Glasses prescription...opinions please

[ker92ri]

So this will be my third opinion...went into vision express today and spoke with a kind optometrist about my worries. He said that the ghosting was caused by my astigmatism. But I have never had any problems with ghosting before so why would it all of a sudden start now? My current prescription from Specsavers is as follows: left eye: SPH: +1.00 CYL: -0.75 AXIS: 15.0. Right eye: SPH: +2.50 CYL: -1.50 AXIS: 12.0.

My vision express prescription: Left eye: SPH: +1.00 CYL: -1.00 AXIS: 13. Right eye: SPH: +1.00 CYL: -1.00 AXIS: 179.

The optometrist from vision express suggested to decrease the prescription in my right eye (bad eye) because he thought the difference between the two eyes were too much for my left eye (good eye) to cope with. What worries me is that my astigmatism in my good eye has increased by 0.25 in 2 weeks. Surely that can't be normal. He told me that everything looked healthy.

Has anybody else had an increase in astigmatism in a short space of time? Also will it just keep increasing until I can hardly see at all. I could cope if the vision in my good eye was good but it just seems to be getting worse. I'm not sure whether I should consult with a neurologist. The monocular and binocular double vision seem to have started round about the same time. I do not believe this is a coincidence.

Any thoughts?

[Mindknot]

Yeah, I've had eye tests from different opticians that came out quite differently - annoyingly though, anxiety can affect your results as it can affect your vision (see the symptoms page). I had a prescription made up that was too strong for me too, it gave me headaches and made my vision even worse, ended up seeing a very knowledgable optometrist at Boots where I had a third eye test and he advised similar - making the prescription in my weaker eye less strong.

Boots sometimes do freebies if you get an advantage card, so you could always have another test for free - remember the whole eye test process has some subjective elements to it as the optician can't see what you're seeing, if you are feeling tired or anxious on the day of your test it's quite possible that the results come out slightly wrong. Shop around a bit, getting new glasses costs a fair bit and I learnt to my cost that getting it wrong can be even more flippin' expensive.... it's worth finding an optometrist you trust.

Also to put your mind at ease, I'm pretty sure that my prescription is around the same as yours, so I expect you're just fine. Probably anxiety symptoms more than anything. Also, my optician said to me that when you have one eye that's significantly weaker than the other, it's pretty much always going to be like that, so when one or the other has to do more work, you will end up with tired eyes sometimes, and that might well feel weird - but it's fine.

[ker92ri]

Thanks mindknot seem to have got myself in a blind panic over this. I have an eye turn as well so I'm not sure whether that may be causing symptoms in my good eye. It really does seem like a refractive problem though. But all the tests I've had have shown nothing out of the ordinary apart from astigmatism which I've always had. Just worried that my sight is just going to keep on getting worse.

[Mindknot]

I'm not too familiar with the terms, but my right eye also has that weaker muscle problem that causes it to go squint when I'm tired. On the whole though, these type of vision problems develop progressively, which is why you generally only need to see an optometrist every two years. It's more than likely anxiety that is currently causing you to pay more attention to your vision, but if you get a prescription that makes your eyes more comfortable your level of anxiety will probably be less too - they are controlled by muscles which are in use constantly and can even tense up, like every other muscle in your body, so working on your anxiety will help your eyes. :)

[sputnikmoon]

I had vision express give me glasses for 8 years... barely wore them as I didn't feel there was an issue and if anything they made things a little soft, but trusted that they said something needed correcting.

Went to Boots opticians last year, the said I have 20:10 vision and in no way shape or form do I need glasses...

Got a second opinion from an NHS optician, same thing - better than perfect eye sight!

There must be some degree of error with the tests wether it's the optician themselves, the equipment or the organics of the eye being effected my tiredness, humidity, anxiety etc :)

[ker92ri]

Thanks mindknot I am extremely anxious about my eyes. I mean way over the top, I check my eyes every 5 minutes and I'm sure my eyesight is so much worse than it used to be