Reach 65? Time to Put On Your Glasses!

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The discussion revolves around the experiences of individuals with vision changes and the necessity of wearing glasses as they age. Many participants share their personal timelines for when they started wearing glasses, often around their mid-forties, highlighting a common struggle with reading and distance vision. Some express frustration with the dependency on glasses, while others appreciate the clarity they provide. There are mentions of transitioning from glasses to contact lenses and back again, as well as the challenges of maintaining multiple pairs for different activities. The conversation also touches on the emotional responses to vision loss, including fear and frustration, and practical tips for managing glasses, such as using cases to prevent loss. Overall, the thread reflects a shared journey of adapting to changing eyesight and the complexities of managing vision correction.
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Okay i have been putting of wearing glasses, i guess old age is catching up on me, but what a difference it makes for reading i can actually see small print without squinting, are you coming up to 65 and still do not wear glasses?
 
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Was 44 when I had to start using them :frown:
 
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My eyes are very different from each other. One is 20/25 and the other is 20/60. The doctor told me that I have the best of both worlds - one eye works well for distance vision and the other is dominate when I'm reading.
 
I started wearing glasses when I was about 8. I was nearsighted. I was astonished to find that I could make out individual blades of grass from a standing position when I first got them. I therefore considered them a wonderful invention.

In my mid-twenties I switched to soft contact lenses. They are a wonderful invention as well. However, they stopped working when I got to my mid-forties, I think, and I had to go back to glasses. Your vision keeps changing.
 
DrClaude said:
Was 44 when I had to start using them :frown:
+1.
 
I started wearing glasses when I was about 16, but with a very weak prescription to help see distances (my right eye is near perfect, my left is more near-sighted). From that time onwards, my vision has only weakened slightly, and I've largely had the same prescription over the past 10 years.

My mother started wearing reading glasses in her 60s, and my father started wearing bifocals in his late 50s (they are both approaching 70). So if heredity is any guide, I probably won't need reading glasses for another decade or two.
 
I started wearing glasses since I was 18! I still hate them.:oldcry:
 
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DrClaude said:
Was 44 when I had to start using them :frown:

yes about the same ... 44 - 45 and I was noticing I couldn't focus on closer things like I was used to
I went through a number of the grades of reading glasses available at the chemist (pharmacy) outlet
x 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 That took me through to about 52 - 53 yrs of age. After that I started having to get prescription glasses
and have normally used bifocals ... I hate them, tried the multi-focal ones, where the focus changes smoothly from the
bottom to the top of the lens and have struggled with them too and went back to the bifocalsDave
 
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  • #10
I've worn glasses since I was about 6. I'm short sighted and currently wear 3 dioptres. I've heard that some short sighted people needed smaller dioptries as they got older, but I'm not sure if that's true or only urban legend.
What I like about my glasses is that they darken in the sun so I've always got sunglasses with me!
 
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  • #11
Lisa! said:
I started wearing glasses since I was 18! I still hate them.:oldcry:

I feel for you, i hate wearing glasses, i only wear them when i have to .
 
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  • #12
I've been wearing them since I was about 13, I have to wear them all the time otherwise I strangly feel really sick, kind of like car sickness.

Over the summer while I was on placement I accidently melted my lenses from an accident in the lab and ended up frantically running to various opticians in the city I was staying at begging them for new glasses, I finally found a place that made glasses within the hour. I was saved...
 
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  • #13
I was reading at age 2 and I had my first reading glasses at age 3, after a squint operation (probably totally unnecessary with hindsight) gave me long-sightedness and reduced my focus accommodation.

I've always worn spectacles since (although as a teenager I could get away without them for sports and similar as my distance vision was reasonable).

I managed with one pair of spectacles until about age 35, then two. I now have four pairs: reading, office (mostly computer), music (playing violin) and distance (from TV to driving).
 
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  • #14
I like wearing glasses because I know how lousy everything for me looks without 'em. But you know what I want? A monocle. Wolram, get a monocle!
 
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  • #15
Just two or three years before your age, and work involving a lot of reading and looking at computer screens, I had to have reading glasses. I got these half-moon gold rimmed (colour, they surely were not real gold) ones, only needed when reading, and gloried in the fogeyish look they gave me, especially when peering over the tops of them. Later I had to get others for distance viewing, multifocal, and they told me to wear them all the time. At least there's a big choice of styles to choose from. The least obtrusive, If that's your problem, I guess what I call 'Truman'. I wasn't allowed to choose though the style, but they are fairly light.

Other people prefer 'genius' heavy hornrimmed but some people might fear that they just take you over. :oldsmile:
 
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  • #16
wolram said:
I feel for you, i hate wearing glasses, i only wear them when i have to .
I too don't like wearing my glasses. Mainly, I hate the idea of being so dependent on them ( I'm shortsighted). I've broken a few pairs while I wasn't home ( not a good situation) :rolleyes:
 
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  • #17
wolram said:
Okay i have been putting of wearing glasses, i guess old age is catching up on me, but what a difference it makes for reading i can actually see small print without squinting, are you coming up to 65 and still do not wear glasses?
I wear them, but not for reading. It happened as a teen. I panicked when I discovered I was losing my vision. Can't remember exactly how I panicked, but I remember it was because of the clock. More or less something along these lines:

*goes into panic* I can't see the hour in the clock! Mom! Something's happening to me, I can't see the hour from here! I can't... I don't know... What's going on?! :cry: *scared*

As of right now my vision gets worse at a rate 3 years or so. But at first, it was every year.

