Progressive lenses - aaaarrrgh!

Anyone else use these? I've been wearing single-vision eyeglasses for over 35 years and last year tried bifocals for the first time. Couldn't stand it so I've been using 2 pairs of glasses: One for reading and one for everything else.

Well, that's a real hassle, so I decided to try the "progressive" lenses which gradually go from distance to reading vision. It's been a week and they're driving me crazy!! The optician told me it would take a while to get used to, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible. The worst part is trying to read - I just can't find the right spot to look through to get decent focus.

Do any of y'all have these, and what is your experience with them?

I have them, and it's never perfect. At the computer, I feel like a pigeon with my head bobbing up and down while I type and then look at my paperwork.
I do have to say that I think it will get better for you in a couple of days to a couple more weeks. That is, if you have the right prescription.
Good luck!

It will get better Norma.........it's a matter of the mind adjusting to the lenses and the focal lengths, which change at intervals of 1/4 diopter increments. Make sure that your glasses are adjusted properly, this is vital to the success of you adaptation. The glasses should have a panoscoptic tilt of 15-20 degrees, to allow for a more natural progression, and will help eleviate the "Seasick" feeling by removing the area of the blend out of your direct range of vision. Hope this helps!!

"eyes"

I have had these kind of lenses for 3 years now - and I love them. My husband warned me not to get them because of the bifocal stereotype of taking big steps to compensate when walking - and doing the bob of the head stuff. My vision must have been so bad that I went directly from reading glasses into these and never missed a beat. Now it is time for a new pair - I can tell that I'm getting eyestrain at the computer. I have found though - if your focal point of your eyes are not measured correctly - then your eyes will pull to that point in the lenses and cause the seasickness feeling - maybe they gave you a bad measurement and you need to have it checked somewhere independant of where you purchased them.

LOL, Celia! I know what you mean about the head bobbing - I'm the same way trying to read the paper!

Thanks, eyes - I'd forgotten this is your area of expertise! One of my problems is remembering to turn my head to look directly at an object. Not having the entire lense available for viewing gets frustrating. It does seem better when I "forget" to try and focus. Guess that the less I think about it, the better off I'll be.

Hi Swoznick - sounds like there's hope for me yet! I'm going to try and be patient for a couple more weeks and see if it gets better. Thanks!


This message was edited Tuesday, Aug 27th 12:49 PM

Just keep a couple packets of soda crackers nearby and eat them when you get woozy. Food in the stomach gives the body something else to concentrate on.....

Several years ago I needed glasses for reading. The optometrist told me that that I also have astigmatism and showed me how correcting for that made distant things much sharper. I opted for progressive lens and had them cut higher than normal so that I would not have to lift my head as much to read the computer screen.

Since then my prescription has changed a number of times but I have never considered bi-focals. I am completely comfortable.

I do know of others who have abandoned progressive lenses. I have always gotten mine from LensCrafters and I do not know if that is part of my success.

Has nothing to do with it George. It's the fitting of the lens prescribed by the optometrist or Opthalmologist. And ultimately the Optician.

"eyes:

My first pair of bifocals were the progressive kind, and I could NOT adjust to them. They were just way too irritating. Now I have regular bifocals, and a pair of computer glasses. I get my glasses when they have a 2 for 1 sale. The computer glasses are the same prescription as the bottom part of my bifocals. My system works great for me!

I've been wearing the progressive lenses for about a year now. I had no trouble adapting to them. My Mother has been wearing them for years and every so often the lenses aren't made correctly and they have to be re-done. Once they put the lenses in upside down. We have found a very good optician and this is my second pair of glasses they made and my eye doctor says they are very well made. We both had the newest kind of Virilux (sp) lenses and I think that may have made the difference for me at least. I've been dreading the day I had to get bi-focals. I actually had my first pair of bi-focals in grade school and fell down the stairs. I haven't had any problems with these. I would go back to the place where you got them and have them checked out. Good luck.

I had those once and it was a wasted couple hundred bucks. The spot for reading was so tiny I had to turn my head to read newspaper columns. Aarrrggggggg! is right! They're not for me!

I've worn them for years and had no trouble getting used to them. My Optomitrist told me only varilux would do good on me so I bought into it and had varilux for years before I tried the cheaper equivilant and couldn't see any difference at all. I think I just learned to move my head out out necessity. The only problem I have, is that I can't lay in bed and read. Just can't do it. Shoot! I think if you give it a couple of weeks, you will adjust to them . Lou

I've worn both bifocals and now the progressive. I ordered bifocals this time and they accidently made the progressive ones in my prescription so I didn't have to pay any more for them. It took me about 5 weeks to get used to them I had the feeling of motionsickness for that time and then all of a sudden I woke up and they were fine and have been since. I don't even have problems reading in bed with them. TV watching in bed is different but I mastered that too. Now I will not go back to the bifocals again. Good luck, Lani

I started out with progressives, about 20 years ago. The first day, I tripped going up the steps getting in the house. Then I tripped going out down the steps. After a few days, as I recall, it gradually got better - I can't imagine having a line across the middle of my glasses. I have had many pairs since then never had any more trouble. I think if they are really fitted properly you will get used to them.

Cutting edge surgery was my solution!!!

