Blind As A Bat
May 13th, 2003 by mark
Yesterday I got my first pair of bifocals. For some time now I have been having difficulty reading text at less than arms length. The doctor agreed with me, saying the my right eye had gone from slight farsightedness to neutral, while my left eye (the dominate one) went from neutral to slightly nearsighted. Since I work with computers all day, and play with them in the evening I needed a combination lens to allow me to see the screen at arms length, and text at less than that distance.
Driving or walking is okay. When my focus is out ahead of me I barely notice the two new focal centers in my lenses. However, as soon as I move my head, especially to nod in agreement to something, all I can see are these two areas of different focus bobbing up and down in front of me. It is very distracting.
The worst part, so far, is finding a new head position for things. It seems like the line between short and far is always getting in the way. I guess we don’t realize how we move or don’t move our head in some activities. At least I didn’t until I had these two extra lenses stuck in front of everything.
I feel helpless and out of control as a result of all this change. I knew that this change was coming and I thought it would be a relief to be able to read up close comfortably again. However, getting used to all the side effects is something I was prepared for. I know that with a little patience and practice I’ll find methods that work for me. In the meantime I will have to console my self and be nice to me. I don’t need to start criticizing my decision on top of dealing with the impact of that decision.
So if you see a guy constantly moving his head up and down, and perhaps taking his glasses off a lot, relax, it isn’t a fit. It’s just me trying to adjust my picture.