The bad news: I have cataracts.

The good news: my eye surgeon has given me a choice. He can give me new lenses to see either up close, or far away.

The surgery is not that big a deal, but I'm having trouble deciding which lenses I want.

Which would you pick?

Margaret

The bad news: I have cataracts.

The good news: my eye surgeon has given me a choice. He can give me new lenses to see either up close, or far away.

The surgery is not that big a deal, but I'm having trouble deciding which lenses I want.

Which would you pick?

Margaret

Interesting. I had a cataract in the left eye, and after surgery was able to see both near and far. I have one now forming in the right eye and would be hard put to make this decision. If you are able to see up close with the lens, might glasses help with distance or vice versa?

I have narrow angles and therefore I am myopic. I am 57 and as yet I do not need glasses to read but do need glasses for distance.

I have bifocal glasses but so far take off my glasses to read. Being around people who need to look around for glasses to read and the bother that is I would opt for distance. I find it easier this way.

When you have distance glasses on usually need them for longer periods

I'm nearsighted. I have glasses, but I wear them very, very seldom. I primarily need them for driving and sometimes for theatre, though for a lot of things I find that I don't mind a little bit of blur. Most of what I enjoy doing (reading, on the computer, etc) involves seeing up close.

So I'd go for seeing up close.

I have been myopic all my life, so I am used to wearing glasses for distance vision. I assume you have that option?
When I need to do really close up work, I take my glasses off and I can see well up to about 8 inches.
I have been offered laser surgery, but they tell me that I will lose my 'naked' closeup ability -- I wouldn't give that up. I don't like using glasses for closeup, so I would choose the lenses for close in, and go with glasses to aid the far away.

had both my eyes done over the last few years. it is unbelievable! as far as near/far goes, some people do one eye near, one eye far. but the lens is a bit of a crap shoot. they can't completely predict how well you will see after. i have one eye now 20/20, one eye is half a diopter short for long distance. my doctor told me he usually aims at one meter for close focusing. i had a lot of correction, so it may have been less predictable...

I thought about it, and when looking through glasses, when I'm looking at things close up, I always end up looking either at the frame of the glasses or underneath them, but then I'm near sighted. I also know when looking up and out at a distance, I always look straight through the lens, and my sight is not hindered in the least.

I also think as far as day to day is concerned, I use my eyes more for close up things i.e. reading labels, mail, computer, recipes etc..

What would make my decision easier, would be in knowing how near sighted / far sighted would you be?

My prescription has been 1.5 for 22 years and I have astigmatism, and I need glasses for driving, watching tv, going to movies or concerts, and for sight seeing. The only thing I feel I really regret not having my glasses for is sight seeing, otherwise I'm fine (I don't do the rest very often, and can get away with it not being perfectly clear when I do).

I too have astigmatism and have been wearing glasses since the age of four, some 62 plus years now. I used to get my eyes checked every other year, but my current health care plan only allows $150 towards a new pair of glasses every third year. I have gotten so used to glasses, I would not even consider any other option, unless I had cataracts. I had my last eye exam March 15 and for the ninth year in a row (3 exams) had no change in my prescription. My optometrist commented that he rarely sees a patient my age with 20/15 vision while wearing corrective lenses. The best part is that I have two pair of glasses, each with custom polarized sunglasses, that I switch from time to time and haven't spent a dime on eyeglasses in nine years now.

Winwintoo, I am having the operations in June and July. I too had the choice of distance or close up and it was a no brainer for me. I have worn glasses since the age of 16 and I would prefer to drive etc. without them and only wear glasses when I read. I am very excited about the operation and I opted for lenses (extra cost) that gave me better night vision. They don't have an xray option yet. I am told that the world will be brighter after the procedure as the cateracts dim the vision so gradually that the dimming of vision is not noticeable over the years.
Good luck Margaret and let us know how you make out.

I have bifocals. I call them my bilingual glasses. They speak far and close. But I have to keep my old ones around for when I am on my main computers. They speak middle.

For far and middle, glasses never seem to get in the way.

For close, I have a heck of a time. In stores I end up on the other side of the aisle trying to read a label because I would have to drop to my knees to make the bifocal lens centre on what I am trying to read. This is really a pain in a book store. I look really silly praying to the bottom row of books.

The other side of the story is it would be really nice to walk around or drive with no glasses on.

So my first inclination was to go with seeing far and put on glasses to read. Now after I think of it, I am not so sure. I comes down to what presents you with the biggest bother.

As I (ahem) age I am becoming more and more farsighted and I have to have reading glasses with me at all times, and my prescription is about twice as strong as it was five years ago. Now I know full well where the phrase, "my arms aren't long enough" came from.

What a hassle, and what a difference from my youth when my eyes were great and I was able to focus down to the end of my nose.

Dunno, if I had to choose between far & near, I'd go with being nearsighted.

Being twenty years old again would trump either option of course. ;)

Wow! Thanks for all the replies.

I'm still undecided. I'm leaning toward having good close vision.

I've worn glasses so long, I think I would feel naked without them but I don't know if that's reason enough.

Apparently there are now lens implants that do both, but my doctor didn't mention them. I'll ask when I go next week for measurements.

Margaret

I had to get glasses for the first time in my life last year... had to go straight to progressives so I have to (well I am supposed to) to wear them all the time. Even though I read a lot and on the computer a lot if I could be without them for distance I would take that over not having to wear them close up.

For me I don't mind having them on for close up work but to have them on for when I am outside doing physical things I really don't like having them on, somehow they make things seem confined, like I'm still inside or only getting a "partial view" of the world. Call me strange it is just the way it feels to me, so consequently when I am outside I end up taking them off quite a bit as my prescription is not that strong so I can still see fine, just not as sharp as things should be.