David Martin said:
I do feel though that my near sight is deteriorating slowly. Just an
impression I get.
..d
Mine was a slow thing, too. I only noticed it when I realised that some
days I couldn't read the time on the video from across the room (it's
fairly small, in a large room). That came and went for a bit, I just
put it down to tiredness.
Then I realised that I could see both the road ahead AND my
speedo/dashboard much more clearly than I should be able to. This was
useful, and I eventually worked out (from closing one eye, then the
other - not while driving!!!) that only one eye was going short-sighted.
I went to the opticions, who confirmed this, said I probably could live
without glasses, but I said I wanted them as I was about to start
driving a lot and had noticed I got headaaches while driving long
distances, which I couldn't put down to anything other than maybe the
eye imbalance. I wore them intermittently, then not for a while, then
when the headaches returned with a vengeance and started on an almost
daily basis from using a PC for an hour or so, I went back to the
opticions, and they confirmed the short-sighted was ever so slightly
worse, but more importantly, the other eye was going long-sighted - and
I had a very mild astigmatism in both eyes (it was this that affected
what I see at night - it spreads the light of oncoming car headlights in
a rather unpleasant manner, especially when you're used to pin-sharp
vision the rest of the time).
If I didn't drive and use a PC for a living, I wouldn't have bothered
getting them checked in the first place, nor going back the second
time... I'd probably have had little idea there was anythign going on at
all.
With glasses, I see the world in true 3D again. Without, everything is
very slightly 'flatter'. I still have distance perception, but it's
easier to see things that would make a good photo without the glasses.
I took some of my better photos when I wasn't wearing glasses. These
days, if I go without them for an hour, the cripplign headaches are
back, so it makes it harder to go armed with only the camera and not the
specs too ;-) With them, I find myself seeing the relationships in
depth, rather than just the framed view. And cinema's would give me the
same problem as you (without glasses). Hated it. Even now, I prefer to
watch films on the small screen - cinemas are grainy and blurred, and
quite honestly, pants in terms of quality. IMO :-) Nothing is sharp.
Certainly nowhere near what I see IRL. And even without glasses, as I
said, my vision is apparently better htan 20/20 in one eye, and not all
that much worse than 20/20 in the other.
The comments of the optician brought home just how differently other
people's vision can be. I'm pretty sure a lot of people see the world
in a lot softer focus than I do - probably something similar to what I
used to see without glasses, through my short-sighted eye. Food for
thought, when you're wondering if someone's seen you as you're
driving/cycling/walking along or not! Personally, I'd not dare drive
these days without them, except in an emergency or whilst changing from
normal to sunglasses. I'm used to the vision I have, and anything less
than that just makes things more worrying and stressful than it need be.
--
Velvet
