My lousy, rapidly aging eyes......

[Caster]

It was mentioned in another thread, instead of sending it off on a tangent I thought I'd bring it here.

I've had a rather bad astigmatism since I was a teenager. At 34 now, it gets worse and worse. It's not just the astigmatism. My ophthalmologist says I also have a bad nerve ending in one eye. I can't remember exactly because he says it's nothing to worry about...yet. I just go back every year and get the full run through.

My biggest problem as of late is blurring. It comes from shooting rifles with significant muzzle blast, or staring at this Apple contraption too long. It doesn't last too long, but like yesterday: I usually shoot really light cast loads in my 308 but I was fireforming cases made from other calibers and my Ishapore has a bit of a large chamber so I ran some standard pressure loads. I got about 100 of them shot before it started. I would shoot 10-20 then switch to another gun to keep the barrel cool. By the time I left I was having mild focusing issues. Nothing that would make driving too dangerous. From CHMR all the way down hwy 96 it calmed down by the time I got to the Davidson county line. It sucks though because I know it's a prelude. I'm going to have to give up on anything bigger than a .223 eventually. Even my AR's......not, I'm going to use this to lobby[the wife] for a suppressor. That'll calm things down.

So, who else is slowly trying to " or go blind" AND, what measures have you taken???

Aging blows. It's part of life but I'd choose death over blindness. Without pause.

[Raoul]

I had to start wearing glasses at 5. I feel your blurry pain.

[Garufa]

My right, shootin' eye astigmatism kicked in a few years ago. At age 41 to be precise after perfect vision for my whole life. Got a prescription for glasses and everything. Can't stand them, never wear them.

This time of year after a session at the range it gets bad. The combination of bright sunlight and heat really sets it off. Not a problem in winter.

Don't have anything constuctive to offer, just letting you know I'm in the same boat. I just cope with it.

[Caster]

This time of year after a session at the range it gets bad. The combination of bright sunlight and heat really sets it off. Not a problem in winter.

HHmmmmm, I'll have to remember that. Thinking on it now, I don't seem to remember this ever being an issue when it's cold out.

[R_Bert]

If *anything* has changed since last doctors visit, you need to go back and have him look it over again.

Get him to reccomend a specialist to have on speed dial (and make an appt with specialist for a baseline).

Edited May 28, 2012 by R_Bert

[Caster]

I don't get spots or swimmers, but yeah, you're right. I need to go. I usually go in September. It's my B/day ritual. May not wait that long this year.

[R_Bert]

When mine started, all I saw was "swishing shadows"

Edited May 28, 2012 by R_Bert

[Garufa]

Floaters are a different issue methinks. Astigmatism is basically a misshapen eyeball, floaters are indicative of something more serious.

[R_Bert]

When mine started, all I saw was "swishing shadows"

For me, the floaters came right after (an hour or so) the torn retina (which was a small, stationary spot, that quickly grew in diameter).

The "swishing" (which was all but translucent) turned out to be the interface between gel & liquid during the transition, along with bits of floating gel. All of my troubles occured over less than 48 hours, so keep an "eye" on it.

[Caster]

The real bane of an astigmatism is that when you correct for it with glasses, the astigmatism can move. It was explained to me that the out of roundness your glasses are compensating for will cause it to shift and that's why most of us need new lenses every year or two.

[jcj]

The real bane of an astigmatism is that when you correct for it with glasses, the astigmatism can move. It was explained to me that the out of roundness your glasses are compensating for will cause it to shift and that's why most of us need new lenses every year or two.

Yup. Just had my annual eye appt. Vision factor didn't change, but the astigmatism was a bit different in one eye. Oddly enough, my overall vision is actually better than it was 2 years ago. Very odd, but the doc says "it happens."

[Dennis1209]

Me too Caster. I hate glasses, period. I have to have reading glasses to read this screen and/or paper. But hey, at 60 y.o. what can you expect? A couple of years ago I had to get my TN drivers license and had to read 2nd line from the bottom. I couldn't distinguish a C from an O, etc. So I said it really fast and guess the gal wasn't paying attention or felt pity for me?

It's taking its toll on my IDPA scores as I couldn't get use to trifocals, much less bifocals? I've adopted my own philosophy though. It's no longer, "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile", it's "even a blind old fart hits a target every once in awhile".

Cheer Up!

