h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been short-sighted for years and have had glasses for driving, watching TV and generally seeing things when walking around. (I don't wear them all the time because I don't need them for working on a computer etc.

Over the last year I've started to have that problem of "too short arms" and having difficulty reading.

So off I went to get my eyes tested and it seems clear that I need glasses for reading and glasses for driving/watching TV/generally walking around and the chap said varifocals are just the thing - everything in one pair.

I got them on Saturday - and I am aware that since then I have done nothing but whine about them, and that apparently it takes time to get used to them - but I could at the complete expensive waste of time I think they are turning out to be.

Driving/TV/walking around is great - but I don't need expensive flippin' varifocals for that. Reading is near impossible - I can read better without them. I thought it must be because I just need to find the angle and get used to looking down. But that feels like a VERY unnatural reading position, but I can't get to the opticians until Saturday, if then - and I'm getting extremely frustrated.

now I've found another problem: when I'm checking documents at work, the documents I'm looking at on my desk are out of focus. I need reading glasses, but varifocals are useless for that - looking at documents on a desk involves looking with your face at 90° to the paper (in effect, like standing up and looking ahead). Which means I'm looking through the part of the glasses for seeing distance - so everything is blurred.

I am totally hacked off - the guy in the shop didn't ask what else I do in my life, and not being a habitual glasses wearer it hadn't occurred to me to ask.

so have i been ripped off, or am I just too daft to be allowed out buying stuff on my own?

with apologies to my fb friends who must be sick of the perma-whingeing about this since the weekend - but I may get more coverage here.

Arghh indeed...

When my dad first got varifocals, he found they gave him headaches - the optician assured him he would get used to it, but after going back to bifocals and then trying varifocals some years later, they were absolutely fine for him, so he suspects they didn't install the prescription correctly, or didn't install the correct prescription...

Sho,

If you are looking at documents on your desk, you won't be looking through the exact middle of the lens. You'll be about 5 degrees down from the centre, and this is enough to adjust the focal length to close work. But it really is something you will have to discuss with an optician.

Sho, when you say desk I take it you mean a completely horisontally placed surface - as in table, yes?
(Please forgive me if I am stating the completely obvious. I'm just trying to make exactly sure what we are talking about )

As I said on Facebook it took my eyes and braincell weeks to adjust to my varifocals and like you I was sure varifocals were a scam - and a terribly expensive one at that.
But when I told this to my optician he handed me my old glasses and asked me what time and date it was. I could barely read the time on my wristwatch! And the date was completely unreadable! But then I got my new varifocals back and now it was as clear as day. Turns out my eyes/braincell had adjusted far better than I was aware of

What they all said. I have exactly the same as you and don't feel the need for glasses when I'm working, although I do have a pair of reading glasses which prevent me getting tired from looking at the computer screen all day.

Looking at a screen right in front of you when it's only the bottom part of the glass which is suitable for reading is just daft.

Varifocals were fine the first time I tried them, didn't even have any problems on stairs. The second pair I got did give me a bit of trouble on the stairs at first.

I have most trouble singing in the choir- I just leave them off for that, even if the conductor is a bit fuzzy, and vice versa - I leave them off to conduct - even if the choir is a bit fuzzy, because seeing the music is better that way.

Outdoors and for driving I wouldn't go without them.

So - the message seems to be, just don't try. You'll get used to them and won't even notice after a while. Provided they've made you the right ones.

Yes it's horizontal.

The more I use the glasses the more I'm convinced the lower (reading) portion have not been made up correctly. I literally can't see anything through them

Gotcha

this is going to be one of those things like jogging, isn't it, were I have to do it, but I don't want to, so I do it because I must but I'm going to be really grumpy about it until it's all suddenly ok (or I've been arrested for running amok in an optician's)

This was exactly my experience when I got varifocals! I hadn't asked the right questions at all, and hated them.

What I needed, as a teacher, was to be able to look at something on my desk, eg marking or my laptop screen, and then look up at my class to speak or answer a question. For example, I wanted to be able to take the register and look up at the students as they answered. I barely need a lens for the distance, but wanted to avoid having to balance reading glasses on the end on my nose and peer over them at my class, which I though looked a bit silly. So I opted for varifocals.

