Managing after cataract treatment

[johnk]

On Thursday, I took the first step to upgrade my vision. The cartaracted lens in my master eye was removed & replaced with one to give me perfect distance vision - if the measurements were taken correctly & so far, that seems highly likely, as I was reading 20/30 Friday morning at surgery follow up & most of the 20/20 line & my vision is even sharper today. When this procedure has settled down, my ophthalmologic surgeon proposes to replace the lens of my off eye with one better suited to the needs of day to day living.

At the moment that eye is somewhat short sighted, needing a bit more than 3 dioptre correction for distance vision. Without any correction, it's great for reading but not quite up to using a computer screen, hammering a nail, or as I usually put it, cutting my toenails.

My doctor's suggestion is to have a lens fitted to correct for short-intermediate distance, something along the lines of what I have achieved with my toenail glasses, but knowing I'm a target shooter, hasn't completely discounted fitting a second long distance lens. In any case, he believes that the so called necessity of binocular vision of normal day to day function is greatly overemphasised, something I'm already coming to agree with, as I'm not wearing correction for distance on my off eye at the moment.

It seems to me that the major consideration is that the fitted lenses don't have the adjustable capability of the normal eye. That being the case, I drive long distances between events & prudence suggests that it would be appropriate to be able to read the speedometer & my GPS whilst driving, as well as using hand tools etc. Heck, I could buy off the shelf sunglasses! On the other hand, I'm thinking that whatever I have fitted to the left eye can be adjusted/corrected with a prescriptions lens in my shooting glasses to give me the necessary distance vision to manage the flags. I'll work out something so I can see the scope knobs.

Has anybody faced this issue? How did you resolve it?

Thanks in anticipation

John

[DaveMc]

Hi John,
I am in a similar situation but for different reasons, and like most, slowly getting worse. I imagine everyone with poor eyesight faces something like this so am surprised there is not more feedback yet.

I have astigmatism that needs different correction for short and long range.

I can still actually see through the scope all right but struggle to see flags at any distance. I can just read with a squint at short range. I trialled at one stage popping the right lens out of my shooting glasses and used left eye for flags and long range and right for scope and reading. Now my short range sighting is getting worse and am starting to struggle to read and cant get reticle to focus. The trouble is a short range correction does not look great through the scope and the long range lens makes everything egg shaped and shifts image a long way to the right. I guess I am going to get a set of long range shooting glasses made with a bifocal lens on bottom of one eye for reading, a lens in right eye specifically designed for scope shooting (hopefully without too much "egging"). Someone has suggested hanging a corrective lens on back of scope (in a slip on lens cover. (Someone else has also suggested the S&B scope eyepieces can be adjusted for a lot of vision issues) and a long range lens for left eye.

It sounds like it is all a compromise from here - win on one side, lose on the other but it sounds like the opthamologists advice will give you good day to day use as well as handy for shooting with (hopefully) a long range correction set of glasses on left eye???

[AlanF]

John, Dave,

My advice would be to forget about close range stuff (have a good magnifying glass on the mound for any scope adjustment or other reading requirements), then have some dedicated shooting glasses, which correct astigmatism etc and are optimised for flag reading. And using the same glasses, the scope should have sufficient cross-hair and object focussing for a perfect scope image?

Alan

[GregW]

US Optics will build a scope with your personal prescription included, however quite expensive I think.

The good news is that team shooters don't need to see the flags!

[DaveMc]

John, Dave,

My advice would be to forget about close range stuff (have a good magnifying glass on the mound for any scope adjustment or other reading requirements), then have some dedicated shooting glasses, which correct astigmatism etc and are optimised for flag reading. And using the same glasses, the scope should have sufficient cross-hair and object focussing for a perfect scope image?

Alan

I have tried this Alan shooting with my "driving glasses" and found it frustrating. A few times I forgot the magnifying glass (I suppose that would get better with practice) and when removing my long range glasses my eyes take a long while to recover and I have no chance of reading the turrets. Another alternative is the "PJS" large turret covers with large writing. A corrective lens on/in eyepiece would be a good option as well

[aaronraad]

Okay I'll say it...

Brail turrents - bringing shooting sports to the visually impared or those that prefer to shoot in the dark.

Mitutoyo solved the problem of reading vernier measurements years ago with the digit counter and eventually the LCD digital readouts.

I'm sure one of the scope manufacturers will 'click' to it.

[DaveMc]

Once again - s&B - I think they have reasonable size "counters" in their turrets. That plus their extended diopter range in eyepiece. Maybe one of their designers has poor eyesight??

[johnk]

I'm thinking of a cheap scope mount modified to carry an appropriate lens swapped from rifle to rifle as needed , or, gawdhelpme, a set of el cheapo specs that can be slipped on over my shooting glasses when the need arises to look. Hopefully, as I always adjust my elevations & centre my windage before I hit the mound, that will get me by.

[jt]

Hello John,

I would go with long vision and look at using a Bulzeye-pro lens instead of the shooting glasses to help with getting a good scope picture. While you might still need a magnifying lens to read the scope settings it is easier on the eyes. Sliding back from the rifle might be enough to read the dials.
My preference is to see clearly down the range without needing my eyes to find the focus going from scope to flags.

When I shot smle's with open sights, I have a pair of shooting glasses that gave good focus on the front sight. But after a session with them I would get double vision out of my right eye and when I put my normal spectacles on I would have triple vision until my eyes settled down. So you don't want to go down the road of blurring up the vision and having to wait for the focus to kick in.

jt.

[johnk]

I did the 4 week check on my new lens today (actually 5 weeks - something about Christmas). My vision as is is 20/20 & with the tad of correction I need for my astigmatism, I can read the bottom line of the chart.

I'm programmed to have the left lens blasted & replaced with a full distance vision lens on the last day of January, in accordance with the advice I had from shooters here & elsewhere.. With any sort of luck, I'll be able to have shooting glasses with aberration correction by the end of February. Day to day, I'll be happy to operate without prescription spectacles, just a set of reading glasses because my shortest accommodation in the right eye is about 2 inches longer than by outstretched arm - dash instrument distance actually.

John

PS: Anybody considering Lasik, bear in mind that specialists reckon that it's a little tricky to calculate the exact power of lens is needed if you get cataracts once that surgery is done.