redbird | Entries tagged with eyeglasses

I picked up my new computer glasses today, and I hope getting used to the kind of bifocals with lines doesn't take too long. My regular eyeglasses are progressive bifocals, but the optician recommended these, and I generally trust his judgment, enough to go a bit out of the way to get my glasses from him.

This is Ron in Arlington Center, who assured me that he has no intention of retiring any time soon: is shorter hours are a response to having fewer customers because of covid, and he is planning to start being open until 4 and eventually 5 as business picks up. I'd thought he might be easing into retirement -- his website advertises "52 years of experience"-- but he told me he loves his work, and is hoping for another ten years or so. He also gave me a bottle of the eyeglass-cleaning solution I like; it turns out that the reason I hadn't been able to find it online is that the company only sells it to opticians and optometrists. Ron gives it away to his customers, because it wasn't worth the hassle to calculate and pay sales tax at the end of the year. (Massachusetts doesn't charge sales tax on eyeglasses.)

I had lunch at the little Mexican restaurant in Arlington Center, which I ate sitting at one of the tables outside the restaurant, and then took the T to Central Square. Tosci's didn't have any really interesting (to me) flavors, so I got a hit fudge sundae with strawberry ice cream, and didn't get a pint of anything to bring home. Tosci's is now open again at the same location in Central Square, Cambridge (different physical building, on the same block), as well as the store on First Street.

On my way to the optician, I went to CVS and got dry-mouth spray, a hand brace (for sleeping in, the right-handed version of the left-hand brace I already have), and small chemical heating pads.

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I have seen the eye doctor for my annual exam, and all is well, -including the optic nerves and corneas, both of which we need to monitor. (The optic nerves because I had optic neuritis 20 years ago, and the corneas because there's a thickening that may or may not ever get bad enough to be a problem.)

I have a new eyeglass prescription, if I want to bother filling it. It's very similar to the glasses I'm wearing now (and got two years ago). The technician found a setting that gave me 20/25 vision instead of 20/30, but Dr. Lazarra said that on a different day it might not be any better than the current prescription. I'm in no hurry to try on glasses while wearing a mask, but had them print it out and took it with me in case I need it. The paper is currently sitting on a table at

adrian_turtle's, because I didn't have a bag with me, and I will bring it home in a couple of days.

Adrian lives right around the corner from the eye doctor's office, so

cattitude and I met her for lunch outdoors beforehand, and I went to her place after the eye exam to have a cup of tea.

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Or at least lots of travel in order to run those errands:

After spending last night with

adrian_turtle, I took a bus from her place to Trader Joe's. I wasn't planning to buy vegetables, but the produce section is just inside the door, and they had asparagus. $1.99/bunch is a good price, even in season, so I bought two bundles of asparagus, which is more than enough for two people. Or it's enough to be most of if a dinner, if the two people are us.

cattitude made a very nice sauce for the asparagus; we ate lots of asparagus, and then a little bit of ham to fill in the corners.

I also found most of what was on the TJ's part of my shopping list: dried cherries, frozen fish, and "anything else that looks good in the freezer aisle," which turned into latkes, at Adrian's suggestion. Since we're stocking up a little, I got two kinds of dried cherries instead of one, and three packages of fish: two packages of sockeye salmon fillets and one of tuna steaks.

I noticed a couple of smudges on my glasses while I was out, but neither lens cloths and the lens-cleaning spray the optician gave me, nor soap and hot water, got them off. So I went back to Arlington Center, hoping Ron (the optician) could fix it, but prepared to ask about replacing just one lens.

I don't know what Ron did, but it worked. He took my glasses to the back of the shop. When he came back out, he handed them to me with a cheerful "Abracadabra." They were as good as new, and I thanked him and left.

Since there was still plenty of room in the freezer, I stopped at Lizzy's in Harvard Square and got two containers of ice cream.

That was all useful and a good use of energy and attention, but by the time I got home the second time I was worn out enough to not to do PT exercises. But tomorrow is another day.

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I just instilled the last post-surgical eye drop in my right eye. I am glad; I'd gotten comfortable with the process, but I will now have less to keep track of, and fewer medications to take with me if I'm going to Adrian's overnight.

