"Especially the men . . . "

[VanessaJCD]

I've got contacts too. Hint to Kim - don't try to take them out with long nails... Ouch!

[TxKimberly]

Oh yeah, I've BEEN wearing reading glasses for some years now, but recently it had gotten to the point where they weren't needed just for reading! One day I was sitting at a repair bench trying to solder a resister into a PC board and I realized that I couldn't see what the hell I was doing! In the last year or so though, it's gotten to the point where they were needed for pretty much everything, not just small and up close work.
Y'all never saw the glasses because my vanity gets in the way and I'd rather be blind as a bat as Kim than to wear glasses. (and so the contact lenses!)

[Michelle55]

I'm another odd one out. I'm 56 and never had any type of glasses or contacts. I'm slightly near-sighted (20-30 I think) and do not need glasses to read or drive.
In 1965 at 10 years old, my parents (both teachers) were convinced I needed glasses (both sisters and brother wore glasses then). They took me to the eye doctor and he proclaimed I NEEDED glasses and would ALWAYS need glasses to do anything. They purchased glasses and I tried them. They improved things at a distance ever so slightly, but fortunately the frames were much to small and hurt like hell. After wearing the glasses for a hour, my eyes hurt too. I did not wear them after the second day!
I'm convinced many (not necessary most) kids are put into glasses too soon and their eyes simply get "lazy".
A friend is a identical twin with a story about the same, except her twin wears glasses since she cooperated and wore her's as a kid, but my friend did not and at last report is still not wearing glasses.

[sandra-leigh]

I decidedly needed glasses by the time I got them in grade 3. I was sitting in the front row in class and I still couldn't read the chalk-board. I probably should have had them sooner.

Short-sightedness runs on both sides of my family. Some of my extended cousins are legally blind.

Glasses hanging on a cord... Sigh, I might have to do that some day. If I put my glasses down somewhere unusual, I can have a heck of a time finding them Everything beyond 6 inches is blurry for me.

[docrobbysherry]

It simply means u have SMALLER FINGER TIPS than most men! As women tend to have! I'll bet u do, rite?

I don't have big hands but my finger tips r short and fat. Since I only wear my contacts a few times a year, (Sherry can't be wearing glasses at SCC or to Disneyland, can she?), it's ALWAYS a chore to put them in!

I use the smallest finger tip I have with better results! The contacts tend to stick to my finger instead of remaining in my eyes!
I never have a problem removing them for that same reason!

[Lorileah]

I got my first glasses at 8 years old. Got my first bifocal at 23. Got contacts a year ago. I don't wear them much because I can't read with them and still need glasses, but it is a lot better than getting dressed up and being vain and squinting all night (not good for the crows feet). It took me weeks before I could put them in easily still have issues sometimes) and if they go in easy, I have trouble getting them OUT.

I found some pictures from 14 years ago and I am glad my eyesight isn't great....when did I get old?

[TxKimberly]

It simply means u have SMALLER FINGER TIPS than most men! As women tend to have! I'll bet u do, rite?

I don't have big hands but my finger tips r short and fat. Since I only wear my contacts a few times a year, (Sherry can't be wearing glasses at SCC or to Disneyland, can she?), it's ALWAYS a chore to put them in!

I use the smallest finger tip I have with better results! The contacts tend to stick to my finger instead of remaining in my eyes!
I never have a problem removing them for that same reason!

I do indeed have smaller hands then most men. Funny how I didn't think of that!

[Babeba]

Yup, you're getting old! Now it's just a matter of time before you have glasses hanging from a beaded cord around your neck!

Lea

I don't think that's a matter of old, I think that's a matter of scatterbrained. I keep thinking about making myself one of those beaded cords...

[Pamela Kay]

I think I made it to about 43 without glasses but was having trouble driving at night and reading. Went for an eye exam and went from no glasses to bifocals the first time, went back two years later and had to double the bifocal reading prescription.
I'm overdue for an exam now and I know I am going to have to get a stronger prescription again. I can't complain to much, about everyone in my family wore glasses long before I had too.

[donnatracey]

Ah, the joys of aging...don't you just love it?......

I've been wearing glasses since the 7th grade and never had the courage to try contacts...(did they even have them back then???....) Something about putting small items in your eyes plus I figured I'd be losing them all the time. Old habits are hard to break, I guess....

[Philipa Jane]

Well here is my long story short.
I had glasses since very early school years and put up with lots of bullying because of their strength.
Because of this I learned very quickly how to stick up for myself (biggest reason why I dislike bullies so much)
By the age of 17 I had my first set of hard contact lenses (no soft ones back in the 70's) and my self esteem and confidence soared.
I had very blue ones during the early 80's and got way too much attention for my wife's liking.
By the early 2000 I had been getting lots of conjunctivitis and suffered from hay fever often. I put all of this down to the lenses being more absorbent. The original lenses were just plastic and modern technology has made them breath and soak up moisture.

