What a strange experience!

[T.C]

As some of you know, on top of all the other issues I mentioned recently, I was also recently diagnosed as being a type 2 diabetic.

Not an issue as such. It is there, and I hope that I am getting it under control.

Anyway, today I had to go to Wokingham to the Diabetic eye clinic for a health check on my peepers.

They put a fluid into your eyes to open up the pupils (which he said would sting but didn't) and then you have to wait for 20 minutes before they start taking the pictures.

You are not allowed to drive because they tell you that your vision will be blurred for 3 - 4 hours afterwards and so you cannot drive.

Fair enough, so Mrs TC drove me over.

Anyway, I waited, no sign of any bluriness. 20 minutes later I went back and had the pictures of the back of my eye taken, still no problem.

This took about 10 minutes.

I walked outside into sunlight and it was just like I had consumed about 10 pints of beer in one hit (not that I have ever done that, it is just a guess )and everything became majorly blurry in an instant and because my eyes were letting in a lot more light, I really had to squint until my reactolight specs kicked in.

Really strange experience.

3 hours on, and my eyes are just starting to clear.

Thank goodness that is only once a year (unless they find a problem which the chap said he could not see anything on first look so fingers crossed.)

 

[andyBeaker]

As some of you know, on top of all the other issues I mentioned recently, I was also recently diagnosed as being a type 2 diabetic.

Not an issue as such. It is there, and I hope that I am getting it under control.

Anyway, today I had to go to Wokingham to the Diabetic eye clinic for a health check on my peepers.

They put a fluid into your eyes to open up the pupils (which he said would sting but didn't) and then you have to wait for 20 minutes before they start taking the pictures.

You are not allowed to drive because they tell you that your vision will be blurred for 3 - 4 hours afterwards and so you cannot drive.

Fair enough, so Mrs TC drove me over.

Anyway, I waited, no sign of any bluriness. 20 minutes later I went back and had the pictures of the back of my eye taken, still no problem.

This took about 10 minutes.

I walked outside into sunlight and it was just like I had consumed about 10 pints of beer in one hit (not that I have ever done that, it is just a guess )and everything became majorly blurry in an instant and because my eyes were letting in a lot more light, I really had to squint until my reactolight specs kicked in.

Really strange experience.

3 hours on, and my eyes are just starting to clear.

Thank goodness that is only once a year (unless they find a problem which the chap said he could not see anything on first look so fingers crossed.)

I have had that done probably 30 times over the years and there is no rhyme nor reason to how I reacted. Sometimes it stung like hell, other times it didn't. Sometimes I could hardly open my eyes when I went outside as everything was so bright, other times it had no affect whatsoever.

Now, if you want unpredictable, try having a fluroscene injection before they do the photos...no effect on me for about the first half dozent times despite the dire warnings, then out of the blue I was violently, and I mean VIOLENTLY sick all over the place. Never known anything like it.

Oh, and then there was the steroid injection into the eyeball.....

 

[Centaur]

I have had that done probably 30 times over the years and there is no rhyme nor reason to how I reacted. Sometimes it stung like hell, other times it didn't. Sometimes I could hardly open my eyes when I went outside as everything was so bright, other times it had no affect whatsoever.

Now, if you want unpredictable, try having a fluroscene injection before they do the photos...no effect on me for about the first half dozent times despite the dire warnings, then out of the blue I was violently, and I mean VIOLENTLY sick all over the place. Never known anything like it.

Oh, and then there was the arrow injection into the eyeball.....

Harold had one of those in 1066.

 

[Malone]

I get checked every 12 months as well and each time I reckon I could drive if needed, but I’d want a pair of glasses stronger than my reactolites. It’s easier to cadge a lift. Oh, and it bloody well does sting!

 

[T.C]

I get checked every 12 months as well and each time I reckon I could drive if needed, but I’d want a pair of glasses stronger than my reactolites. It’s easier to cadge a lift. Oh, and it bloody well does sting!

I was told that the sting factor can vary from visit to visit. I guess I was just lucky this time.

I certainly could not have driven, and like you say, my reactolites which go very dark still were not strong enough to prevent me squinting from the glare.

 

[Malone]

Aside from feeling able to drive with dark glasses on its always necessary to consider the legal ramifications of driving when told not to . But I do feel a bit of a fraud asking for a lift all the same.

I get an automated letter from the hospital a week or so later after they have checked the photos fully, you would be told if you’re OK or not from the initial quick look, but it says exactly the same as the very first one did - there is evidence of a slight indication in one eye. But they never say if it’s getting worse. I’m happy enough though and I get a similar exam in Specsavers when I go in to get my vision checked every 2 years. That’s a free service being over 60, one of the few perks of getting older.

 

[Me!]

Nothing like the problems above but I’m new to contact lenses...... having had glasses for two years these are a revelation. Brilliant once I overcome the fear of poking myself in the eye a few tunes to get them in!

 

[Malone]

Wait till you “lose” one and start to worry where it’s gone.

btw it cannot disappear round the back of the eye, it’s physically impossible. But they can do a great escape and disappear up behind your eyelid and defy every attempt to get it back out.

 

[Gaz78]

Nothing like the problems above but I’m new to contact lenses...... having had glasses for two years these are a revelation. Brilliant once I overcome the fear of poking myself in the eye a few tunes to get them in!

I wore contact lenses for 20 years, and tbh always found them quite good (although the first month sticking them in was a whole new strange experience that I almost gave up on ).

However I worked out that per year between my wife and myself, we were spending around £600 on lenses etc. So I started researching laser eye surgery.