The one-month follow-up appointment is a week from tomorrow, and I expect to walk out of there with an eyeglass prescription to take to the nice optician in Arlington Center. I need a pair of glasses that I can use for reading and to correct the astigmatism. I don't know yet whether I want bifocals; that will depend partly on what Dr. Lazzara says, and what amount of correction my eyes need now that they're healed after the surgery.

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tl;dr: all is well

I had the one-week follow-up appointment after the cataract surgery on my second eye today. All is well; there's a bit of swelling, but no more than would be expected. I have the doctor's okay to resume normal activities--exercise other than swimming, leaning forward, carrying more than eight pounds, sleeping without the eye shield. The doctor sent me home with samples of the two kinds of eye drops I still need, the Durezol that the insurance won't cover, which is what I had called and asked for, and the Ilevro, which is covered but still not cheap.

I have one more follow-up appointment, in mid-April, at which time Dr. Lazzara will prescribe new eyeglasses. In the meantime, I have to make do with the drugstore reading glasses. I told the doctor I was having trouble reading my computer monitor, because it's at an inconvenient distance, and he suggested I try a weaker prescription, maybe +0.75 or +1.0 (I'm using +2.0 for reading on paper or with the kindle). I have now measured the distance from where I normally sit to the monitor, and am going to try drugstore glasses while holding something to read about a foot and a half away.

I am enjoying being able to see, though not read, without glasses; it's weird having to remember to take my glasses off to see properly when not reading. I figure I'm going to want prescription glasses that can deal with the astigmatism; I may buy small ones that I can look over, rather than something complicated in the way of bifocals. That's a decision for next month at the earliest, but thinking about it now seems reasonable.

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I can't tell if the skin on my hand is drier than it was, or if I'm just seeing it more closely than I'm used it.

The drugstore reading glasses are good for closeup work, which apparently includes looking down at my own right hand; usable for my computer (and I am going try moving the monitor close to my chair to see if that helps; and actively counter-productive for medium-distance things like, say, walking into the bedroom. This means I keep noticing that I forgot to remove my glasses. (The cheap non-prescription sunglasses are fine for walking around outside, riding the bus, etc., but I need the reading glasses to use the Transit app on my phone.)

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I got up at 6:30 this morning to go to the eye doctor. He looked at my eyes, after an assistant checked the pressure in both eyes, and says I'm healing reasonably well. ( medical bits )

I have another follow-up appointment this coming Tuesday, after which I hope to be able to go back to most normal activities, but Dr. Lazzara said he likes to wait for the one-month follow-up before writing a new eyeglass prescription. Right now I'm trying to decide whether to go look at over-the-counter reading glasses tomorrow, because the pair I've had for a week isn't quite right for the left eye, or give the right eye another day or two to heal first, which would also mean I didn't have to go anywhere tomorrow..

Current Mood: tired

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I saw Dr. Lazzara yesterday afternoon. He was pleased with how well I'm healing, and suggested I either buy non-prescription reading glasses at the drugstore, have the glass removed from the left side of my spectacles, or both.

We stopped at the CVS on the way home, told them I don't need those eye drop prescriptions yet and might not ever, and I bought a cheap pair of (+2.5) reading glasses. Those turned out to work okay for the operated-on left eye but, unsurprisingly, not so well for my right eye. So after dinner cattitude got out one of his tiny screwdrivers and took the left lens out of my glasses, and I'm doing pretty well that way.

My pupil is still dilated enough from the eyedrops they put in Tuesday that I'm seeing random bright flickering on my left in any well-lighted room, but this has diminished significantly since yesterday.

Cattitude and I went for a walk after lunch, because he felt the need and I thought it would be fun. Blue sky, bright sunlight, and fresh snow reflecting the light, so I got out an old pair of vaguely goggle-shaped prescription sunglasses to see if they would protect my eyes sufficiently to enjoy a walk. To my pleased surprise, I could see quite well as we walked down the Community Path to Davis. I got these glasses more than seven years ago, and had stopped using them, I think partly because my vision changed over time and partly because I decided the self-darkening kind were more convenient.