(Just as a by the by I burnt my eyes using of all things oven cleaner. I sprayed the cleaner into the oven and the lenses soaked up the vapor.
It took about 30 minutes to really affect me but I spent an hour or so in the emergency room having my eyes checked and getting anesthetic to kill the pain. And believe me it was excruciating.)

I started wearing glasses again as the lenses are now made from hi density plastic and don't look too bad.
My contact lens specialist (who I had been with for 30 years) sent me along to a specialist eye clinic for lens implants.
The first time around they could not supply me with one lens that would give me the power that I needed so the used one on top of the other to correct this.
I was in that small percentage of people who have cells that grow between the lenses and end up giving you a man made cataract. Or two in my case. Five years later they have replaced them again.
This was rare at the time and my specialist teaches all over the world so my procedure was video taped and used for teaching.
My only claim to fame.

I still wear glasses as this is not an exact science and getting the power spot on is hit and miss. (I had endless tests )But the glasses I can do without for most things (makeup,TV,out door sports)
The operations only need take 45 minutes and can be done whilst you are awake. I choose a general anesthetic as I am a bit of a woos when it comes to things like that.

PJ

[Veronica27]

All you young whippersnappers are giving me a chuckle about your eyesight experiences. I was nearsighted, especially in one eye, from childhood, but held off on wearing glasses until my days at university when I couldn't see the blackboard in the large lecture halls. My eyesight got progressively worse over the years and my coke bottles, er I mean glasses, got progressively thicker. Then, out of the blue, I suffered a detached retina which required emergency surgery. That was my "good" eye and the sight has never been quite right in it since. At the time, I was diagnosed with cataracts, but they were mild and the doc didn't want to touch them yet. The drops required during the healing period from the retinal surgery, contain steroids, and they hasten the growth of cataracts. Again the doc didn't want to touch them, because the good eye wasn't far enough along, and he didn't want me to have one extremely nearsighted eye and one extremely farsighted eye. After a few years, the good eye began to catch up, more or less with the bad one, cataract wise. After he told me that he couldn't see into my bad eye, so knew I certainly couldn't see out, he gave me the cataract surgery. Now I never wear glasses for distance, but have to keep numerous pairs of reading glasses of various strengths everywhere, around the house, in the car, down in the basement, etc. in order to see anything remotely close up. I can almost count the leaves on a tree three or four hundred feet away, but can't read anything. I need separate strengths for the computer screen, reading newspapers and books, doing any craft projects etc. But the most frustrating aspect is applying eye makeup. I could never see to do it before, without my glasses, unless I was so close to the mirror, that my hand bumped it. Now, I still can't see to do it without glasses and have to find just the right distance from the mirror. Trouble is the damn glasses have always gotten in the way. Oh hum.

Veronica

[Nancy (PA)]

These are the types of threads that have the inadvertent side affect of reminding all of us how fortunate we are to have the ability to see, hear, feel, touch, smell, etc. Too often taken for granted, regardless of age. I'm 75 y.o., have had the cataract surgeries, but have never worn glasses and/or contacts. Thanks for the reminder. Just last night I was at my grandson's hockey game, sitting at one end of the rink. The goalie at the other end made a great stop, and I yelled out "great stop". Everyone around me turned to me and said that they didn't see it. Again, thanks for the reminder.

[Jilmac]

Mid Forties? I have a step daughter pushing her mid forties so that must make me ancient. Anyhoo, getting back to the gist of the thread and eyesight going south, it seems like most people start around the same age. But for me, I've been nearsighted since age 11 (and maybe even before then) and have been wearing glasses thar long. I tried contacts many years ago when they were rigid and they hurt my eyes so I never tried them again. But now I have two pairs of glasses with great looking femme frames that I wear whenever I dress. I still wear my male framed glasses for everyday activities. But I still have trouble applying eye makeup because touching my own eyes seems unnatural.

[Christina Horton]

Were you dressed or in drab?

[Kendra (Tx)]

My question is...did you opt for colour contacts?

[SIZE="3"]I don't have a problem with doing eye makeup ( liner, mascara and the like ) but I'm too much of a wimp to consider sticking contact lenses in and out of my eyes....otherwise I'd have a range of colors depending on what color of hair I happen to be wearing for the day.... Hmmm...Blue eyes with blonde hair.... Green eyes for when I'm a redhead....And maybe when I'm feeling like Liz Taylor...Violet eyes....Hmmmm...Might be worth getting brave and trying it....LOL[/SIZE]

http://www.kendra954.com

[sometimes_miss]

My question is...did you opt for colour contacts?