[dlm37015]

well caster i feel your pain i have been having trouble with my eyes as well. go to dr close in dickson he is a great guy dr and shooter as well

[UncleJak]

When I was 24 I began to see double visions quite frequently. At 25 I finally went to the eye doctor and found out my eyes were drifting apart. The put prisms in the lenses to correct this, but normally this occurs in elderly people. In 3 years it went from level 3 prism to a level 7 (there are only 10 levels I think). Right now they seem to be holding, but the eye doctor felt there may have been something underlying causing the problem. I told him I didn't care to know and haven't been back in 3 years. I occasionally see double, but hopefully they will hold out a few more years. At first I was scared of my failing sight, but have learned to adapt. Good luck with your vision!

[Caster]

Well, they always told us if we didn't quit, we would go blind....

[daddyo]

I can empathize. Last year my eye doc told me I have a retinal cataract that is to one side. It's not a problem now, but it will be in time and I will eventually have to have surgery. Ohhh, goodie!!!

Gettin' old ain't for wimps.

Edited May 29, 2012 by DaddyO

[Jonnin]

By the time I left highschool my eyes were pretty bad --- I could see the E with one eye, and not the other, on the eye chart. I had that corrected to 20-20 in my early 30s with laser surgery, but I am starting to get nearsighted again and cannot be corrected any farther so now I have glasses. Sigh.

I correct for it by mostly using scopes and red dots on my guns for the ones that I want to shoot accurately. The glasses help but they cannot do it all and iron sights just do not work out for me like they did with contacts when I was younger. And, thanks to the surgery, contacts are "frowned upon" --- there is risk to using them now so I did not.

For any number of reasons, I recommend that older folks do not shoot high recoil guns frequently, and download them to a gentle recoil or treat them as a "few times a year" treat. That is just an opinion from someone who failed biology, though, so do what you will

Edited May 29, 2012 by Jonnin

[Dolomite_supafly]

Find a optometrist that can work with your shooting. Some are able to adjust the prescription to help with a magnified optic or red dot.

Dolomite

[peejman]

I started wearing glasses at about age 10. Uncorrected, my vision is about 20/400. I'm left handed and grew up shooting left handed. A minor astigmatism formed in my left eye 6-8 years ago. I hate wearing glasses and contacts that correct astigmatism aren't cheap, so I switched and started shooting right handed simply because I see better out of my right eye.

It sounds like the problem you describe is simply eye fatigue. Your eye is working hard trying to see the sights and the bright sunlight is making the eye work that much harder. There's various exercises you can do to help strengthen the muscles. One I do occasionally is to sit where there's something close in to focus on and something far away very close to one another. For example, put a picture on a window sill. A fast as you can, change your focus from the picture to a tree or something far out the window. I'm sure you'll feel your eyes get tired pretty quickly. Similarly, sit in a chair and, without moving your eyes, note what you can see at the edges of your peripheral vision. Then, without moving your head, shift your eyes from one side to another to quickly pick up those objects.

[Spots]

I feel your pain. I started with glasses at 4, and my last eye appointment my vision was 20/1200 or -8.75 in both eyes. I can't read a book farther than 3 inches from my face without contacts. And my dad has glacoma so thats something else I get to worry about as I age.

[turkeydad]

_{At 42 my eyes are starting to get jacked up. . gotta make that appointment...Ive noticed in the last year or so I cant read small print. .theres just no range within arms length that I can make it out. And Im left eye dominant and if using a red dot if I look through my left eye which Ive always done the dot looks mis shapen and blurry....grrrr...}

[Oh Shoot]

_{At 42 my eyes are starting to get jacked up. . gotta make that appointment...Ive noticed in the last year or so I cant read small print. .theres just no range within arms length that I can make it out. And Im left eye dominant and if using a red dot if I look through my left eye which Ive always done the dot looks mis shapen and blurry....grrrr...}

I can barely read YOUR fine print on screen.

Sounds like you have normal aging farsightedness, and cheapo reading glasses will likely suffice.

I started with 1.25 in my late 30's -- one night reading in bed, suddenly my arm wasn't long enough anymore. Worked up the scale, now been with 2.25 for maybe 5 years, seems to have held there. Used to be able to get them in .25 increments, now mostly .5. You can still get .25 increments on eBay.

Anyway, last eye exam I had, Doc said he could sharpen me up just a tad beyond the reading glass range if I wanted to fool with bifocal, but said that I'm just a bit off 20/20 beyond maybe 10 feet, which ain't bad. So for well over 20 years now, I have a pair on my nose most all the time, look over them for distance, look through them for closeup, including computer, reading, scopes and out to end of front sights on rifle barrels; also with neck loop so can drop em on chest.

