"Especially the men . . . "

In the last four years or so, my eyesight has just plummeted downhill, and I do mean fast! Welcome to the wonderful world of hitting your mid forties! (Getting old SUCKS!)

So today I went to the optometrist for an eye exam and to be fitted for contacts for the very first time in my life. After a whole shit-load of exams and tests, they came up with a prescription and and a young woman trotted me over to a room to teach me how to install and remove contacts properly. Talk about weird - but I guess that's another story. Anyway, I got them in with very little fuss and she seemed deeply impressed.
"Wow - most newbies to contacts have a lot more trouble when it comes to touching their eyes - you didn't seem to have much trouble at all!" She said.
"OK, now it's time to take them out!~" She said with a evil grin. THAT turned out to be quite a bit more difficult, but still I didn't have too much trouble with it, and again she commented on it.
"Most people have a lot more trouble at first, especially the men."
"The guys really have that much trouble with it huh?" I asked.
"They do! Sometimes I have to remind some of them that it's not nice to say the F word even if it is directed at the contacts and not at me!" she said.
"I wonder why that is? OH - I KNOW!" I blurted out. "The women are used to touching their eyes, or at least they're used to things getting close to them because of putting on eye liner and mascara!"
"Yep, I think that's exactly why." She agreed.
I thought about it, but I didn't tell her why I was also reasonably comfortable with it. :D

Ah, the aquired skills related to crossdressing! She should see how well you apply lip-liner!

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Originally Posted by TxKimberly

Welcome to the wonderful world of hitting your mid forties! (Getting old SUCKS!)

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Sorry, no sympathy here. .............ah, to be in the mid forties again....sigh....

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Originally Posted by TxKimberly

So today I went to the optometrist for an eye exam

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I did my exam at Wahlgreens at the cheap reading glasses display:brolleyes:I break and bump into alot of things...:doh::heehee:

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

Don't say you're getting old!!

I know you're only one week older than me.

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 last had contacts in my 20s. I decided that Eryn needed contacts and went in to get fitted. The optometrist asked if I had worn contacts before and I said yes. Big mistake. He had me put them in and I did so easily. He said "great, you remember how" and sent me on my way.

Later, at home, I decided to take them out. In the old days with first generation "soft lenses" you just distorted the shape of your eyeball a bit and they popped off the eye easily. Not modern lenses! They are tenacious! I finally had to watch a YouTube video before I finally got those things out. :)

Yeah....I work sometimes on very small electronic circuitry and in my mid 40s I had to move into the bifocal zone! I do enjoy colored contacts when out as Sally though. I tried the electric blue ones first but just didn't like the look. I tried brown but they really didn't look brown to me in most lighting. Then I tried the green ones. Love at first sight!! lol Now that I've managed to get red hair, the green eyes look even better. I used to go out without the contacts sometimes but some unnamed person got me hooked on Karaoke and I need contacts to see the words on the screen. So now I always wear contacts as Sally.

Give the colored ones a spin Kim. You can really try for some striking looks if you get the right combination with to match your makeup.

That is interesting. I never thought about that.

I'm right there with you on the mid forties and eyesight plummeting. Mine started two years ago. I have reading glasses.

Wait until you're in your mid fifties......you'll be blind like me!! :heehee:

Unfortunately, it does not get better. Now I have contacts and need reading glasses. It is soooooooo wrong.

At age 38, the eye doctor said, "I can't fit you for glasses this year, but I will next year!"

I have a stubborn streak a mile wide and didn't go back to the eye doctor till I turned 50! I went from no glasses to trifocals! Oh well! He didn't fit me at 39!

That's a cute story! So I'm wondering if she just thought it was a fluke that you were good at it, or if knowing the "theory as to why" is because of regularly applying eye makeup ... she put two and two together and came up with the right answer! :)

Similar to Sally I did assembly line repairs to behind the ear hearing aid for seven years. I started with 20/20 vision. I ended being near sighted and needing glasses to drive. As I got older my vision improved as my resting focus went further out. But then I needed glasses to read and drive but not daily interactions. Today my resting focus is out even further and I almost don't need the glasses to drive.

But... now I have reading glasses on a loop around my neck, in my purse... a pair next to the computer to write... etc...

