multiple prescriptions

This is my first time in this forum.

I found this forum via a Google search and it seemed to be the right place to try to find answers to some of my questions relating to how to choose from several prescriptions, all mostly the same, all a little different.

The background:

I'm 64 years old. I have severe myopia in both eyes, but the right eye is worse. Also, the right eye has astigmatism.

I have one pair of glasses, with a small metal frame (43 eye size, I think). The glasses and frames are 15 years old, and I don't have the written prescription. I see reasonably well with these glasses and I'm very comfortable with them. My vision with them, while not optimal, is quite acceptable.

Since the frames are starting to wear out and I don't have a backup pair of glasses, I felt it was time to shop for new glasses.

First, I decided to get an eye exam.

My plan was to get exams from two different optometrists, just to be sure. The two exams gave results which were almost the same but slightly different. So to help decide, I got one more exam from a third optometrist. All three results were different, so now I need some advice as to how to choose.

The first optometrist gave me a prescription, but also, per my request, he wrote me a second prescription matching my current glasses. Apparently, the left eye hadn't changed, but the myopia in the right eye got worse. The optometrist said that with current glasses, my left eye is corrected for distance vision while my right eye sees better than the left eye for close vision. In other words, my current glasses are effectively yielding what he called "monovision". I'm not sure if that's such a bad thing.

For the second optometrist I also asked for two prescriptions -- a new one and one matching my current glasses. Surprisingly, not only was the new prescription slightly different than the one given by the first optometrist, but the prescription based on my current glasses was also slightly different (for the right eye).

Based on that, I decided to get still one more exam, from a third optometrist. For this last exam, I forgot to ask for a second prescription matching my current glasses, but the results for the new prescription differed from those of the first and second optometrist.

Altogether I now have 5 prescriptions, 2 for the old prescription (my current glasses) and 3 for a new prescription. So I need some advice.

Here are the details of the prescriptions:

--- Optometrist #1:

Old prescription (current glasses):

R: -10.00, -1.25, 90
L: -8.00

New prescription:

R: -11.50, -1.25, 90
L: -8.00
reading correction: 225 both

--- Optometrist #2:

Old prescription (current glasses):

R: -10.00, -1.00, 75
L: -8.00

New prescription:

R: -11.50, -1.00, 75
L: -8.00
reading correction: 225 both

--- Optometrist #3

New prescription:

R: -12.25, -1.00, 65
L: -9.00
reading correction: 250 both

----

I can't afford to get glasses for all 5 prescriptions.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

dave1732