Getting used to glasses RX - how long should it take?

[minkeygirl]

I finally got new glasses since my old prescription was 5 years old and I was having some problems. My left eye was better, my right a little worse.

I get my eyes examined and get the new prescription with progressive lenses which I've been wearing for years. I also have astigmatisms.

The first few days I had a stabbing pain in my right eye and a headache which has gone away. But it feels like someone is pressing on the outer corner of my eyeball with their thumb for midrange and near vision.

I'm on day 6 now and although the headache and pain is gone I'm still having problems. It is really affecting my midrange and close vision. How long should it take? Someone suggested that the muscles in our eyes are affected by the ME?

I'm gonna hang on for a few more weeks only because I can't get back before then. But man it's frustrating to have the worst problems when I'm on my computer.

Mink

BTW, I always seem to have problems with my right eye when I get new glasses. I also don't wear my glasses when I'm just watching TV.

 

[Hugocfs]

I'd normally say 7-10 days max. Hopefully it keeps getting more tolerable as time goes on.

In my case, I could never get use to progressives. They drove me crazy. I felt like a bird moving its head around every time I wanted to look at something in a different place. Couldn't use my normally shifty eyes.

 

[minkeygirl]

I've had progressives for years so I don't think that is the problem. I just tried again and after an hour my eye is throbbing. So "Check Please" I'm done. After 6 days the pain should be gone.

I'll take them back to be checked and if it's my eyeballs I'll just get 2 pairs of single vision. One for reading one for computer.

Ugh

 

[caledonia]

I recently went from single vision lenses to progressive bifocals. It was about a week on the upper/distance part of the lens and about a month on the lower/bifocal part. I don't think there should be any headaches/throbbing, just that sort of fishbowl effect and maybe some dizziness from that. I don't have astigmatism though. Been wearing glasses since I was a wee lass, and I'm almost an old lady now

 

[minkeygirl]

I've been wearing glasses for years also and progressives for years. Think the issues is the astigmatism.

I gave up. I can't see on my computer. I'm going to take them back, give them one more shot, IF they are wrong. if they are right then I'll get one pair reading and one for computer online for cheap. Then it won't matter if I roll over on them.

And I got a giant floater in my left eye that looks like a fly is floating inside. So annoying.

Mink

(I'm an ex ohio girl caledonia, I escaped)

 

[heapsreal]

Not suppose to see the pool boy from your Window? ??
Binoculars might work better; )

 

[alex3619]

Getting used to new glasses can take weeks. However I have now given up on them entirely. My vision changes so much during the course of a day, and during crashes and the rare better times, that any prescription is a nonsense for me now. The glasses would have to adjust to my eyes twenty times a day. Its not going to happen.

 

[minkeygirl]

Not suppose to see the pool boy from your Window? ??
Binoculars might work better; )

I can see far, so the pool boy is no problem, it's reading my porn that is the issue. LOL

Alex, I never had such a problem before but it's been 5 years. But I can't read or use my computer without them. I'll see if the RX is wrong. If not then I'll have to get some single vision for reading and mid range.

Oh the joys of ME.

Mink

 

[ukxmrv]

Mink, I got my first pair of progressive spectacles a month ago and after the first week I was really happy with them. It was just eye strain that was bad in the first week and my eyes got very sore. I've also got astigmatism in both eyes. Until now I've been using single vision specs but my eyes had changed through age.

Do you have dry eyes? Mine felt oddly more dry when I was going through that first week. Now all OK.

Hope this can be sorted out soon.

 

[peggy-sue]

Dry eyes can be fixed quickly with some OTC artificial tears - hypromellose.

I assume progressives are the same as varifocals?

I got a pair of varifocals, I wore them for a whole month of constant headaches and not being able to see what I'm looking for. I do not normally get headaches.
I'm simply one of the folk who cannot cope with them.

I have had a fair amount of trouble with glasses and my eyesight.
I was always long-sighted - so with age, this has deteriorated rapidly. I have had astigmatisms develop as the shape of my eyeball is changing from a rugby ball into a Cuban cigar.

I currently have 4 pairs of glasses for different distances, I can never find the ones I need.

I keep getting startled (I have a very low threshold for the startle effect) by things suddenly appearing in different parts of my focal ranges, or from outside of it.
I keep banging into things I didn't notice.

Recently, I have been in the position of needing my eyes retested and probably new glasses.

I lost my "distance" pair, the set I used for watching tv, which were pretty useless - I couldn't read subtitles.
But I accidentally found the OLD distance pair I had, the prescription before last.

They're wonderful!
FAR better than the later prescription.

I think I was having a really bad time with my eyes when I was tested fror the later pair.

I have since been into the opticians and told them this. They have been very kind and helpful. They might know nothing at all about ME, but they have not judged or doubted me.
They have accepted everything I have told them about having troubles with my eye muscles, about the daily variation and so on,
and are now going to work with how I feel about how well my eyes are doing. They're even going to retest if I think I need it.

