pebblerocker | (no subject)

Today I passed a woman going down the road using crutches, and she was wearing a badge saying "I have low vision". Interesting -- not something I've seen before -- is it useful to her to carry a label telling people something about her they might not notice? -- what sort of changes does the badge make to the way she gets around in the world? I wonder.

I was also sent off along a different thought train because of the irony that it was my partner who saw the badge and told me what it said; my vision isn't good enough to have read it myself, without my glasses on. Boyfriend's vision is similarly poor (we can borrow each other's glasses for brief sign-reading etc) but he wears his glasses most of the time and thinks I should do the same. I find my glasses uncomfortable and fatiguing and they make it hard for me to see things close up (arm too short to read my watch with them on!) so I put them on when they're useful to me (when I'll be looking at exclusively far-off things which I need to see in detail) and the rest of the time I have strategies for working with the eyes I've got. To me boyfriend's attitude to glasses tastes of doctor-knows-best medical compliancism, but he says wearing glasses doesn't hurt his eyes like it does mine.

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Everyone's eyes are different- for me, glasses are strictly time-limited as they give me headaches due to the stress of brain reconciling *very* different prescription on each eye. I used to wear contacts all the time, but my last visit I wound up with lenses that wouldn't let me see the computer monitor or handwork, so I gave up on vision correction and just lean and squint.

*Nods*
A difference between my eyes is four dioptries and wearing my glasses on for a long time makes me dizzy. I have to wear them when driving though.

Have you considered contact lenses? My eyes are very different and I can't wear glasses for that reason, but lenses do a good job.

Well, this was my first thought. But I have chronical problems that prevent me from using the lenses. I tried. Thank you!

I have to wear hard ones because of my right eye's condition, but a lot of people can get away with soft ones which are a lot more comfortable.

I'd have a laser operation, but my eyes are too crap for that too.

Ah, I'm glad to hear your experience of not being able to see close up with your "corrected" vision! From my partner and from optometrists I have been told that problems in my (normally excellent) near vision when wearing glasses are sort of my problem, and I should just "get used" to wearing the glasses all the time... and that if I have trouble seeing close up, that means I should look at getting reading glasses too.

(If this is any help to you -- I have set my browser to display a certain minimum text size, so I don't need to lean closer to the screen, perhaps it would work for you too?)

I figure if they can't correct your vision to what YOU want without added inconvenience to you, it's their failure, not your responsibility to learn how to suffer in silence.

From time to time I think about going back to an eye-guy, only this time bringing test cards to wear around my neck at the distance I need for hand/computer work and making SURE the lenses work for me. There was no need to correct BOTH my eyes for long distance.

Yes, I set the browser for a minimum font size- unfortunately some of the flash games I play a lot are fixed size graphics. I have got a few workarounds, for games that aren't time-dependent I use a screen shot program and expand the image and study it before going back to the game.

Reading this reminds me that I am extremely lucky. After all, my eyes are still quite able and relatively healthy. I didn´t know you had such problems.
And you are a very brave girl!!!*Hugs*

*Hugs*!! My eyes are not at all bad really, I don't think they hold me back and they're not deteriorating. Doubtless someone with perfect sight would be upset to wake up looking through my eyes, but I'm used to them :o)