So early/mid 40s and noticed recently the mince pies arent quite as good as they used to be…. No worries it affect us all, I guess, at some point.

But today Ive sat down at the desk and there’s a marked deterioration.

Im wearing a colleague’s spare specs (Ive no idea what prescription they are) and they are helping a bit.

I’m thinking it’s a bit weird for it to happen kinda over night ??

How did your eyes “go”

degenerative eye disease struck in early adulthood leading to loss of sight in one eye and likely loss of sight* in the other before I die

Transplant can fix it but did not in my case.
One eye still Ok ish but obvs with issues other is merely ornamental and part of it is not even mine

You lucky lucky bastard go see an optician and revel in the amazing world of sight that awaits you with a simple fix

* technically clarity of vision rather than no vision but will be needing a dg and a stick at some point

If you have a sudden deterioration in your vision,it can be a sign of several unpleasant things,I would suggest you need to see a doctor and/or an optician without delay.

I was a bit late,but Junkyard is right.

It’s probably that you’ve only just noticed a gradual deterioration . . . but you really need to see a “proper” optician, to get your eye health checked (esp pressures within the eye).

Or not.

I’ve been wearing lenses / glasses for 20+ years. I was told 6 months ago that – as per everyone in thier mid forties – there’s a natural change in my cornea(hardening?) that will cause my prescription to change. With my specs on, I can’t read close to me, but I need them for longer distance. Likely to swap to bifocal but they won’t change my prescription until its all settled. Could be that!

Here: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/presbyopia.htm

And general old age.

blooming hell …. happy friday.

I was expecting the usual STW response …. some rubbish puns or a pic of someone wearing big bottlebottom glasses.

😯

Close up work started becoming difficult about 3 years ago, so in late 40’s. I now need reading glasses to read stuff close up + read a computer monitor etc. Only a low strength (1.25) though and just buy cheapo reading glasses from Poundland etc.

Ok so Esme … when you say “proper” I guess you don’t mean by the Saturday girl in Specsave.

So where then please ? ta

All those use qulified opticians Ro5ey – just go and get tested.

I’ve had a freebie test from Tesco and a paid (£24) from the local optician.

The difference was night and day. I’d pay the money every time, it was so much more thorough.

APF

Apart from glasses and lenses is there a good alternative for the normal shortening sighted ageing mtbers?

Ro5ey – Member
I was expecting the usual STW response

How many fingers am I holding up?

Too much ****, could also be the issue.

Ro5ey, if you tell us your location, I’m sure you’ll get some good recommendations. Or ask your friends and colleagues.

I was lucky enough to have an optician who worked part-time in her own practice, and also taught part-time at university. She was excellent on eye health, and not simply interested in selling me a new pair of glasses.

Ro5ey – Member
Ok so Esme … when you say “proper” I guess you don’t mean by the Saturday girl in Specsave.

So where then please ? ta
Nowt rong wit Specsavers! Seriously, I’ve been using them for some years for my contacts, their eye tests are very thorough, they do pressure tests and periferal vision tests, I’ve had no issues with my contacts at all, and the single vision glasses I’ve had made up recently, due to my improving vision I’m pretty much monovision, have been spot-on.
And cheap.
The staff are always very helpful as well.

Go to an opticians, in the last 18 months both my eyes have suffered a detached retina, without the ops i had i would now probably be blind. It might be a normal decline in your case, but the consequence’s? are too high if it is serious

CountZ … I was guessing the below, possibly even something like alex had up there.

and not simply interested in selling me a new pair of glasses.

Nothing stopping me going to a couple of places, aye ??

And home is sunny Brentwood essex …. but in town every day, if someone knows of anywhere good … ta

As Kryton says, stop masturbating.

Long term Specsavers contact lens customer here (20+ years) and have always had good service but it has noticeably improved in recent years. Friendly, knowledgeable staff who have time to answer questions, good aftercare, good value and good offers on glasses.

🙂

There’s more to it, after 45 or so (YMMV) the light gets restricted into the back of the eye causing deterioration and blurring. Sadly sweet chuff all you can realistically do about it apart from wearing specs.

I’ve been wearing varifocals for 4 years during work days and TV/reading, but out on the bike/water I’m fine when I don’t need detail.

It happens, but really is best you go see a qualified Optom.

Mid 40’s here and same issue, very sudden issue with 30 cm and closer. To read bearing numbers I take my glasses off.
Less beer goggles – more what the heck does the menu say.

I have used a number of opticians (Specsavers, Cubitts, Tesco, independents, etc.), and they have all been pretty good, but Specsavers have always been reliable.

Plus, you can get in for an appointment on the day, so it is worth giving them a call.

And if it makes you feel any better, my eye sight is crap and getting worse by the minute. Also, my dad had glaucoma, so I have to get tested annually.

One thing I’m dreading is eye sight going. Really annoys me that when i look at stars now. They’re a touch blurry or that i cant make the bus number out from miles away like i used to be able to. Only 39 and still decent sight. But i could see me getting alot worse as i head in to my 40s and 50s in particular.

Think i will get laser surgery at some point.

Ro5ey – if Watts and Wood are still going (near Shenfield) they were great when I was first getting contacts – I was at the limit of what could be done at the time (hefty astigmatism on top of short sight) and we went through about 3 or 4 iterations of trial pairs with various manufacturers before I paid them a penny. Moved away a good few years ago and have been with my 2nd optician ever since (that’s actual people, not companies).

