I am extremely nearsighted -18, -19. My glasses are too thick to wear in public. I've worn contacts for over twenty years almost on a daily basis and my contacts often hurt my eyes. I usually have to wash my eyes out with water for about 5 minutes in the morning to prepare my eyes to wear contacts. I often feel I have something in my eyes and so my eyes feel scratchy. If I take my contacts out, it usually feels better and then I am forced to put them on again to carry out my business. At night, I usually have to wash my eyes out again after I take out my contacts.

I also noticed that I'm overly sensitive to bright light. I go to the eye doctor and when they do the test where they dilute your pupils and shine light into your pupils, I cannot bear the light. It's as though I am seeing the "presence of God." Several times, I have had the doctor or the nurse irritated because I could not follow his/her directions in looking into the light. I get the feeling that the brightness for some reason is magnified 100 times over in my eyes.

My night vision is also getting weaker and while wearing contacts my vision sometimes fluctuates - especially when my eyes get dry which is quite frequent.

Need advice quick because it's really affecting the quality of my life.

Look into "high index" lenses if you haven't already... they cost more but are far thinner. I'm near sighted and my glasses used to be thick and heavy. Now they are fairly light.

I have trouble seeing 12 inches before things start to blur. And I have always been light sensitive too. What type of eye doctor have you visited?

Types of Eye Specialists

From the internet...

Who should I choose for my next eye exam?

The names of the different eye professionals all begin with "O" and are easily confused. Here is a description of each to help you decide who can best help you.

Optometrists: A general eye doctor with eight to ten years of college training to provide you a complete health, eye glasses, contact lenses, laser vision correction, computer eye strain, and children's vision evaluations. These doctors also provide treatment for many eye diseases and dysfunctions. This is the doctor best equipped for the first entry point into vision health care.

Ophthalmologist: A doctor specializing in surgical care of eye health problems. The best Ophthalmologist specializes in different parts of the eye. Because of the narrow specialization of these doctors, they are best seen after a referral from a general vision exam completed by an Optometrist.

Opticians: This group of specialists work to manufacture the custom glasses and contact lenses to fill the Rx's written by eye doctors above.

Had enough? To confuse you more there are:

Orthoptists: work with patients to help straighten 'crossed eyes'
Ocularists: fit and make ocular prosthesis (artificial eyes)

Great advice. Unfortunately with your prescription there are few options. Have you considered/looked into corrective surgery? It would probably not correct you 100% but would make contacts/glasses more bearable...

Do you know what your vision is? Such as 20/20 being the baseline for nothing wrong. If we had a clue as to exactly how bad your eyes truly are we might have a better idea what might be your best options.

He said they are -18.00 and -19.00. That's way OFF the chart for a 20/20 comparison.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChihuahuaMomma

He said they are -18.00 and -19.00. That's way OFF the chart for a 20/20 comparison.

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I missed that in the title.


And will admit... I'm not aware of just how bad that is compared to my own myopia.

I'm a -2.25 OU (which means in both eyes), so I can't imagine dealing with -18.00... WOW. -8.00 is considered legally blind.

I honestly don't know what mine is to compare... have to remember to find out when I have my next exam.

But I think I do have a copy of an old prescription at home, If I can find it it will be close. My prescription hasn't changed a great deal the last 20+ years so while its old... it will be close.

Hi Joshua,

The only thing I can think of is getting an other kind of Contact lens. What lenses have you got now? Soft of GP? I think it's worth the gamble. I's quickly done and not expensive.

My eye problem is not so severe as yours, althoug the difference between my eye strength is extreem. (+1.25 and +5.50) I recently got prisms in my glasses, so no more Contact lenses for me. It makes my glasses look really unattractive, which bothers me every day. Let me know If you want some user experience-advice, I'm glad to help.

My vision is also extremely bad. I am at -25.75 and -23.50 L/R. I wear hi index myodisc lenses which corrects my vision to about 20/30. With out glasses I have to pull things up to my nose and its so close my eyes cross. Several other options are natural lens removal and replacement with artificial lenses or having IOLs implanted. Like others here I am not measured with the eye chart. The big E to me is invisible, a smudge even when in bright light. I am measured with CF or count fingers and fail that unless in a well lit room with good contrast.