When I went to an ENT after an episode of vertigo a few years ago, he said I had hearing like a baby. But now my ears are always congested and my regular doctor says there's nothing I can do about it. Stupid doctors.
Isn't there a potential "near sighted" to "far sighted" movement with age? (Or the reverse?)
I thought most near-sighted people (like me) also became far-sighted, not that the near-sightedness declined as the far-sightedness increased.
I thought far sighted was a function of the hardening of your lenses, meaning your--and here, grade school physics terminology eludes me, so I'll choose my own phrase--focused point drifted farther out. Note that on my account, your life sucks a little more, instead of getting better.
I'm sticking with the account in three, according to which X-ray vision is in my future.
Your eyes are obviously stealing humor from your kidneys.
3: You're right. But within limits there can be plenty of change in how much correction for the near-sightedness you need from year to year. Watch out for the X-Ray vision. Trigger a dose by accident and you'll have NEST all over your ass.
My correction was backed off a bit in my mid-thirties. I don't think it's universal but it does happen. Presbyopia, which is why reading glasses/bifocals become necessary, is different. The lense becomes less flexible, and the muscles can't squeeze it enough to focus close anymore.
I think 3 is wrong. Not that the lense hardening will cure your nearsightedness (god I hate the accepted terminology), but it will ameliorate it for a while. My wife's had her prescription improve over several checkups, but they've told her this just means she's on the way to bifocals.
Okay, but I had a behavioral optometrist who taught me exercises that reduced my near-sightedness. I haven't kept up with them, so they haven't all lasted. I went to her to work on problems I had with binocular vision and strabismus, but working on those problems along with my peripheral vision did reduce my need for corrective lenses. She also made me get reading glasses--both a lower prescription of my regular prescription and plus lenses to wear over my contacts. I should have had bifocals for school.
Basically the idea is that most people don't have very flexible eye muscles. So those of us who spend a lot of time on close tasks like reading adjust our focus to that task and become nearsighted. (That's not the only reason, but wearing reading glasses can stop the progression.)
A behavioral optometrist! How cool.
A behavioral optometrist! How cool.
Mine too. I was going to do the whole (expensive) vision therapy thing last year, but wound up with more pressing medical concerns. I should still do it, but I'm all doctored out for now.
to twelve: you know when my vision really deteriorated? (besides when I was pregnant) the year I spent so many late nights doing first year sanskrit and 3rd year greek (I started the semester with russian too but had to drop.) more effort is required to read new alphabets at first, I think.
The people I know who have worked with behavioral optometrists have been really happy about it. I get really impatient with the exercises, so I haven't pursued it.
A behaviorist optometrist? Is that someone who gives you an electric shock if you can't read the bottom line on the eye chart?
I think I'll stick with my cognitive optometrist, who is trying to convince me that I really can see, if only I would abandon my maladaptive methods of looking.
OT: Check out what -gg-d and gswift sound like singing backup vocals.
(Oh and: 18 is very funny. Thanks, PF. I thought of that also when I read "behavioral optometrist" but could not figure out how to turn it into a post.)
(Further to 19: Interestingly, later on at the same show, Labs, Ben and Dr. Bérubé show up to work some of their soapy magic.
Ha! Stoopid eye doctors. I was told I wouldn't need glasses till I was old and grey, what with having wunnerful, perfect eyesight. They didn't tell me "Oh, yeah, and don't go to law school, 'cause all that fine print and studying till 2am and whatnot will make you blind before your time!!!!
DE, we're all adults here. It wasn't the "fine print" that put the hair on the palms of your hands. Get real.