Going to the Eye Doctor is Depressing

At the end of the day you have to live your life, you can get sunglasses that are like goggles to protect your eyes on the beach if neccessary. See what the specailist has to say and do your best not to let it stop you doing the things you love. You can always send me a message if you are fed up and want to talk about it. Big hugs to you!

Thanks. Yeah, I've thought about getting some of those wrap around sunglasses that are like safety glasses sort of. More for driving than for the beach though. I rarely am actually on the sand and water. I'm a couple hundred feet away from the actual beach when I'm volunteering at least, maybe even a full mile, but I don't think so because if we just go to the edge of the hill and look down, it's the beach. But I do get easily bothered driving in glare.

The doctor actually seemed fairly positive. He was like, "Well hey, at least you don't need to wear glasses." I must say one good thing about him, at least he's the nicest eye doctor I've ever been too. Although he didn't try to sugarcoat things too much. But at least he was honest. Most used to tell me that if I kept wearing glasses that gave me headaches, I would eventually not have to wear glasses at all. Laser surgery actually isn't considered too expensive to me (I think it's as cheap as $600 out here?). I'm going in to see a specialist that could end up costing me more than that and won't use laser surgery. Unfortunately, laser surgery would not work for me. The only surgery that might have worked, I am now way too old for. He did say not to do intensive work with my eye, like working a job where I'm looking at details all day (that's my job). Or using my eye for long periods of time (try studying for finals without doing that). He even thought that volunteering was a bad idea because being near the beach could harm my eye. But I don't think he really grasped that I am only near the beach, not directly on the sand and water looking at it.

Laser treatment is for a different problem, it won't fix my eyes. People who have the laser treatment are usually near sighted (myopic). My crappy eye is neither near sighted nor far sighted, it just doesn't work.

That really sucks pigglies....having bad eyesight I know what it would mean to dream about not wearing glasses again. I have been wearing them for 62 years with a few years out for contacts that never really seemed to work because I have sensitive eyes. However, I have been told that lazer surgery would be good for me. Only one problem.....who's gonna pay the bill.

That's true. Even if laser surgery would help me, I couldn't afford it either. I guess I'm lucky so far, I haven't had to wear glasses for about the last 10 years because I have just given up on them.

The interesting thing is though, I often kind of wonder if maybe having only one eye that I actually use helps me with photography. I mean, I see a lot of people squinting one eye closed and stuff, and wonder if I have an advantage. I kind of see the world as pictures too, no good depth perception, everything just looks like photos.

Yes, I have amblyopia (lazy eye). It was actually diagnosed when I was 7, and I was given glasses and patching treatments, which didn't work. I wore them all the time and ran into things frequently. I mostly can live with my vision, except that it is poor for reading and I get headaches easily. Maybe I have some other condition as well though, I don't know. Nothing that they caught this year.

Thanks for the best response!

Yeah. I guess technically, I've already moved on before because I've been like this a long time. It just sucked hearing it. In reality, I didn't lose anything because I never had it.

When I was younger it was easy to fit me for glasses as it was simply farsighted. However, the years have added to that nearsigntedness. Unfortunately I am post biofocals and that leaves the progressive. I just can't adjust to the reading level. Medium and far give me no problem. I read better without glasses although I need to put the book, paper, etc., about 1 milimeter from my nose. And after awhile I have to read with one eye closed. Oh well, it's the only part of me that isn't "perfect" so I guess I shouldn't complain....lol

I guess after today's visit, I shouldn't feel sorry for you spending so much... I just spent over $700! Wow, expensive stuff! Too bad those market reading glasses didn't work as well as I had hoped, those are nice and cheap.

Wow! That's pretty expensive. What I always hated with glasses for me at least, was that they never ended up actually working. I can't read the chart easily, so it's really hard for me to get the correct prescription (okay, apparently impossible because I can't really think of a time I've ever done it).