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Specsavers (it's got to that time)

Dingo Bingo

Dingo Bingo

Amateur Rider
Joined
Jun 4, 2025
Messages
191
Location
Poolside
Eye's been getting bad, started off needing to move print further away, now my arms aren't long enough.
Got appointment in an hours time, so this is it, soon to be four eyed sometimes. Hopefully eveything else is OK and it's just for within arms length stuff, but that's so frequent I'm unsure how I'm to deal with it. A chain, might get in the way, and don't want to look like I'm about to start playing canasta all the time.
I've been putting it off for ages, now I have to face it. Shittin in case it's so bad I need bifocals.

Has anyone done the laser treatment? It's so tempting, but I read of a 1 in 100 disaster and it's not the sort of 100/1 shot I'd want comign in.
 
All you'll need is reading glasses if the problem is just the familiar one of having to extend arms to focus on text

Specsavers will no doubt offer you a customised pair, at a price, or you could go to WH Smith (TG Jones :) ) and test their cheapos

One customised pair and several cheapos - one for every room in your house - would be my recommendation
 
You've done well to get to the age you are without needing glasses, Chris. Take that as a huge plus from someone who was "Specky Four Eyes" at primary school.

I have never been able to see properly out of my left eye*. This I only discovered by accident when I was about eight. Without knowing it, my right eye was doing all the heavy lifting but I started going short-sighted in it when I was about 12 or 13 and it only got progressively worse over the next eons.

About 30 years ago I was told I had cataracts but they weren't developed enough to be operated on.

About 15 years ago I was told I have macular degeneration in both eyes. When my eyes are fatigued a straight line looks like it is interrupted by a very deep V. Using my left eye, a straight line is wavy. I now struggle to do Sudoku because of it.

The MD in my right eye means I have patchy sight in it, like there are holes in what I'm seeing so my brain is effectively working overtime to fill in the blanks.

I've been told I'm a prime candidate for glaucoma because of the MD. I've also been told that the MD is 'dry' - the 'good type'; if it ever changes to 'wet' that will be "a game changer" with very little that can be dome for my sight should it occur.

The October before Covid I had a retinal tear which required urgent surgery to save my sight in my 'good' eye. It was successful but subsequent complications meant that when I finally got my cataracts done, the first just a day or two before the country shut down for Covid and the other just after we came out of it, for the next three years I was getting injections in my eye to combat swelling behind the eye. Those injections are not fun, I can assure you.

The cataract operations included lens implants to correct my far vision but it meant I needed reading glasses but now, as I was told could happen, my far vision is deteriorating again so I now need distance glasses plus prescription sunglasses for driving. So when I'm out and about I now need a 'man bag' to carry my reading glasses, distance glasses and prescription distance/driving sunglasses. I'm also thinking of getting prescription reading glasses to help me do crosswords on a bright day.

I tried varifocals years ago but couldn't take to them. I was driving 90 motorway mins each way to and from work and keeping the sweet spot for good vision meant I had to hold my head in a fixed position which meant I ended up with searing pains across my shoulders.

When I say I hope this helps you feel better about your situation, Chris, I'm not being sarcastic in any way. I'd swap with you in an instant but I do hope you get your issue sorted.

*I have a 'lazy eye', meaning the back of the eye never developed properly as a baby/infant and can never be corrected (although I still harbour faint hopes that one day some kind of stem cell technology will allow them to grow a new eye for me but I turn 70 in mid-September and the chances are I would be a very low priority for it. The way this country is going, they'd rather try and guilt me into taking a lethal injection.
 
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Weired sci fit type test. Thought they'd be a chart on the wall kind of thing and he'd try different lenses, better, worse? There was a bti f that, but mainly "stick your chin on there and look at the dot". Anyway, turns out normal distance is slighlty off, short range pretty bad.
I can get bifocals, reading, or long range. I skimped and went for reading ones and long ranch (which I'm unsure I really need, as it's only slight). Figured I can use reading one lower down on nose, but now thinkign that wont work as they wont be in correct place on my face (ie near my eyes). Girl at shop front said it would be OK, but I actually don't think it will, now thinking about it. I then went and got reactive light lenses for the ones I'll probably never use (long range), as i don't notice anythign wrong, for distance I feel like my eyes are as good as they ever were. So reckon I've just wasted my money today. It was 2 for 1 with half price on anti smear and reactivelight, so thought I was being crafty. Must have tried on 50 pairs and they all looked shit.

Anyway, can go back and get bifoclas too, as they now have my details. They have gradual ones, or a type with a line across so there a definate 2 sections to them. I don't think I'd like the gradual blendign type, as the no mans land area seems a bit iffy, at least with the line I'll know where I'm at.