I am having to remind myself that I am recovering from surgery three days ago and shouldn't push myself. Yes, it's minor surgery, nothing like when I had my gall bladder out, but healing takes some of the body's energy. (And now it's time for another dose of one of the eye drops.)

Current Mood: happy

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A couple of people I know have reported good results recently with ordering eyeglasses cheaply online. I'm tempted to get either a spare pair of the progressives; a pair of distance-only prescription sunglasses; or even both. The only thing is, their lenses are all polycarbonate. I had trouble with glasses a couple of years ago, which the optician suggested might have been because of the material. "Might" because it was also a different prescription. At that time, I went back to the other kind of plastic, and I made a point of ordering that for the pair I had made a month ago.

Any thoughts or advice--based on optics, materials science, neurology, or personal experience--on the topic are welcome. Here's what I posted two years ago, two posts a couple of weeks apart:

The optician--not an apprentice this time--adjusted both the earpieces and the nose pads, and it seems better, though I do keep reaching to slide them back a fraction of a millimeter. She also measured the previous glasses, and compared them, to try to figure out why I've been having some headache and eyestrain.
It turns out that the new prescription is stronger in both eyes for the astigmatism, but has lessdistance correction in the right eye than the previous. The right eye is where I'd been noticing strain. The plan is to wear these for a week or so--not switching back to the previous prescription--and see if that does the job. If it doesn't, I can get the lenses remade in the same plastic as the previous set; the new ones are polycarbonate, which is lighter, but it seems that any change can cause difficulties for the eyes and brain.

I'm returning my new eyeglasses, and having them remade in the plastic of my previous lenses, and without the self-darkening coating, for three reasons:
I'm still not quite adjusted to them, and the optician suggested that the problem might be the change to polycarbonate.

The darkened lenses let in enough light to cause eyestrain, because itgets in past the edges of the glasses. They also aren't entirely clear indoors, though the shading is subtle.

I cannot get them to stay clean for more than about five minutes, whether I use soap and water, the special cleaning stuff the optician sold me, or just my shirttail.

This means going back to the old, heavy glasses for at least a week, but it needs doing. I'd probably be returning them even if it were only that self-darkening lenses don't work for me, but I might have kept the polycarbonate if so.

These wouldn't be my only glasses--except in the sense that if I have a spare pair, and I lose or badly damage the main ones, I would use them instead of going back to the previous prescription while waiting for a new pair to be made.

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The optician--not an apprentice this time--adjusted both the earpieces and the nose pads, and it seems better, though I do keep reaching to slide them back a fraction of a millimeter. She also measured the previous glasses, and compared them, to try to figure out why I've been having some headache and eyestrain.
It turns out that the new prescription is stronger in both eyes for the astigmatism, but has lessdistance correction in the right eye than the previous. The right eye is where I'd been noticing strain. The plan is to wear these for a week or so--not switching back to the previous prescription--and see if that does the job. If it doesn't, I can get the lenses remade in the same plastic as the previous set; the new ones are polycarbonate, which is lighter, but it seems that any change can cause difficulties for the eyes and brain.

I'm returning my new eyeglasses, and having them remade in the plastic of my previous lenses, and without the self-darkening coating, for three reasons:
I'm still not quite adjusted to them, and the optician suggested that the problem might be the change to polycarbonate.

The darkened lenses let in enough light to cause eyestrain, because itgets in past the edges of the glasses. They also aren't entirely clear indoors, though the shading is subtle.

I cannot get them to stay clean for more than about five minutes, whether I use soap and water, the special cleaning stuff the optician sold me, or just my shirttail.

This means going back to the old, heavy glasses for at least a week, but it needs doing. I'd probably be returning them even if it were only that self-darkening lenses don't work for me, but I might have kept the polycarbonate if so.

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Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Don't mourn, organize

computer glasses

eye doctor

lots of errands

Finished the eye drops

another eye exam

an oddity of improved vision

(no subject)

Enjoying my new/improved eyesight

Contemplating spare glasses

Contemplating spare glasses

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