posted
I got glasses about ten years ago. They got progressively worse for a little while but when they both hit -8.5 they stopped.
Posts: 104 | From: Peabody, MA | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
More anecdotal "evidence"... I got glasses for myopia when I was 10. I was told I needed them for seeing the board at school, watching tv, and later for driving. Basically, if I wanted to see anything more than about 2 feet in front of me. My prescription got progressively stronger as I grew up. When I was pregnant with DD I started getting opthalmic migraines (visual disturbances but, thankfully, no headaches) which my OB misdiagnosed but that's a rant for a different time and place. About 2 years ago, I went back to the optometrist to get my eyes checked because I was starting to get eyestrain headaches while wearing my glasses. He told me my vision had improved, but still gave me new glasses. He also referred me to an opthamologist for the migraines. When the opthamologist tested my vision he said I didn't need the glasses at all. I told him I had worn glasses since I was 10. He said "Children are often over-corrected." I haven't worn glasses since and my vision has remained 20/20. YMMV.
-------------------- Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of -- but do it in private, and wash your hands afterwards.
- Lazarus Long Posts: 300 | From: Waldorf, MD | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
On a related note, I've heard (but don't believe and never have) that the more you wear glasses, the more dependent you become on those glasses.
-------------------- Leashes?! We don't need no stinking leashes!! Posts: 4771 | From: The Berkeley of the East Coast: Montgomery County MD | Registered: Mar 2003
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Guys, could you use a biggesr font? I have been wearing glasses for 30 years.
I can understand how you (generic you) could get dependant on being able to see clearly. With glasses, my vision is fair but I would always like higher resolution eyes :-) Without them, computers are largely unusable.
Blues
Posts: 207 | From: Woolhampton, Berks, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:He says that "everyone" knows if you wear glasses they weaken your eye muscles and make your eye sight even worse and its the biggest scam of the century.
Even if that were true, what's the alternative? Walking around with uncorrected sub-standard vision, happy in the knowledge that even if you can't see too well, at least your vision won't get any worse?
There are an awful lot of people who do this. I know quite a few who have glasses, but won't wear them regularly because they think their vision will get worse as a result. They often can't recognise people who wave at them, or wave at people they don't actually know.
In my experience, I got glasses at around 11, and the perscription hasn't changed more than a smidge in the last 18 years... although I have developed a mild astigmatism in the last 6 or so. I'm still scared of laser surgery, so I'll keep them for a while longer!
-------------------- "England and America are two countries divided by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw Posts: 555 | From: Ireland | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by lioness: I had glasses for a while as a child because of strabismus, or lazy eye in my left eye, as that was how it was treated before laser surgery.
Strabismus and lazy eyes are not the same thing at all. If you were successfully treated with glasses which you don't have to wear any longer, you must not have had a lazy eye. The condition known as lazy eye is called amblyopia and refers to reduced vision which cannot be cured ('cured' being 20/20 vision) by glasses or contacts. Often there is no physical deviation of the eye at all with this condition, so it's not always noticeable outside of a full eye exam. Amblyopia can be treated with some success if caught early, but after about the age of 17 it is much more difficult to achieve any improvement the eyesight.
The confusion comes because strabismus (also known as wandering eye, walleye, crossed eye) may lead to amblyopia, but they are not the same thing. Strabismus is a muscle problem which does not necessarily affect the vision and can be treated with special lenses, exercises, patching, or surgery depending on the type and degree. Typically, only constant unilateral strabismus (where one eye always turns the same way all the time) may lead to amblyopia; intermittent strabismus, where the eye only turns sometimes, almost never leads to amblyopia. Unlike lazy eyes, strabismus responds to treatment at any age.
Surgery is a last resort to correct a more extreme muscle imbalance when glasses, exercises, and patches fail, and it can often take multiple surgeries to get right. I hadn't heard that they'd developed laser surgery for strabismus. The last I heard, it was old fashioned scalpel surgery that goes in to play around with the extraocular eye muscles to achieve the proper alignment for binocular vision.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Lunasa: They often can't recognise people who wave at them, or wave at people they don't actually know.
I do that anyway. Are you saying that's not normal?
I've done it too, but these people do it on a daily basis. I have some friends I have to be standing within a few feet of before they recognise me, because they refuse to wear glasses.
-------------------- "England and America are two countries divided by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw Posts: 555 | From: Ireland | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I was pleased to read Kev;s post earlier in the thread because it about sums up my understanding of myopia, and my own experience (which I will add to the heap of anecdotes).
I first got glasses when I was about 7. I don't remember what led to my first appointment with the optician, although I do remember not being able to read the board in class (and this was because I was a good child and consequently allowed to sit in the back row - naughty children had to sit under the teacher's nose!). I also remember not being able to see the white horses out to sea on a family holiday.
I'm short sighted to the tune of -5.25 and -7.00, and I would feel distinctly unsafe wandering about without my glasses. I realise that this is partly due to the effect of being used to good vision, but I think if I were out wandering in town I would stand a significant risk of being run over, or not being able to read warning signs. I don't know if there are any nice exercises that would help this!
-------------------- I want you to lay down your life, Perkins. We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war. Posts: 4495 | From: Surrey, UK | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I first got glasses when I was 8 or thereabouts. I wore them for probably five or six years, and then for some reason stopped. I don't remember exactly why; I think it was making my eyes hurt more to wear them than it was to not wear them. At my next eye appointment, the dr said that my eyes had gotten to the point that I had one eye with pretty bad vision and one eye with perfect vision, and they started equaling each other out so that I had "average" vision. Whatever, it works for me.
ETA: I remember there being an article or something about the eye exercises in a woman's magazine maybe five years ago. It had exercises similar to what was described above. The only one I remember is that you close your eyes and look at a bare lightbulb for something like 10 seconds. The logic, I think was that your eyes would try and focus on the light coming through your eyelids and the muscles would therefore become strengthened.
Posts: 384 | From: Iowa | Registered: Feb 2004
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