I'd just get them in red so they match the rest of my eyes.

[TxKimberly]

Were you dressed or in drab?

Definitely drab. I do not "dress" around my wife except for the rare occasion when she has come downstairs between four and six AM when I am getting ready to fly somewhere.

My question is...did you opt for colour contacts?

You know I did consider that just for the novelty of it, but my eyes are one of the few things about my looks that I am perfectly happy with, so no need to tinker with that!

I'd just get them in red so they match the rest of my eyes.

wOW - No joke there either! It's the same with me - perhaps too many 4AM mornings?!

[shayleetv]

I started wearing glasses at 30. My family always laughed at my and referred to me as the “Blind Man” because I was the only person in the family that wore any kind of glasses or contacts. Even my great grandmother never wore glasses and she delighted in reading to her grandchildren and great grandchildren right up to her death after 104 years of life. I even thought I was going blind when I was diagnosed as to having a rare kind of cataracts. My peripheral vision was going and my other field of vision was so bad that I couldn't read anything even with magnification. It was sot of like looking through glass that was heavily smeared with petroleum jelly. All this took place really fast, only 6 months. I opted to have surgery and the “Reume” lens put in. This gives me a full range of vision without having to wear any glasses like most lens require. Now I can count the leaves on the trees and can read 8 point type That the size type when they say read you should have read the small type on the contract. The one thing I miss not having contacts any more are the colored lens to change your eye color. I guess I could ask for a prescription but I haven’t thought of a good enough reason to keep my Dr. friend from probing beyond the request, which he is prone to do. He doesn’t know anything about Shaylee, I definitely want to keep it that way.

[suchacutie]

What timing! I just yesterday morning was moaning to my wife that my trifocals (yes, tri) we such a pain that I kept hitting things because of too many focal lengths and screamed I need to get fitted for contacts! I'd like the radial bifocals so I only need glasses for one of my 3 focal lengths!

I too started with glasses when I couldn't read the numbers on the quad nand gates

tina

[steftoday]

I envy all you folks that can wear contacts!!
As much as I constantly put on eye liner, mascara, and generally fool around with makeup around my eyes, the thought of putting in and taking out contacts makes my eyes water...
I got my first bifocals at 48, and the doctor told me that my astigmatism probably helped stave off needing bifocals til then. Since I have astigmatism, getting contacts is a challenge (weird curvature of the eyeball; the contacts for astigmatism generally are weighted a bit more on one side, so they stay in proper position...). I can tell I'm due for another eyeglass prescription change, so I think I'll probably find one of those "buy 1 pair, get 1" sales, and get some new guy glasses, and a second with a feminine frame.

[divamissz]

When you get really old and grow cateracts (like I did), they give you artificial lenses and you get to start over with perfect eyesight and no contacts or glasses. One of the perks of being really old.

I developed cataracts in my late forties, which is relatively young. I had worn glasses since I was a teen, and getting used to not having to wear them all the time was odd. I have to wear reading glasses now, which means I have pairs all over the house :P

And I think your theory is spot-on. When I tried contacts, I didn't have problems touching my eye. It was that I could't get the lenses to settle in before blinking and knocking them off...

[SherriePall]

Too many years ago at age 48 I had to get my first pair of glasses (not too long before that I had 20-15 eyesight). At that time contacts were out of the question. Now, it is funny because I have been thinking about getting them because I no longer dread having something touch my eyes. I realized that with all the eye makeup I have been doing for the past 11 or so years, I really no longer fear touching my eyes.
And, I have thought of colored contacts -- probably green because my eyes are hazel.
Good luck on your new "eyes," Kim.

[*Vanessa*]

Mid-forties and contacts, eye-sight going down hill - ah those were the days my friend.

Check it out, in my mid thirties things started changing

- Chronic Iritis that started in my late thirties and deal with it every day
- Cataract in both eyes - one surgically done while the other one is left to help give me sight.
- Epiretinal membrane since '06 and removed in '09 left with 20/40 vision in that eye with glasses or contacts
- Glaucoma in both eyes

Sh*t-happens

[PretzelGirl]

I envy all you folks that can wear contacts!!
As much as I constantly put on eye liner, mascara, and generally fool around with makeup around my eyes, the thought of putting in and taking out contacts makes my eyes water...

This is true for a lot of people. When I went to get my first set, the optometrist kept trying to put them in and my tears kept washing them out. But over the course of a week or two, I got used to it. It wasn't long before I could pop them in my eye one handed and without a mirror. It just takes some adjustment.