I hope everyone enjoys the second part of the story.
I should have added, I had always had in interest in Electronics. It turned out to be my career. It was important to me to have good close, detailed vision. That was why I needed a higher reading add so I could see closer. As other folks have posted before, some eye doctors are stingy about prescribing reading adds. Of course, being younger, that even made matters worse when seeing an eye doctor.
On to the final part of the story -
I was bummed out. It was about a month before I felt like I was ready to try this again. I made an appointment at a Sears Roebuck & Co department store (a competitor of Montgomery Wards). It was less than 10 minutes away. I hoped my friend was right. I had planned what I was going to do this time. I was going to go to get a checkup wearing my Dad’s glasses. I didn’t think he could tell they weren’t mine. I was going to tell the doctor I couldn’t read without them. They were kind of beat up, so he would have believed I needed new ones.
When I got there, I chickened out. I took them off before I went in. I couldn’t see to fill out the paperwork, so I had to fill it out in the car. I should have just gone back in wearing them. Instead, I told the truth. I told the doctor I had problems seeing close things. I had put off getting glasses for a long time. I couldn’t deal with it anymore. He thanked me for coming in to get glasses. This doctor must have been straight out of school. He was about 30. He was really nice. After he did my distance prescription he told me he was going to check my reading. That’s where things went bad the first time. He could tell I was nervous. He showed me a reading chart with a bunch of small letters. He told me to relax, and asked me if I could read the chart. I told him they were a blur. All the letters were run together. He didn’t seem to be surprised. He showed me some vertical and horizontal lines, and asked me which ones were darker. I had no idea what this was about. The horizontal lines were a lot darker. He asked me to tell him when the vertical lines got darker. I did. It seemed like he changed lenses a bunch of times. (I found out later it was called a fused cross-cylinder test. It was used to determine the reading add of a younger person with accommodation problems. That WAS definitely me!) After he changed the lenses, he showed me the reading chart again. I had no problem reading the chart now. When he was done, he told me I needed bifocals. I was so happy. He wrote me out the prescription. My prescription card said the same thing my Dad’s did, so my Dad’s prescription was the same as mine. That meant I had already been wearing the right prescription.
I went back to my friend’s to order my glasses. He said it was a light prescription. It wouldn’t take very long to get the lenses. He would cut them for the frame and call me. I got Silver Aviators with plastic lenses. I thought they looked pretty good on me, except for the line. It stuck out like a sore thumb. The bifocal line stuck out a lot more because my glasses had plastic lenses. My Dad’s lenses were glass.
Next problem: I didn’t know how to tell my parents I got glasses. I waited a month or two until I got enough nerve to put them on in front of them. Somebody my Dad knew brought over a TV for me to fix. It seemed like the right time. When I got out the diagram, I put on my glasses. My Dad gave me a strange look. I don’t remember what he said, but he seemed to be ok with me wearing glasses. When my Mom saw me, she told me I was too young to have bifocals. She said I should get a second opinion. I told her I did need bifocals. She had no idea what I went through to get them. I think my Dad straightened her out. She finally got used to my glasses. It was cool that I could wear my glasses when I wanted to now.
My Dad was 32 when I was born. He told me he got reading glasses when he was teenager. I had no idea he had glasses then. I guess that’s why he wasn’t surprised I got bifocals. He had been through the same thing. I guess he could put any doubts to rest that I was his son since I had the same prescription. I never did tell him the story about me taking his glasses. My glasses were fine, but I still liked my Dad’s shop glasses better. It was easier to see small stuff. When I went for a checkup, I asked the doctor if he could make it easier to see closer. I worked on electronics. He checked my eyes. No change. He put +0.50 trial lenses in front of my glasses. I told him that was better. My new rx was: +1.00, add +2.00. He said that if he made the reading lenses any stronger I would need two pairs of glasses, one pair for work, and a normal pair. The reading distance for my old pair was about 18". The reading distance for my new pair was 14". I ended up wearing my new rx most of the time. It wasn’t a lot more power, but I could tell my eyes liked the new lenses much better. Catalogs and magazines were fine, but I couldn’t read the newspaper with my new glasses. The distance lenses were too weak, and the reading lenses were too strong. If I wanted to do that I used my other glasses. Except for reading the newspaper, which I didn’t do that often, everything else was better with the +2.00 add. The new lenses definitely made my eyes feel more relaxed.