He also confirmed that cheap reading glasses aren't bad for you, whatever works, works. So I buy a 10 pack every few years and don't worry about it, as they break, get too scratched, crushed, etc. No biggie at $6-8 a pop or so.

- OS

Edited May 31, 2012 by OhShoot

[Guest Lester Weevils]

For not being able to focus close-up, cheap reading glasses are about as good as any, as long as you don't go too cheap. Fer example, drugstore $10 glasses might not have a big enough sweet spot and too much distortion, wheras the $15 drugstore reading glasses might work a lot better than 150 percent better.

Just dumb opinion, but it's worth the money to go to an opthalmologist once per year to head off problems. Ain't saying bad about optometrists, except if something goes wrong and your optometrist notices it, he will send you to an opthalmologist. The optometrists I've met were fine fellows. Just sayin...

Glasses prescriptions might change rapidly for a year or two then stay relatively static for a few years before drastically changing again. In addition to natural drift, age makes the eye lens stiffer with narrower focus range. If yer farsighted when young and can only focus between 10 feet and infinity, then after you get old maybe you can only focus between 200 feet and infinity. If yer a nearsighted youth and can only focus between a few inches and 10 feet, then after you get old maybe you can only focus between 3 feet and 10 feet, or worse. The only sane solution is progresive bifocals where you tilt yer head back to focus close and then look thru the top of the lens to focus far away.

There are multiple hazards with aging though glaucoma (higher pressure in the eye) and cataracts are a couple of higher probability fates to watch out for. Later on if you stay topside of the dirt long enough you need to watch out for macular degeneration in the retina. When the retina starts dying off then a healthy focusing apparatus ain't gonna do you any good.

I was nearsighted but could focus from a few inches to infinity with glasses. Slight astigmatism correction. Then got glaucoma, which ain't that big a deal as long as they catch it early and you can start on eyedrops to control the pressure and avoid nerve damage. Old dad got glaucoma about age 30 about 1960 and started on eye drops, and he is over age 80 and still sees pretty good considering. So glaucoma prognosis is excellent if diagnosed and treated early.

Then the lens got stiff and I COULD NOT focus on BOTH infinity and a few inches, even with single-strength glasses, so went to progressive biforcals. Then a few years later started getting the cataract. In my case the first cataract symptom was double vision which was fixed by a better eyeglass Rx. Then 6 months later triple vision even with the new Rx glasses, so got a stronger Rx to fix that. Then 6 months later quintuple vision which was also curable with a special glasses Rx. In practical terms, if you are driving then instead of seeing one red light at the intersection, you see two red lights. Fix that, then later on you see three red lights. Fix that, then later on you see five red lights. Eventually a new glasses prescription every month or two ain't practical and you need to get cataract surgery where they remove the lens and replace it with a bionic perfect synthetic lens. If everything goes to plan then if you were nearsighted, farsighted, or astimatic your whole life, for awhile you have "near perfect" vision with your new bionic lens.

They can hook some of the new bionic lenses to your focusing muscles so it is almost like getting a young-eye transplant, but I had my cataract surgery before that tech innovation, so I have perfect mid-distance vision without any correction but for any other near or far distance, need progressive bifocals, and focus on the item of interest by tilting the head until I'm looking thrue the correct piece of the lens. Which you get accustomed to easy and quick enough.

Since I was nearsighted and astigmatic since birth, it was interesting after cataract surgery to finally have perfect uncorrected 20-20 vision at mid-distance out to infinity, though you can'r hardly see anything close without progressive bifocals. But it was an interesting change compared to everything past about 15 feet being a blur without glasses, which was the case before they replaced the lens with cataract surgery. On the other hand, if you happen to have forgot your progressive bifocals and stop in at a restaurant, you ain't gonna be able to read the menu or even the restaurant bill without glasses.

The main shooting issue after cataract surgery and progressive bifocals, I can still focus perfect at any distance, with the proper head tilt. So if shooting pistol and want to focus on front sight, I have to shoot with the head tilted back "just the right amount". Otherwise, the front sight ain't gonna be in focus. It works better in bright light like a sunny day, because any lens has greater depth of field whcn "stopped down" by a constricted iris.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[turkeydad]

Well I hope you guys are right about mine. . I dont know why the print was small on my post muar have clicked something lol. . I need to get my eyes checked anyway. Havent seen an eye doc since I was 8. .and I have vision insurance. . might as well let them pay for something.. .

[Glenn]

Pretty much the same for me Lester, except the cataracts are not bad enough for surgery yet.I was able to have a laser procedure for glaucoma so i don't have to use drops.

Glenn