Now optimax wanted £10k (Yes £10,000!), for me and my wife to get treated......I left in disgust!

But then someone said had I thought about going abroad for it. Whilst I initially thought "don't be stupid, as I'll end up with a part time butcher doing my eyes", I did eventually look into it. So we ended up going to Prague for private surgery, and paid £3500 For both of us....that's a third cheaper, and that was despite the fact we paid for the more expensive surgery (cheaper equivalent option was only £2500 For both of us!).

2 years on and it's without doubt the best thing I have done for my vision. . I do know you have to "go into it with your eyes wide open" (excuse the pun!), but it's worth considering, after you work out expense of lenses etc, which we paid £££££'s over 20years on them.

Gaz

 

[Cougar377]

Wait till you “lose” one and start to worry where it’s gone.

btw it cannot disappear round the back of the eye, it’s physically impossible. But they can do a great escape and disappear up behind your eyelid and defy every attempt to get it back out.

I always wanted to ask this....how DO you get them back down..?

 

[andyBeaker]

I wore contact lenses for 20 years, and tbh always found them quite good (although the first month sticking them in was a whole new strange experience that I almost gave up on ).

However I worked out that per year between my wife and myself, we were spending around £600 on lenses etc. So I started researching laser eye surgery.

Now optimax wanted £10k (Yes £10,000!), for me and my wife to get treated......I left in disgust!

But then someone said had I thought about going abroad for it. Whilst I initially thought "don't be stupid, as I'll end up with a part time butcher doing my eyes", I did eventually look into it. So we ended up going to Prague for private surgery, and paid £3500 For both of us....that's a third cheaper, and that was despite the fact we paid for the more expensive surgery (cheaper equivalent option was only £2500 For both of us!).

2 years on and it's without doubt the best thing I have done for my vision. . I do know you have to "go into it with your eyes wide open" (excuse the pun!), but it's worth considering, after you work out expense of lenses etc, which we paid £££££'s over 20years on them.

Gaz

Having had truly awful eyesight from birth I wore contacts for years - they improved dramatically in that time, the last ones I used were almost like cling film.

I saved a fortune by getting my prescription from an optician and buying contact lenses here https://www.irisoptical.co.uk/contact-lenses.cfm

There is absolutely no contractual reason why you have to buy lenses from your optician...I would get maybe a month's supply from them when my prescription changed to make sure they were ok then bulk but form Iris - as it happens their first store was on my way home from work so I could just pop in and pick them up.

I too had corrective surgery - micro surgery to be precise, where they cut your eyeball with a scalpel to reshape it. Sounds awful but it really wasn't, and I had five years of absolutely perfect vision until I had an aneurism at the back of my left eye that caused no end of problems. I would certainly recommend corrective surgery, just bear in mind that almost everyone goes long sighted in their middle age so it's not a lifetime fix. Still a flipping good one though.

 

[Gaz78]

........just bear in mind that almost everyone goes long sighted in their middle age so it's not a lifetime fix. Still a flipping good one though.

I'm still claiming that I'm not technically "middle age" yet at just 41yrs old

Gaz

 

[andyBeaker]

I'm still claiming that I'm not technically "middle age" yet at just 41yrs old

Gaz

Why on earth have yo got a Blackbird then??

Old mans bike.....

 

[Gaz78]

Why on earth have yo got a Blackbird then??

Old mans bike.....

Need to keep my young 30's something wife nice and comfy on the back

 

[Cougar377]

Need to keep my young 30's something wife nice and comfy on the back

The collective jealously is palpable.

 

[T.C]

I would certainly recommend corrective surgery, just bear in mind that almost everyone goes long sighted in their middle age so it's not a lifetime fix.

So I have been middle aged since the age of 10 when I was first diagnosed as being long sighted? Bloody charming

I became old before my time obviously

 

[Me!]

Yep. First week with these things and I have to say once I’ve actually got them in I cannot feel them at all. This pair have been in 12 hours now and no grief at all. The only downside I see at the moment (no pun etc) is my afternoon nap has to be missed ? Can I not get away with a cheeky 20 mins at all?

Thanks for the link Andy. Laser surgery, no, not for me, definitely not. I’ve had 50 years of good vision so I can’t grumble at lenses. It’s taken a while to get the script right.

Question: they appear to do bifocal lenses... do they have to be orientated when putting them in your eyes? I struggle to get these things in let alone whether they’re inside out. I couldn’t cope with orientation too!

 

[derek kelly]

Wore contact lenses for a few years, one day whilst driving home with wife & kids in the car, I blinked & got blurred vision in my left eye, thought I’d lost a lens but no, it had rotated on my eyeball, it kept doing it so Bev took over driving, never worn contacts since.

 

[Malone]

I have got bifocal lenses for golf - it’s a pain to get wet glasses in the pouring rain, and rain helps contacts.

how they’re bifocal is rather simple, the very middle of the Lens is not corrected, it is, in my case plain, and so for distance your eyes focus through the outer part of the lens. For closeup you’re looking through the plain middle. It’s easier than I can write it.

folded lenses can disappear up behind the eyelid and have to be enticed to come out slowly until they can be grabbed and pulled right out. It’s easier to do than explain how, but it’s still a slow process when it decides to evade capture.

 

[andyBeaker]

So I have been middle aged since the age of 10 when I was first diagnosed as being long sighted? Bloody charming

I became old before my time obviously

Bad news I'm afraid - you graduated to 'old age' the moment you bought a Blackbird