This does not solve my problem of juggling between 4 different pairs of glasses and finding the right ones at the right time.
Or the frustration of having had wonderful eyesight, which has now gone forever. Hey-ho.

 

[vamah]

At least with glasses you don't end up doing what I had been for the past few days: putting my contacts in the wrong eye. I had wondered why everything looked fuzzy.

 

[peggy-sue]

Aah the joys of the ME brain, Vamah.

I did not have my glasses on when I put my nicotine juice into my eye instead of my hypromellose...

Not a clever thing to do. Thankfully, the style of the bottle has been changed so I won't be able to make that mistake again.

@Minkeygirl, my optician told me I should not have persevered as long as a whole month with the varifocals. They told me if I hadn't managed to adapt within a couple of weeks, then I was not going to adapt at all.

I'm not sure I successfully tagged Minkeygirl. I put in the @ then I coloured it blue, because I couldn't find a "tag" thingy to use....

 

[maryb]

peggy-sue
I think its probably because its not a capital m?

glasses I've given up - had some new ones last year felt dizzy and sick - went back and had old lenses prescription put back into my old frames, cost me a bomb but feeling like rubbish sucks more.
If I ever (when I) get back to driving I'll have to wear the new ones though.

 

[peggy-sue]

Not just the wrong capitalisation maryb - it's the name that is blue, not the @.

I'm actually relying completely on auto-pilot at the moment.
I only appear to be alive and functioning.

 

[minkeygirl]

Mink, I got my first pair of progressive spectacles a month ago and after the first week I was really happy with them. It was just eye strain that was bad in the first week and my eyes got very sore. I've also got astigmatism in both eyes. Until now I've been using single vision specs but my eyes had changed through age.

Do you have dry eyes? Mine felt oddly more dry when I was going through that first week. Now all OK.

Hope this can be sorted out soon.

Thanks all.

I tried again yesterday. After about an hour, besides feeling like someone was pressing on my eyeballs I had stabbing pain in the right one and a headache. I kept them on for a few hours after that and it never got better.

And YES, my eyes were really dry. I have had DES for a few years and I had been having no problems until I put them on. When it's that bad drops don't help so I use Unisol 4.

I'm too tired to go back to the optometrist this week, and I have to get some blood work next week so I'll go after that. If the rx is right then I'm going to have to get a few different pairs. What is great is there are a few places online where I can get the first pair free and Just pay low shipping.

So to summarize, after 6 days and an inability to see when I"m on the computer (the most important for me) and stabbing pains in my right eye, there's no way I can do a few weeks of this. And when I take them off and put on my old ones my eyes hurt for hours. So I'm done.

Oh and Peggy-sue, I don't even know how to highlight.

Is there some medical thing I can tell them? What a hassle.

Thanks all

Minks

 

[peggy-sue]

I simply told my opticians that I have ME, that my body doesn't produce energy in the normal way and it causes my muscles to only respond slowly and not strongly enough.
This means that my eyes do not always accommodate or focus to cope with what is happening; and this is a variable thing, depending on how well I am at the time.

 

[minkeygirl]

I simply told my opticians that I have ME, that my body doesn't produce energy in the normal way and it causes my muscles to only respond slowly and not strongly enough.
This means that my eyes do not always accommodate or focus to cope with what is happening; and this is a variable thing, depending on how well I am at the time.

Thanks peggy-sue. I think that my eye muscles and tendons are just as weak as the rest of my muscles. I hadn't even thought of that when getting new glasses.

Thanks ME. The gift that keeps on giving.

Minks

Oh has anyone tried trifocals? I wonder how hard that would be vs dealing with 3 pairs of glasses.

Do you think it was the progressives that were the problem or the new prescription? Would single vision glasses solve it? I'm confused.

 

[peggy-sue]

Muscles in the eyes work (or don't) the same way as all your other skeletal muscles.

There are tiny muscles which pull the lens in your eye into the correct shape in order to focus on the thing you are focussing on. If you shift your eyes to look at something else further away, the muscles have to pull the lens into a different shape, to focus there.

There are other tiny muscles which open and restrict the pupil size, in order to accomodate how much light is around.

Vision is an incredibly complicated sense.

 

[KRR]

Just one point to add here.. there are SO many different types of progressive lenses, so don't assume that just because you were comfortable with progressives before that you will be this time. You might ask your optician about different options for types of lenses that might be more comfortable for you, and usually they will switch them for no extra charge.

I had to try about 4 times before getting something I could live with! Could not tolerate the usual progressives that incorporate distance and reading both. So I ended up with a separate pair of reading glasses that has just a slight progressive lens that gives my visual field a few feet further on the top part, so I can lift my head up from a book and see a few other things too!

 

[ukxmrv]

Something that the Optician mentioned in relation to astigmatism was glare and how coating on the lense could help with this. My old specs had a coating that was designed to cut down on this.

I remember moving from one pair to another years ago and getting very bad eye strain. The solution was putting on another type of anti-glare coating. Same prescription but a stronger anti-glare coating,

Noe sure if this is helpful or not but wanted to mention just in case.