clearly see the computer screen, tape measure or anything I'm working on at arm length. I can see long distances without them.....just can't see close up without them. I really need to go for another exam to see what my real problem is. I hate walking around with my head held high so I can see up close better. Makes me appear as though I'm "stuck up".!! :rolleyes: :D

Needing better eyesite in Conway, AR.......

[Bob Hovde]

If you work at a computer all day, you should get another pair that's set for the middle distance. It has nothing to do with your eyes - it's just a lot easier on your neck, because you don't have to tilt your head back all the time. :) (BYW, some of us have been wearing glasses OVER 40 years, not SINCE 40!)

Bob

[Mark Singer]

Tim,

I have the blended bifocals. They are really for distance, but the distance correction changes my close up vision hence the bifocals. My close up vision is perfect! If I am doing marking or detail work, I take my glasses off. If I am using a router, I take my glasses off and use eye protection. I really don't mind it much...I guess I am used to it.

[Tim Morton]

Finally received my new glasses today and wanted everyone to know how good it is to finally be able to see again. There is a learning curve, but the good far outweighs the bad. I'm not ready to try cutting anything yet, but I am excited about looking at woodworking magazines and actually being able to read the articles:D I looked at the receipt and thses things without insurance would have been over $750 bucks, my out of pocket cost was $240. Crazy what things cost.

[Arnie Grammon]

I think its a conspiracy. Don't let the optometrist put eyedrops in your eyes! There is something in that stuff that makes things blurry after the big 4-0.

I refuse to believe that it may have something to do with the fact that I'm older than dirt. :rolleyes: :)

Arnie
and on my forth pair of bi's

[Lee Schierer]

For years I wore bifocals, then I noticed I had trouble with teh in between distances like seeing the blade for setting up the table saw when looking from the edge of the table and reading blueprints at work. My eye doctor said I needed trifocals..... I just wasn't ready for that even though I had grandkids. So I asked about alternatives. He suggested a Zeis gradient lense that had a wide intermediate focal area and a vry generous bifocal area. It took about a week to get used to them, but I'll never try anything else now. Zeis offerered a deal that if I didn't like them, then I could trade them on conventional tri-focals at no cost. Zeis also makes a special gradient lense for people that work all day on computers.

I highly recommend the anti-glare coating it makes a world of difference driving at night.

[Steven Wilson]

Tim,

I went from nothing to tri-focals when I turned 40 and settled on progressives (very nice). I did try a pair of lined bi-focals for the shop but the line was in the worst sport for working with a tablesaw. Now, I use a single perscription lense (far distance) for my shop glasses and then apply 2.5 diopter coverings to the safety glasses (available from Cabela's or another sporting goods store). The nice thing about the stick on diopters is that you can place them where you want them and cut them to size. I've made mine very small and keep them down low on the lense. It stays out of the way for critical operations yet alows me to read a ruler when I need to. The other thing I've found useful are the flip down corrective lenses. I have a pair attached to the bill of my fishing cap (3 diopter). When I'm out fly fishing I can flip these down when I need to tie on a new fly.

[Carl Eyman]

How much did she charge you to tell you that? If you start complaining about old age now, what are you going to complain about for the next 40 years?

[Ken Salisbury]

You can live without sex but not without glasses

http://www.oldrebelworkshop.com/smiley2.gif