After I got my new glasses I kept thinking about why the first doctor I went to wouldn’t give me bifocals. The second doctor told me I needed bifocals. Why the difference? I decided to go to another place to get an exam to see how the doctor would check my eyes. I was interested to see what prescription I would get, and how the exam was done. He asked me how my vision was. I told him I could see fine. I wanted to get a checkup. It had been a few years. He was making notes on what I told him. Then he looked at me and noticed I was wearing bifocals. He had this look like I was from outer space. He measured the power of my glasses twice. When he checked my reading, he just used the reading chart and changed the lenses until I told him it was clear. That was a new experience. The other doctor had used vertical and horizontal lines. I ended up getting the same rx I had already. I think he could tell I needed bifocals, but he didn’t understand why. After that, I figured out that someone my age wearing bifocals would freak some of the doctors out. I would get a couple of exams a year to see the doctor’s reaction. I usually just got a prescription. I did it just for kicks. Some had no problem at all, but most were somewhat hesitant. My distance was pretty consistent at around a +1.00. One doctor told me my reading power was too strong in my glasses.
I got an exam in my early 20’s. I had on my first glasses with the +1.50 add. It didn’t bother the doctor that I had bifocals. He checked the power of my glasses, and set the lenses up. He seemed nice, so I decided to see how strong an add I could get. I told him I needed new glasses. My vision had been getting pretty bad. I could see faraway fine, but I was having a lot of problems seeing small things. He asked me how old my glasses were. I told him they were my first pair. I got them in 11th grade, so they were 4 or 5 years old. When he was checking my reading power, I let him keep making the lenses stronger until I could just barely make out the smallest line. I could read most of the 20/10 line on the wall chart. He said I had really good vision. Not too many people could see the 20/10 line. He said my distance didn’t change much, but my reading power went up a bit. I asked him if that was bad. He said everything was fine with my eyes. He said this was a normal increase, it was nothing to worry about. My prescription was: +1.00/+1.25, add +2.50. He hinted that I should get a checkup more often. Unfortunately, that store was in a mall and the store closed a few years later. I got pretty good at telling the reading power. Obviously, if the power wasn’t right the reading chart wasn’t clear. I could tell which way it was off. If there wasn’t enough power the letters were darker. If there was too much, the letters looked kind of washed out. When I was 25, I tried progressive lenses. They weren’t fitted correctly. I didn’t like them. In my late 20’s, my add started to climb. By 32, the eye doctor that originally prescribed me bifocals had moved on, so I had to find a new doctor. After a few tries I found one. I told the doctor I’d had my glasses for a while. I couldn’t see close enough. I had single vision +2.75 glasses on. I told the doctor I needed to see around 13" for work. He gave me +1.00, with a +3.00 add. I knew I would like them. The doctor wanted me to get progressives. I really didn’t want them. The optician assured me that I would like them. He got them perfect. They were the best glasses I had ever had. I had never experienced that smooth transition between distance and close.
The optician moved to a new store. I followed him. The doctor at the new store was really cool. He understood my vision problems. I didn’t have to convince him. He could tell I knew what was going on, so he would ask me what prescription I wanted. I stayed with progressives for the most part. In my mid 30’s, my distance had peaked at +1.25/+1.50, and a little cylinder. I’m pretty sure the strong add had helped relax my eyes. I was up to a +2.50 add for normal reading, and I was wearing +3.25 progressives. At 40, I was wearing a +3.50 add. In my 40s, my distance power went down to +0.25/+0.50. I don’t understand why. By 50, it was back up to where it had been. My cylinder increased to a -1.00. In my 60s, my right eye went down to +0.25. At my last appointment, the doctor could just tell a cataract was starting in that eye. He said they graded them by number. He said it was a ½. It wasn’t yet even close to being something to worry about. Without having a real cataract, I don’t know why I had a myopic shift in that eye. My left eye did not change. It was still at a +1.25 for distance.
John
https://vision-and-spex.com/another-true-story-part-2-t2394.html