Bleh. My eyes are supposed to be settling down, but they are getting worse. I'm already on my second Progressive prescription and it was only a matter of a couple of months at most before that second set wasn't good enough to read fine print. But I've been putting off going and now I'm at the point where if I am reading a book for any length of time I pretty much have to take them off :(

But I am not going for contacts. I don't think I could handle putting them in. And besides my eyes are now bad enough that I'm beyond the astigmatism limit that contacts can correct. :sad:

Listen you young whipper snapper, it gets better as you age. I am near sighted with failing farsight! Anyway, My nearsightedness has been improving and my Dr. said that was common as "you" age. See you have better things to look forward to now. Good luck with your contacts. You may find out that you need reading glasses now! That is what happened to me when I got contacts.

I picked it up pretty quick too. However, their whole method of "Look up, drag the contact, and grab" didn't work for me. I just go in and grab it right off the eye. I did have an interesting experience after the dr put them on. I got light headed and almost fainted. I suppose the thought of something on my eye freaked my brain out a little. No problems since the first time.

I rarely rear eye makeup though just because I am always paranoid I didn't get it all off.

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Originally Posted by Carol Elizabeth

At age 38, the eye doctor said, "I can't fit you for glasses this year, but I will next year!"

I have a stubborn streak a mile wide and didn't go back to the eye doctor till I turned 50! I went from no glasses to trifocals! Oh well! He didn't fit me at 39!

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I didn't get out of it, as I was so nearsighted I had glasses from childhood.

I was amazed after I was fitted for contacts when the optometrist checked my vision and said that I had normal 20-20 vision with the contacts. While I could see functionally with the contacts, my vision was much better with my glasses. The optometrist said "yep, you're seeing how most people see, your glasses just optimize your vision so you can see better than average."

I'm no fashion plate, so after using the contacts for a time I bought a pair of femme glasses from Zinni optical and now wear them instead of the contacts. They fit my femme image well and allow me to read a menu or my phone without having to fish out my reading glasses!

The cure for losing eyesight - let go of that thing now and then :D

Hi Kimberly!

Mid-forties ain't old! Hell, woman, you are hardly even hitting your stride! And you look damn good!

My optometrists office said the same thing, that guys are much worse at contacts than girls, that teen girls are probably the best, and that teen boys are some of the worst.

Funny, but we're doing some of this at the same time. I had an exam for new contacts a couple of days ago. But I'm convinced the Doc missed the mark. I've been doing monovision (you wear a contact lens on one eye to correct your distance vision and a contact lens on your other eye to correct your near vision) but with the new pair I couldn't really fuse the two images properly and couldn't see things in the middle distance. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get it figured out.

Hugs,
Persephone.

Hi,

Thats quite interesting those of you who have detail around age 40 with eye sight, in 1956 i was told to wear glass's ,only because at school i walked out the door for play time & could not see more than 20 ft in front of my self it was because sea mist / fog had come in & i'd never seen it before, & i said i cant see.

So glass's , no one even told me what it was . & i could see less with them on then. what a rip off.all because of a little fog & no not the pink kind.....

Im long sighted & at 64 can see more than most at long distance,

...noeleena...

The aging eyesight dilemma is definitely not fun. I was wearing bifocals in my late 20's and trifocals by my mid 30's so at 44 ended up having the retina lens replacement surgery done. Woooo Hooooo I could see to put on eye liner again!

Kimberly,

I'm turning sixty in one more month. Thanks for making me feel REALLY OLD! Now where the hell did I put my glasses?

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Originally Posted by TxKimberly

In the last four years or so, my eyesight has just plummeted downhill, and I do mean fast! Welcome to the wonderful world of hitting your mid forties! (Getting old SUCKS!)

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

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!)

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.

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 :eek: Everything beyond 6 inches is blurry for me. :sad:

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

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?:heehee:), 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!:Angry3:
I never have a problem removing them for that same reason!:thumbsup:

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?

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Originally Posted by docrobbysherry

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

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?:heehee:), 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!:Angry3:
I never have a problem removing them for that same reason!:thumbsup:

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

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Originally Posted by Lea Paine

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

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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... :)

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.

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

I've been wearing glasses since the 7th grade and never had the courage to try contacts...(did they even have them back then???....:D) 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....:brolleyes:

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

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

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.

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.

Were you dressed or in drab?

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Originally Posted by StevieTV

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

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[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....:battingeyelashes: 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

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Originally Posted by StevieTV

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

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

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Originally Posted by Christina Horton

Were you dressed or in drab?

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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.

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Originally Posted by StevieTV

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

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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!

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Originally Posted by sometimes_miss

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

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

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.

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

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.

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Originally Posted by KarenSusan

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.

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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...

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.

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 :)

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Originally Posted by 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... :)

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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.