Edit – yep still there

Home

Think i will get laser surgery at some point

The fact that all three optometrists that I have used wear glasses and chose not to undergo surgery (yes, I asked them) put me off, even though I have only minor myopia.

Thanks Purist

Already had them down to call tomorrow morning… defo will now … ta

And thanks all … I would have probably left it for a while longer… you’ve helped/scared me into sorting it quicker rather than later.

Well I’ve been on specs for over 50 years and generally the only clue you get that eyesight is worsening is when you have the next test, so usually very gradual changes. However, a couple of years ago I had a “sudden” event. 3 months after getting new specs I noticed the vision had changed dramatically in one eye. Now I’ve been going to an outpatients eye clinic for some time for elevated pressures in the eyes (which may or may not have been caused by glaucoma), so this was picked up pretty quickly. I was sent off for some fancy laser measurement stuff to check the cornea condition. Everything came back OK and the conclusion was “just one of those things that happen”. A byproduct of the corneal measurements was that the thicknesses were high – something which tends to artificially increase the results of the ocular pressure tests. Following on from that and years of observation of my eye condition, I’m now told the pressures are normal, I don’t have glaucoma and I’m off the drugs I was on to reduce the pressures.

So, it’s not necessarily that you are going blind or your eyeballs are about to fall out. Get an eye test, it sounds as though you probably need correction anyway.

Can some of the backoffice IT crowd in here bump up the text size, there’s a luv.

who said that ?

Slowoldman, can I ask what the pressures were please, and your age? PM if you’d prefer 🙂

EDIT: And what this corneal thickness business is? I’m asking for my Dad who is currently getting shoved around a circle of NHS bullcrap* with glaucoma, and treated like he’s just another case, rather than a person.

*Yeah, I’m sure they do a great job etc, but he’s getting treated like crap with a total absence of discussion or explanation as to the situation, and has been for years. Just “it’s the Glaucoma” now “do this or you’ll lose your sight”. He’s an intelligent, healthy man and he deserves some element of being treated as such. It’s infuriating.

Sorry. Rant.

Another edit:

Can some of the backoffice IT crowd in here bump up the text size, there’s a luv.

Sodding hilarious as usual.

I’m 63. It took 12 years visiting the eye clinic and taking Zalatan drops to reduce the pressures before I was eventually told “well no you’ve never actually been diagnosed with Glaucoma – just high pressures”. To be fair medical opinion and knowledge is constantly changing.

My pressures were around 24-26 without the drops, down to about 16-18 with. if you have thickened corneas they are less elastic so respond differently to the rod that they wind into your eyeball to check the pressures. The increased resistance is seen as a higher pressure by the instrument. This only cropped up in the last year or so, but for my corneal thickness they say they can knock 6 of the pressure readings. That gets me below 20 without drops which (given I apparently don’t have glaucoma after all) is considered acceptable.

Since being taken off the drops the pressures remained stable between 6 month checkups and I’m now not going back for 12 months. But I am going back – this stuff needs to be kept under review, the last thing you want is blindness.

Oh I have a very good optician too who apart from pressure tests routinely photographs my eyes to be able to keep an eye on any deterioration. So far everything seems pretty good.

I do recognise the lack of information you speak of though and it varies a good deal from one consultant to the next. Actually the person who told me glaucoma hadn’t been diagnosed was the nurse practitioner who was very chatty and gave me lots of information. I would suggest your dad tries “I know this bloke who says…”

bearnecessities – Member
Sodding hilarious as usual.

POSTED 30 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Shirley you mean “boringly predictable”

Thank you. Don’t wish to put upon you, but if you wouldn’t mind, a quick five minute chat at some time at your convenience would really be appreciated.

Dad’s been so lacking in such insight and I’m just going in circles on Google.

I’m 36 and have had glaucoma since I was 18. My eyes have lost a lot of their peripheral vision and things are constantly on edge. They’ll never recover the lost sight and I’m on a host of drops every day just now. I’ve had a tube implanted in my left eye and the doc is worried about the right eye pressure and wants to put a tube in that one too.

I’m worried that less than halfway through my life they’re in this state…how long will I have sight for? So I try to ignore the thought!

It’s quite normal to need glasses at your age and it’s nothing to worry about. It is annoying…I dream of having perfectly working eyes, being able to rub my face without glasses in the way, or wear whatever sunglasses I like. Maybe one day they’ll do transplants!

Bit late to the conversation, but vote for Specsavers being OK from me too.

47 and I have macular degeneration, pretty much stable and onhold but there’s a noticable distortion in the centre of my right eye. I get appointments at the local hospital every couple of months for a checkup.

Treatment is injections in the eyeball so not too much fun.

Specsavers is my nearest optician and they’ve done alright for the general vision stuff, they can’t do anything about the distortion as that’s the retina that’s faulty rather than the optics. They have noticed the damage on the retina scan, so if I wasn’t already getting treatment they’d tell me to go get it looked at.

@bearnecessities
Did you get my PM?

So got my minces tested saturday… all good, just getting old.

Optician said I’ll be good for a few more years yet, but I may well get days like friday if I’m overly tired or stressed.

So I got a pair of cheapies to leave on my desk… my pals glasses defo helped last friday so a set of my own will be even better…. Heres hoping I dont have to use them too much.

But the added bonus…. as I was in there, I arrange for the kids eyes to get tested…. Daughter all good but the lad is coloured blind (which we kind of knew) and may have a very small astigmatism that they will check again in 3 months.

And so another STW thread ends without drama and the OP could have sorted it himself without involving the masses.

But thanks again all