Advice for a first timer

by Laura
(Seattle, WA)

Q: Hello, my name is Laura. I just turned 30.

I've been having trouble seeing small print for a few years now, but didn't make an appointment to see the optometrist until it got so bad, the frustration would make me cry.

It started being not just small print, but anything close to my face.

I started question when exactly was the last time I remember seeing my children's faces clearly. So, I went in.

My prescription is:

OD +2.00 Cyl -0.75 Axis 098 Add +1.00

OS +2.00 Cyl -0.25 Axis 077 Add +1.00.

Yes, I've been 30 for a whole three months and I need bifocals with the equivalent of +3.00 reading glasses.

I also never knew I had astigmatism.

For the first week after my appointment, I kept getting eye strain headaches, then they went away.

It's been ten days and my glasses aren't here, yet. I keep hearing that I'll continue to have headaches as I get used to my glasses when they come in.

I'm wondering if anyone else realized late in life that they've probably needed glasses the whole time and have any advice for me?

I've done a bunch of research lately, but would like to hear from people with experience.

Thank you.


A: Hello Laura,

Well, you have astigmatism with hypermetropia.

The problem is the hypermetropia part of your prescription. Hypermetropia is a kind of refractive problem that the eye can compensate at a young age.

To explain, if you have +3.00 diopters, when you are a child or young (max 30-40), your eyes can compensate a part of the problem, and you will feel only +1.00 diopter, and probably don't need eyeglasses.

The compensated part of your problem is called latent hypermetropia, and even if you had this problem for a long time, you didn't feel it because your eyes managed the problem.

After a while, if you work a lot on a computer or if you read a lot, your eyes cannot compensate the problem anymore and the latent hypermetropia turns to active hypermetropia and you need to compensate it with eyeglasses.

So, maybe you had the problem for a long time, but you feel it now. The solution is the eyeglasses.

You will need to wear them to have a good vision.

The fact is that you didn't do anything wrong, a lot of people wear glasses only when feeling they have to.

The important thing is to wear them now when you need them, so you can have comfort when performing different activities.

Hope this helps,
Arpi

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