prescription, is this ok? (another)

RIGHT EYE
Distant
SPH T25
CYL -025
AXIS 100

LEFT EYE
SPH T00
CYL -050
AXIS 68
PRISM "."


Visual Acuity
Uncorrected L


The optician told me that I have astigmatism in my left eye but my
right eye is the one I have the blurriest vision in, and also the one
that clears up if I pull down on my cheek so I'm not sure? I have to go
back to get glasses and contacts some time but I would appreciate your
advice.

Many thanks

 

First of all, what is the advise from your optometrist?
Second, do you have a problem to be solved regarding the ''some time''?
Third, a more exact prescription would provide a better answer.

 

I said I wanted contacts and she said I should also get glasses for
certain occasions when lenses aren't suitable. Then she said I wasn't
allowed to buy contacts on the internet because they can't be held
responsible if something went wrong. Lastly she told me there are two
types of lenses and I said I wanted the type of contacts that required
the least amount of checkups (she questioned why I would want those for
some reason?). That's pretty much it.

time''?


I'm booked for another appointment in a couple of weeks to get the
lenses, or glasses, I can't remember!

Unfortunately that's all the info on the card

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm very surprised at your translation of the
prescription, my vision has been not very good at all for a while now.
Things that other people can read in the distance I can't see at all,
and that often applies to my left eye. Text on the television is often
hard to read without squinting. Also when I put my sister's glasses on
everything looks much clearer.

When she tested me I read out the second line from the bottom, guessing
a lot of it although the board was only a few meters from me. Then she
slipped a lense in my eye and it didn't look much different, I guessed
just a couple of letters less. Is there any chance I am being given a
'bad' prescription? Or will I be given a better test for the contacts?

 

I did actually say I could guess them when she asked me to to read the
line out (the first time anyway) and she said it was fine. I thought
the test was done by the optometrist checking you are reading the right
letters out?

 

There's a difference between lying and guessing. Guessing during the eye
test is fine for most optometrists because if you are guessing the
letters correctly then chances are you can actually see them. I always
encourage my patients to guess because in general most people are too
willing to give up and stop reading when in fact they can actually
discern the next line down.

Dom

 

Could the 'T' characters after each SPH be a '+' sign? This would make a
bit more sense. Also, are there any decimal points anywhere in the
numbers immediately after the 'T's (i.e. in the 25 or the 00)?

You have a small amount of astigmatism in both eyes, but slightly more
in the left. Looks like your left eye would be worse for long distance
vision. Which eye is worse for your close reading vision is hard to say,
and it depends on your age too.

There are plenty of people with eyes like yours who don't bother with
glasses and aren't even aware they have a problem. So your eyes aren't
too bad overall. Contacts for a prescription like yours may be more
trouble than they're worth.

This is all assuming I've interpreted those 'T's correctly!

Dom

 

Looking at it again I think they are -1's (the minuses are actually
above the 1's so it looks like T's).

So it might actually be..

RIGHT EYE
Distant
SPH -125
CYL -025
AXIS 100

LEFT EYE
SPH -100
CYL -050
AXIS 68
PRISM "."


There aren't any decimals though.

My right eye actually seems worse for both near and distant.
Does this make more sense?

Thanks

 

I can triple guarantee that you are not -100 or you would be
walking into walls frequently!

I'm sure there's an "implied" decimal point so it's -1.25
right and -1.00 left. That would be consistent with your
previous description of what your vision is like.

The -1.25 relative to the -1.00 explains why your right eye
is worse than your left for distance. The astigmatism correction
seems to be a bit greater in the left eye though so I can't
exlain why your right eye is also worse for near vision.

I'm not any kind of an eye doctor though so treat my comments
accordingly...

 

If you don't mind, I'm just a little curious -- How do you deal with
such severe myopia? Do you use progressive lenses? Do you have two
pairs of bifocals? Or maybe you are still young, so you haven't had
to deal with presbyopia yet? I am -4.5 and that's trouble enough! :-(

 

Why should it seems worse for the right eye, are you simply go for numbers?
What do you want to ask anyway?
Your question still makes no sense at all to me.

 

Thanks Joe.

 

A-ha, that makes a LOT more sense!
So you're mildly short-sighted, with just a little bit of astigmatism. You
may detect a slight difference between your two eyes, but really the
correcting lens required is fairly similar, especially when compared to some
other glasses wearers out there. If you do perceive a big difference between
them, it may be that there is some other issue going on which we can only
guess at.
Going by the prescription given, glasses and/or contacts would certainly
help you see far away (driving/TV, etc) but wouldn't really help very much
for reading close up.
Regards
Dom

 

Well if you have learnt the eye chart and are pretending to read it but in
fact reciting it from memory, then you aren't 'guessing' at all, you are
misleading your doctor and obviously this is of no help to either party. I
don't think this is what the OP was talking about though.

My point was that if you have a genuine guess at a difficult line and get at
least some of them right, the optometrist or doctor will know that you can
only just see them, and will therefore have a better idea of just exactly
what you can and can't see. We can tell if a patient is guessing or reading
confidently. If you only read lines that are easy to read and stop when it
starts to get hard, you are not truely measuring visual acuity. Other
optometrists or doctors out there might ask their patients not to guess,
that's up to them.

Regards

Dom

 

You sound like the patient is deliberately cheating in some way, which
is probably not the case. If you have already memorized the damn chart
ask to use the non-literate one, which requires you to tell which way
the E is pointing. Seems like a much better way of doing it, but what
do I know, I'm just a patient.

I want to be able to read stuff EASILY, not get a good grade on my eye
test by squinting and doing eye gymnastics. Why should we have to
strain to read something?

 

Thanks Dom, you are the man!

One final question, will they give me another test for the lenses
(seeing as (I think) the card doesn't have the contact lense power on
it)?

 

Yep they have to check for other things besides the power of the contacts so
it's normally a separate check.