I had it with bi-focals, tri-focals, drugstore readers hanging from my neck and learned that Lasik surgery would only give me good distance vision. As an architect I need close vision for reading drawings, intermediate vision to work with wall charts/presentation materials and distance vision for driving. I asked my eye doctor (Dr. Richard Lindstrom)what's the newest "cutting-edge" surgery techniques that would solve my vision problems.

He responded he could implant a multi-focal ARRAY Lens in each eye that would give me multi-focal vision. It's the newest procedure for vision correction and basically is the same technique cataract patients go through, but in their case, they typically receive mono-focal implants.

Your brain has to learn to work with the implants (about 1/8" dia. plastic disc placed in the socket where your God given lens once resided). It can take up to a year for the eye to finish adjusting after surgery. I had my surgery last November and am very pleased with the results. It's a pricey surgery ($6,000) and can only be covered by insurance if one has cataracts, but such was not my case. Mine was elective surgery and I had to pay, but I've ditched the glasses (except for needing a magnifying glass for the tinyest print used for stock market info in the newspaper).

Just sharing this with you because it's an alternative to glasses, but it isn't necessarily the best solution for everyone. If you want to learn more, go to your search engine and type in the Dr.'s name and/or Array Lenses. He's world renouned for developing and teaching this procedure.

Thanks for the input everyone! Things are slowly "progressing" (har har) so maybe I'll be back to normal in a few days.

Wow, Jardin, you have peaked my interest in that surgery, but probably at my age I could not do it. I am getting cateracts but also have glaucoma. Mine is not advanced enough for the cateract surgery, they tell me. Always something.

Thanks, Jardin! Here's the ARRAY lens site, y'all: http://www.arraylens.com/index2.html

One word of advice to everyone who is contemplating getting either this multifocal array lens or the old monofocal lens ~ choose your doctor carefully, get atleast two opinions and MOST important, do lots of research beforehand! Kenny has had cataracts since he was in his twenties (sun damage ~ wear your UV resistant sunglasses, please!). The first doctor used the wrong prescription lens AND he didn't tell us that chances were greater than not that Kenny would have to wear glasses after ~ I quote "I'm gonna' make you see like a 20 year old man!" and "You can throw your glasses away!" Technically he was right ~ Kenny's had these cataracts since he was 20 and he did have to throw his old glasses away because they were the wrong style frames for the lenses he needed after surgery. The problem was the doctor was doing so many of these surgeries (going to see him was like being on a conveyor belt!) that he didn't give himself time to make sure he was doing what was best for each patient.

The next doctors we went to, at a state-reknowned eye clinic in Houston I might add, said there was nothing that could be done because the lens had already grown in to his eye. But we didn't give up. Two months later, the third doctor said he could put another lens in front of the other ("piggyback") to try to correct the mis-measurement. THAT one worked.

BUT his right eye never was done! He still has the cataract in that one, so we'll check out the ARRAY lens for that one! Thanks again, Jardin! And if anyone has any questions about lens replacement surgery, PLEASE e-me ~ we've gone through it twice and will try to help.

This message was edited Thursday, Aug 29th 10:51 AM

That's really cool stuff!

While I think the new surgical techniques are amazing, I'm too chicken to contemplate trying any of them myself. There's still too much room for error in my opinion. I realize many people have benefited from these surgeries, but it'd be my luck that I'd be one of the exceptions!

Some added information:

The ARRAY surgery is done on one eye at a time (usually start with the worst eye and then the second one is done a week later). Once in the operating room, the procedure takes only about 20-30 minutes. You're awake, but your eyes have received numbing drops and you've received some sedation. Believe me, there's no pain...you just feel some pressure when the doctor does his work on the eye. They send you home afterwards with eye drops and a pain prescription. I only needed 1 Vicoden that evening. Didn't need anything the next day and the eye's vision was beginning to clear (at first it seems like you're looking through a plastic film, kindof cloudy.

Fortunately a friend had this same surgery 6 months earlier and told me to be very patient with the healing as the eyes will keep changing over the following year. That bit of advice saved me from getting overly anxious when the vision was constantly changing over the months. I started with 20/300 in my left eye, today it's 20/35. My right eye tests at 20/20. As a child I had ambliophia - lazy eye (sp?) in my left eye and had to wear a patch. Seems it will never be as perfect as my right eye no matter what I have done to it. Hope this helps describe the procedure from one who has experienced it.

Before I had the surgery I called Dr. Fine (see Wingnut's Hyperlink) and discussed the ARRAY lens and my chosen surgeon. He basically said to have no fear, Dr. Lindstron is recognized as the best in the field for this type of surgery and best of all for me, he's located right here in Minneapolis.

Yep, sounds just like Kenny's experiences, Jardin. All I can add is for atleast a week, Kenny wasn't supposed to bend over and couldn't lift anything heavier than 5 lbs. Or was it two weeks?

Jardin, that's marvelous! I'm glad that it worked well for you, and glad to hear the success rate is pretty good.

Like you, my left eye is worse than my right, and I also had a lazy eye when I was little. I had two surgeries when I was 5 y.o. to correct this. However, my vision is so bad, an implant would probably have to be an inch thick! Several years ago my eye doctor estimated my vision to be around 20/1000 on the left and only slightly better on the right. It's gotten worse since then.