Once I was walking to uni and forgot to put my eyeglasses on. I though the day was cloudy and that there was a lot of mist. I thought: "There's a lot of mist today... Wait... Argh! I forgot my eyeglasses!"

I thought it was mist because the trees looked blurry. o0)
 
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  • #18
'Kay, your eyes won't focus --- ever hear of Ben Franklin? "Kwitcher bellyaching."
 
  • #19
Bystander said:
'Kay, your eyes won't focus
Yup. :camera:
Bystander said:
ever hear of Ben Franklin?
Yes, why? I don't need bifocals.
Bystander said:
"Kwitcher bellyaching."
o_O I have no idea of what that means. :oldconfused:
 
  • #20
Psinter said:
I have no idea of what that means. :oldconfused:
A "colloquialism." :wink:
 
  • #21
Bystander said:
A "colloquialism." :wink:
Oh well... *shoulder shrug*

Even though my eyes have been worsening as the time goes by, I still do not require a high correction.
 
  • #22
Bystander said:
Kwitcher bellyaching
= "Quit your belly-aching" = "Stop making a fuss"
 
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  • #23
Thank you.
 
  • #24
As long as your vision "corrects" to "20-20," or better, you've nothing to complain about.
 
  • #25
One of the troubles I warn you of, Wolram, about glasses is that they lose themselves. :oldfrown: You say you hate them – they may take revenge. This is a great nuisance especially once you have become dependent on them, especially as it is becomes harder to search for them because your unassisted eyesight is not so good, and if you have lost them when out you may never find them and it is expense and involves days without. The manufacturers conspire to make you lose them by making them out of transparent glass which is then hard to see. And people don't even have much sympathy when they lose themselves; they seem to take an attitude like it was somehow you to blame if anyone.

I recommend investing in a glasses case that you hang around your neck when you go out, as well as when you are on-and-off using them at home. And when you take them off, put them into the case; anyway have one regular place, maybe one in each room or whatever, and when you take them off always put them just there and not just anywhere, and say to yourself I am putting my glasses at such a point. Make sure you know where the opticians specifications are so that you can more rapidly get replacements, although if a couple of years have passed since you bought them they will probably persuade you to take another test because of your changes since then.

Then of course it happens on the day where something else is in the forefront of your mind and you are not thinking of your glasses all the time.

And even when you've got all that taped what did my nice third pair of fogey reading glasses do? I find them, they are there, I put them on – and one of the lenses is missing! :oldmad: Can't see any trace anywhere. But I wouldn't expect it to be able to. It was never seen again. I suspect a cleaning lady may have swept it up without seeing it either. C'est la vie.
 
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  • #26
Jonathan Scott said:
= "Quit your belly-aching" = "Stop making a fuss"
Ohhh. Wait... what? Hey!...

I wasn't making a fuss! I was scared. You hear me?! Scared!
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epenguin said:
And even when you've got all that taped what did my nice third pair of fogey reading glasses do? I find them, they are there, I put them on – and one of the lenses is missing! :oldmad: Can't see any trace anywhere. But I wouldn't expect it to be able to. It was never seen again. I suspect a cleaning lady may have swept it up without seeing it either. C'est la vie.
But were they prescription or over the counter? Prescription usually put the lenses very tight so they don't fall out. I have seen lenses falling out every time, but on over the counter eyeglasses.
 
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  • #27
Psinter said:
Ohhh. Wait... what? Hey!...

I wasn't making a fuss! I was scared. You hear me?! Scared!

But were they prescription or over the counter? Prescription usually put the lenses very tight so they don't fall out. I have seen lenses falling out every time, but on over the counter eyeglasses.
^^ very funnee.

Now you mention it, they were professional all right but they had in their last months developed a tendency for for a lens to pop out. But then I just picked it up and popped it back in again, then it was okay for a time. I never took them out of the house. But this time I hadn't noticed when the lens popped out, and it was never seen again. Lesson: don't tolerate this seemingly minor inconvenience but get them fixed in time! Wouldn't even have cost me anything. :oldmad:
 
  • #28
epenguin said:
^^ very funnee.

Now you mention it, they were professional all right but they had in their last months developed a tendency for for a lens to pop out. But then I just picked it up and popped it back in again, then it was okay for a time. I never took them out of the house. But this time I hadn't noticed when the lens popped out, and it was never seen again. Lesson: don't tolerate this seemingly minor inconvenience but get them fixed in time! Wouldn't even have cost me anything. :oldmad:
I see.

My previous frame broke and I used glue like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate to attach the lens. Needless to say I damaged the lens (it was to be expected :rolleyes:). In time not even that worked and one of the lenses kept falling. At that specific moment I didn't have money to get new ones, that's why I used the glue. The ones I have now are in perfect conditions though.

One has to be specially careful when around kids. Some kids are retarded and throw things at you without any care in the world. Last time I was around the kids of someone else they threw a plush doll at my face with considerable force and blew my eyeglasses to the floor. Luckily nothing happened because they are of high quality. I didn't do anything because they are kids, but I felt like throwing the plush doll back to their faces with triple the force. I just told them: "Listen kids, you can have fun, but please don't throw stuff at my face when my eyeglasses are on. Make sure I don't have eyeglasses if you are going to throw something at my face. The same goes for other people. If they have eyeglasses, you don't throw stuff at their faces. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't throw anything to anyone's face. Okay?"

So I safely stored the eyeglasses and they continued throwing plush dolls at my face. (-.-)
 
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