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My eyesight has been fine in the past. In my 40s, I started wearing reading glasses on/off and now can't read without them (+1.75). Wait, it might be 2.25+. I bought stronger reading glasses years ago for electronics work and maybe those are the ones I use now.

I failed my DMV sight test recently. I asked friends who have corrective vision. They all said they like contacts. One said she has one far contact and one near. She's 10 -15 years older than me.

My ophthalmologist (I hadn't been in 10 yrs) said my eyes weren't too bad. I could use a +1.00 reader for far in a pinch,

I asked for contacts. I've had them for 6 days. I have questions if anyone has been through this. My other friends are long-term users.

Near vision: I can see well far and medium now. I noticed my eyes seem more dilated and assume I will adjust. Is that true or will my eyes be more sensitive?

I still can't see well near. It comes and goes. The fitting technician told me my brain will adjust, and it will change. I have another week or so before I go back for a final fitting check. Is that ok?

I can't get a straight answer on cost at the office. I love the idea of being able to see far and near without dealing with readers. I'm a little cheap and don't like to think of a high on-going monthly cost. My insurance won't pay. What should I expect?

[This message edited by KitchenDepth5551 at 6:15 PM, Saturday, October 17th]

I can't answer most of your questions but can say that I got contacts once some time ago. I needed glasses for distance. I hated contacts with a passion. I wanted to love them. I really wanted to not have to wear glasses. A couple of times, I put in my contacts and went to concerts and I was just miserable and literally suffering. I have no idea why it was so hard for me. I followed all of the instructions. More often than not, it just felt like there was a stone in my eye with one of the contacts. I had soft lenses, the kind you did not leave in. You took them out and cleaned them, and put them in their little case. It was awful.

I thought ok, maybe I need the disposable ones or something. But after my experience, I figured why spend more good money after bad. Eventually I just had LASIK surgery, which made me very happy. I was told then that all eyes age naturally, that regardless of a great result with the surgery, we can all be expected to need reading glasses eventually. And that was true for me. I did get 15 or 20 years without glasses.

I'm having a little eye issue right now so have seen an optometrist recently, and my vision is still 20/20 from the surgery all those years ago, she said. But I do need reading glasses for reading and computer work. I can live with that.

Can’t help with being new to contacts- I’ve been wearing them since I was 23. But for the last few years (in my late 50s) I have been wearing bifocal contact lenses. They are slighted weighted so that they self orient so that the reader part is the lower portion of the lens and the top portion corrects for distance. My sight issue is I still can see near perfectly but my distance vision has gotten progressively worse. So I need readers to correct the correction. . It took a couple weeks to get used to the bifocal part and now I LOVE them. (and love not having to have readers in every nook and cranny of my life).

I wear the monthly kind - they come out every night and I toss at the end of the month. I do put a drop of the solution on the lens just before I insert it so that it is nice and hydrated. If they get dry it is uncomfortable. But monthly is the right cadence for me. Also I have tried multiple brands - for some reason some are comfortable and others not, so most opticians will let you try a variety to find the right match for your eyes. My insurance pays most of the cost of the monthly lenses - it’s that or new lenses for glasses. It does cost, but not too much with my insurance. Also you can use HSA funds for it.

What I can say is when I started wearing them long ago, it took a while before they felt undetectable to me. Took a little while for my brain to catch up that all was well.

I do ALWAYS wear sunglasses when outside, so they may have made me more sensitive to light. I have never put that together🤷‍♀️

As for the near/far, I have a few friends who did that with LASIK and love it. But again, took the brain a bit to figure it all out. I don’t know anyone doing it with contacts, but I imagine it works the same.

Good luck!

A brain that adjusts.... my mom just had cataract surgery on one eye. (Having the other this week.) I was asking my optometrist how best to deal with the situation. I was specifically asking if removing the lens from her glasses on the surgery side would be a good idea now that those glasses, that side, would not be correct for her eye now. The optometrist said sure, some people do that but it probably wasn't necessary because her brain would adjust.

That's a pretty big leap for me. A) because her brain isn't a normal brain. She's elderly, and I'm starting to wonder if perhaps she has Lewy Body Dementia. B) She's a big fall risk as it is, and I didn't want her old glasses adding to that issue.

We did remove the lens from her glasses. I think it was the right move. For those who might remember me writing of my mom previously, of course that lens is now buried in her purse probably until the day she dies because hey, she might need it again some day. Sigh.

Just saying that yes, apparently they say that brains adjust.