I hate the idea. Going to research laser correction, though not sure if they can do it as 2 errors. Though surely when I was younger there wasn't. Very mechanical in there today, all human interaction was fake, I was a piece of meat with default blah blah spoken to me. Not a nice experience.
I'll go and see an independant guy next time.
 
Are you 60 or over? If so I'd recommend the NHS free eye test. Boots offer it, not sure about other opticians. It seems thorough, testing for glaucoma, cataracts, retinal detachment and whatever, as well as the usual longsight and shortsight

Amazing machinery they use, including one that produces 3-D images of your entire eyeball
 
Does he? As an irregular correspondent on this forum I'm not up to speed with who's who and where they live but Dingo should have alerted me, oops :mad:
 
Yes, in Australia. 57, but I got the test for free with medicare (similar to NHS). Going to take 10 - 14 days before they're ready.
I think if I get the bifocals too, then I've got the lot and I can find out which ones work best for me in different situations. Once I've worked that out, I can get additional pairs of whatever. I think I'll go in tomorrow and order some bifocals.
If they get worse over the next few years, I might bite the bullet and go for laser surgery, maybe they can do one eye at a time, just to be on the safe side?
All up, it's not been a nice experience today and sad in a personal way too, but as Maurice said, I guess I can consider myself lucky that I've lasted this long without needing glasses. I did try a friends on at the pub a while ago, and felt like the bionic man, being able to read the tiniest of print, so looking forward to that. Also when shooting pool, most shots are OK and I can pull them off, but fine cuts when there's a slight haze aroudn the edge of balls, I have been tending to totally miss or hit too fine and that's been going on for a while now, which has been frustrating, as I know it's been my eyes not my skill. So maybe some large lense reading glasses for pool. Not Dennis taylor style, I'm thinking more Paul Newman at the end of Colour of Money. :)
 
Dingo Bingo said:
Also when shooting pool, most shots are OK and I can pull them off, but fine cuts when there's a slight haze aroudn the edge of balls, I have been tending to totally miss or hit too fine and that's been going on for a while now, which has been frustrating, as I know it's been my eyes not my skill. So maybe some large lense reading glasses for pool. Not Dennis taylor style, I'm thinking more Paul Newman at the end of Colour of Money. :)
Click to expand...

I recall playing snooker with the bruvs and saying the balls looked as though someone had sliced the edge off them. The another time when bruv #2 who lives in London came up for a family event and we had another game he said the balls were tomato-shaped to him. I thought that was a more accurate description. He too has MD.

I thought of getting special snooker glasses but decided we only play for the craic and the liquid lunch so why bother my arse. If I miss one or two because of my eyes so be it. It's not like losing money on the horses cos we don't play for money (otherwise bruv #1 would win every time).
 
I wear glasses for reading and screen time. But the rate I break them, I’m still on cheap ones I buy online. Seriously the thought of paying £180 for glasses like my mother does just to break them two days later, fills me with horror.
 
I have a pair of decent reading glasses I only use 'in public' (ie if I have to be somewhere I don't want to be embarrassed wearing my £10 for 3 pair online ones).

Likewise I have a pair of [relatively] expensive rimless distance glasses for the same purpose but my current prescription is very slight so most of the time I can get away with not wearing glasses at all thanks to the lens implants from the cataract operations.

With turning 70 looming I had to re-apply for my driving licence and I need my distance glasses to meet the requirements but the new one is only for three years so I need the optician to keep a close eye - no pun intended - on how my vision passes the test.

But the online cheapos are absolutely fine. And I do have a few pairs dotted around the house to pick up ans use as and when.
 
Well, I got them and I can see like I haven't been able to for a long time. :)

I don't think I'd have liked the bifocals, the reading ones further down my nose work fine for cooking, but for reading, even using this computer, I feel like I've acquired super vision. Everything is sharp. Beyond arms length though it's awfully blurred.
The other ones work great too, though not as much of an advantage, but I think they'll be good for playing pool, whereas the reading ones wouldn't be. The distance ones do pinch a little bit, the reading ones don't. So think I'll take them back for adjustment. Seemed OK in shop, but after 15 minutes they were starting to nip on left side of nose. As these will be my pool playing lenses, I'm now looking for some larger frames so i won't need to bend my neck as much for longer shots.
All up, pleased I did it, they work. Distance ones make me look a bit different (geeky), but can now shop around for a frame that suits my face a bit more.
 
I've lost my glasses again. So that's another thing now on my bucket list. First places I checked upon losing them were William Hills, the radio studio, and my flat. In that order, too.
 


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