Horrible. I can't really see close up to read books or look at the computer, and I don't need a lens for looking to the back of the class, so that's pointless. I wear them sometimes if I walk around the class, looking at individual work and also talking across the room, but it's not ideal.

In fact the only time I really wear them is when driving and I need to look at the sat nav. If I wore reading glasses the road would be out of focus.

When the time came for new specs, it was explained to me that there are different angles of the reading part. I was told that whilst old bifocals had a straight line across, varifiocals reading lens is a triangle, with the top point in the middle. The first pair had a very narrow triangle, so not much room for reading. So I chose the more expensive but wider triangle. Better, but still not up to the job for more than just a quick glance at what I'm reading or writing.

On the other hand, having a pair of sunglasses made up to the varifocal prescription was a very good idea and I wear these a lot.

I had a (technical drawing) teacher at school who perched a pair of half-moon specs on the end of his nose and looked over the top of them to talk to the class. I always thought those were very distinguished and planned on a getting a pair myself but it might be too late - the long and middle distance vision is going now, as well as the reading distance vision which started deteriorating a decade ago

thanks for that, Coeleocanth - that's exactly the problem I have (except for the actual problem, if you see what I mean?)

I think that the desire to sell me the varifocals overrode any reason to ask me questions about my requirements.

In fact, what I should have gone for is new glasses (I've lost my old ones) with either new prescription sunglasses plus reading glasses.

The lenses i was shown have the upper lens as the distance thing - with different widths of reading bit at the bottom - I went for the middle version (width and price wise).

Anyway... I can't get back to the optician until Saturday so I'll have to persevere until then.

I hope they advise you sensibly. Let us know how you get on.

I'm assuming what y'all are calling 'varifocals' is what my optometrist calls 'transition lenses'. My last trip had similar results. My distance viewing was no better or worse with my glasses on. I went back a few days later and one of the assistants offered to adjust the fit of my glasses. I tried that for a week and it still wasn't right so I went back. My suspicion was confirmed. They had given me the wrong prescription. They re-examined my eyes and made a new set for my normal use.

I have two sets of glasses, both are transition bifocals. One has far distance over normal, arm's length reading distance. My other set is for work. Reading distance is over close up for fine detail (the date on my watch for example).


I suspect they did, indeed give you the wrong prescription. It happens.

either that or I have a somewhat more serious problem with my eyes that I need to go to an opthalmologist for

It doesn't sound to me like you need to worry about that, but on the other hand seeing an ophtalmologist won't hurt.

And besides it is probably better for you to hear from an ophtalmologist than from me.

So once more I wish you

>>seeing an ophtalmologist won't hurt<<

except your purse. You have to pay for everything now in Germany at the ophthalmologist. I've stopped going. Just have my glasses fitted at the opticians, which is where you have to go anyway, once the has seen you, and they measure everything again just to make sure.

This sounds extremely frustrating. I was very worried about this sort of thing when I got my first varifocals a couple of years ago, but the optician promised a full refund if they turned out to be unsuitable or I just couldn't adjust. Turns out I adapted very quickly but they're not for everyone.

There are lots of different options in the way the prescription is made up and the type of lens that can be used, so definitely worth talking to your optician more fully about your activities and lifestyle so you can make an informed decision on the glasses you choose. In any case, if the varifocals you've been given are the wrong prescription for you I'd expect the optician to correct that for no extra cost.

Good luck.

MC

I wore varifocals satisfactorily for a couple of years - when I needed to read to a class, or the whole school assembly - while still being able to correctly identify what was going on in the back row - and more importantly who was getting up to it. And 'GLARE'

I gave them up because of the falling over on steps business people have mentioned on FB. My problem now is that I need to take off my distance glasses to read the information labels on supermarket shelves. Apart from teeny text I can read fine without glasses.

From what you're saying, I honestly think your optician hasn't grasped what you will be using your glasses for and has given you the wrong prescription anyway for reading. It sounds a nightmare!

I'll see if I can go back and get the reading part checked out. I've been trying them out on the train and there really doesn't seem to be any difference between using the glasses and not using them

Although progress of sorts since I drove to the station today and could read the dashboard clock and see the traffic lights