Suck-cumbing to the inevitable

[gurdymonkey]

As in getting old sucks.

When vsct_caius and I were still living together, he had one of those gadgets that I used to refer to as the Palantir Of Caller ID. The phone would ring and it would flash the caller's number in blue LED lights. I started noticing that late in the evening it would take a second or two for me to focus on those numbers if I had been sitting on the sofa reading or sewing.

Several months ago I noticed I had a new party trick - I was threading needles at arm's length. Back in April I took a wrong turn after dark, pulled over, dug out my Thomas Guide and discovered that I could not read it at all by the dome light in my truck - though the following day I pulled it out again and could read it just fine  in broad daylight.

I finally put all this together with an increasing number of headaches at work. So, after a bit of searching because MOST of the drugstore reading glasses start at 1.25 and that was a scootch too strong, I finally found a pair of 1.0s. Threading needles has just gotten a hell of a lot easier.

Which does not mean I am going to depend on them too heavily. Glasses on, thread needle, glasses off. So far so good. It also doesn't mean putting off getting my eyes checked. I'll make an appointment after the 4th of July holiday.

Comments

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

This just started a few months ago? Lucky you, darling! It started for me about three or four years ago. It started with a spot in my eye that I went to the eye doctor (not just the optometrist) about. That's when I found out that my perscription wasn't bad. My eyes just couldn't be corrected as well as they used to be.

But it was really driven home by the eyetest two years ago when they dialated my pupils. I remember having that done and being light sensitive for a few hours, but that was it. As it was, I couldn't read a magazine in the waiting room without my glasses. And my glasses are for my *near-sightedness*. When I asked my doctor, he told me that dialating the pupils immitates old age, when your near and far vison don't adjust as quickly. It scared me that that's what I have to look forward to.

I've worn glasses since age 13, but I've never had to wear them for close work. I still don't. But when I have them on all day, I have to wait a few minutes after I take them off to do anything close. Reading in bed has gotten difficult too.

At events, I simply cannot thread a needle. At all. My contacts ruin my close vision these days. And if I took them out, it would take my eyes 15 minutes or so to adjust. So that's why I have apprentices...

My eye doctor has actually advised me against Lasik because it will ruin my close vision. At this point, my close vision is better than most people's -- which is good for the kind of work I do. But I have to listen to movies instead of looking up from time to time. And I cannot sew at all while wearing contacts. I mean, I can sew, but I can't pay attention to what I'm doing. I simply can't see the stitches or the weave of the fabric with my contacts in.

I know there are benefits in there. But it disturbs me that my eyesight can no longer be corrected completely. And I'm just finding the close versus far thing very annoying.

It's not my eyes, my arms just aren't long enough.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

The Palantir of Caller ID goes back well over a year. Make that two, I'll have been in this apartment two years in September. I was putting that down to eye fatigue because the focus would snap into place, it just took a couple of seconds.

However, over the last few months, it's become apparent that my arms just aren't long enough for reading small print. It's noticeably worse in poor light, as illustrated by the Thomas Guide episode.

I'm 48. I've never had to wear glasses before. It's time. (Sigh. Do samurai make passes at kuge in glasses?)

You are lucker than most

[ldyanna.livejournal.com]

When I worked in the ophthalmologist office we found that 43 is the average age that the eyesight ends up going.

Re: It's not my eyes, my arms just aren't long enough.

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

Yeah. In my case, the weird thing is that the glasses mess up my vision sometimes -- particularly when doing close work -- and that no adjustment to my prescription makes them perfect any more. My eyes don't adjust to close work as quickly as they used to. They used to adjust instantaneously. Now it takes up to ten minutes.

The bit about not being able to thread a needle with my contact in is intensely annoying at events...