Middle Age: Where I Actually Go Blind
I'm scared I won't be able to see when I'm 50. If I make it to 50.
I've always had poor vision, especially in my right eye. My misshapen head grew disproportionately on the right side, so my eye sockets elongated....blah blah blah. I'm functionally blind without glasses. Have been since I was 8.
I learned to deal with it. I wore glasses reliably through all of my school (including college) and finally got a set of Toric contact lenses when I was 21, and I was had actual peripheral vision until I dispensed with the contacts around age 32. They were just too much trouble.
Fast forward to last year. Thirty nine years old, and "Wow, you have a HUGE cataract!" I'd noticed I had zero depth perception, and I increasingly just could not see at work. The last straw was a trip to KY where driving at night was, well, a nightmare. My eye dominance was effectively 95% left and 5% right. The Opthamologist was almost gleeful; I'd need surgery to replace the cataract lens with a synthetic lens immediately.
He also managed to make my right eye better than my left, but not perfect. I still had massive astigmatism (football shaped eyeballs).
In any case, I thought things were better, horrible waking-anaesthesia of the procedure notwithstanding. ("LOOK DOWN, HAROLD!")
Six months on, I'm not so sure. I have no close-up vision any more. I have to take my glasses off to see anything up-close. My right eye continues to meander between good and WTF. I can't read well any more. Trying to do anything in dim lighting up-close is a struggle.
Functionally, I'm farsighted now. Driving is fine. Things far-away are fine.
Things on a screen are. Not. Fine.
Oops, that's what I do to make a living.
This is an ongoing situation; we'll see how things go from here.
I've always had poor vision, especially in my right eye. My misshapen head grew disproportionately on the right side, so my eye sockets elongated....blah blah blah. I'm functionally blind without glasses. Have been since I was 8.
I learned to deal with it. I wore glasses reliably through all of my school (including college) and finally got a set of Toric contact lenses when I was 21, and I was had actual peripheral vision until I dispensed with the contacts around age 32. They were just too much trouble.
Fast forward to last year. Thirty nine years old, and "Wow, you have a HUGE cataract!" I'd noticed I had zero depth perception, and I increasingly just could not see at work. The last straw was a trip to KY where driving at night was, well, a nightmare. My eye dominance was effectively 95% left and 5% right. The Opthamologist was almost gleeful; I'd need surgery to replace the cataract lens with a synthetic lens immediately.
He also managed to make my right eye better than my left, but not perfect. I still had massive astigmatism (football shaped eyeballs).
In any case, I thought things were better, horrible waking-anaesthesia of the procedure notwithstanding. ("LOOK DOWN, HAROLD!")
Six months on, I'm not so sure. I have no close-up vision any more. I have to take my glasses off to see anything up-close. My right eye continues to meander between good and WTF. I can't read well any more. Trying to do anything in dim lighting up-close is a struggle.
Functionally, I'm farsighted now. Driving is fine. Things far-away are fine.
Things on a screen are. Not. Fine.
Oops, that's what I do to make a living.
This is an ongoing situation; we'll see how things go from here.
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