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Still weeping
Jul. 18th, 2012 10:46 pmThe process of my cataract operation is very nearly complete (and, considering that the operation itself was two months ago, about time too). I have now collected my new glasses - two pairs, one for the computer, one varifocal for everything else - from the optician, and am getting used to wearing them.
And I am getting used to it. I was so frustrated at having to wait for the new lenses, and the strain of forcing my now quite reasonably sighted left eye to look through glass made to the old prescription, that I was stupidly assuming that I would put on the new glasses and all would be well. But of course my eyes now have to be retrained to see through the new lenses.
The computer glasses, being a simpler prescription, were available earlier, and I am adjusting more quickly to them. My eyes are still watering - yes, both eyes are feeling the strain, I don't know why - but not as badly, and I don't have a headache after a day at the screen.
But acclimatising while seated, looking at something a fixed distance away, is a doddle compared to getting used to my new all-purpose glasses. When I got my first pair of bifocals, I was warned that they would take some getting used to, that I would find it tricky that when I looked down the focus would change... But no, I never had any problems with them: within a few days we were walking in the hills and I was handling the descents as confidently as ever (which is, admittedly, not very). Now I'm having all the difficulties I didn't have then; it has taken me the best part of a week to feel happy going down stairs in my new glasses.
Progress is, however, perceptible - except in one respect. I used the description "all-purpose" because the optician was convinced that I shouldn't need separate reading glasses: why pay for expensive bifocals, and not benefit from their versatility? Opticians have told me this before, and been mistaken, but I was already replacing two pairs of glasses, and was happy to defer the cost of a third. Nonetheless, I can't actually read with my varifocals. Oh, in a good light I can squint and decipher print, if it isn't too small - mostly I can follow a recipe without putting glasseson and off. But that's not reading.
At present my old reading glasses are better than nothing - but only just. As my eye becomes accustomed to a lens made to its measure, the old lenses feel more smeared - soon it will be more comfortable to do without. It's possible that I will then discover I can after all read through the varifocals; it's possible that I will order a pair of reading glasses.
This is to be read as an update, the end of a story of which I posted the beginning. The tone of voice is not plaintive; nearly there, now.
And I am getting used to it. I was so frustrated at having to wait for the new lenses, and the strain of forcing my now quite reasonably sighted left eye to look through glass made to the old prescription, that I was stupidly assuming that I would put on the new glasses and all would be well. But of course my eyes now have to be retrained to see through the new lenses.
The computer glasses, being a simpler prescription, were available earlier, and I am adjusting more quickly to them. My eyes are still watering - yes, both eyes are feeling the strain, I don't know why - but not as badly, and I don't have a headache after a day at the screen.
But acclimatising while seated, looking at something a fixed distance away, is a doddle compared to getting used to my new all-purpose glasses. When I got my first pair of bifocals, I was warned that they would take some getting used to, that I would find it tricky that when I looked down the focus would change... But no, I never had any problems with them: within a few days we were walking in the hills and I was handling the descents as confidently as ever (which is, admittedly, not very). Now I'm having all the difficulties I didn't have then; it has taken me the best part of a week to feel happy going down stairs in my new glasses.
Progress is, however, perceptible - except in one respect. I used the description "all-purpose" because the optician was convinced that I shouldn't need separate reading glasses: why pay for expensive bifocals, and not benefit from their versatility? Opticians have told me this before, and been mistaken, but I was already replacing two pairs of glasses, and was happy to defer the cost of a third. Nonetheless, I can't actually read with my varifocals. Oh, in a good light I can squint and decipher print, if it isn't too small - mostly I can follow a recipe without putting glasseson and off. But that's not reading.
At present my old reading glasses are better than nothing - but only just. As my eye becomes accustomed to a lens made to its measure, the old lenses feel more smeared - soon it will be more comfortable to do without. It's possible that I will then discover I can after all read through the varifocals; it's possible that I will order a pair of reading glasses.
This is to be read as an update, the end of a story of which I posted the beginning. The tone of voice is not plaintive; nearly there, now.
