Diagnosed with astigmatism but see fine?

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HopefulFlower
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31 Jul 2013, 4:39 pm

I don't understand. I have glasses and everything, but I see fine without them. I have bad eye strain yes but no blurring. Isn't astigmatism blurry vision? I admit my vision is not the best in the world but it's not blurry. But when I put on the glasses things look magnified, widen my eyes a little more, and it really does help my eyes. Can someone explain this to me I'm confused. I do go blurry sometimes these times are just at random and accompanied by a dizzy spell, when I'm tired, or when I've focused on something for way too long. But it isn't a constant blur.


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31 Jul 2013, 5:01 pm

An astigmatism is cause by an irregularity on your cornea or lens that causes visual irregularites on segments of your vision, not overall blurriness.

If you have been with out visual correction for a while you may think you see fine, when you do not. This is due to your brain being used to interpreting the information that comes in from your eyes. This can hurt your eyes over the long term as it makes your eyes work harder.

If you can see better with your glasses, you do need them even if you think you see fine with out them.


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31 Jul 2013, 5:27 pm

I'm not astigmatic, but I got glasses when I was about four and I thought I could see perfectly before that. Simple near or far sightedness, which is all I have, are more than enough to cause a LOT of blurriness. Other than dental stuff, my glasses account for most of the money I've needed from my parents' insurance. This is especially important if you're a techie like myself, as even the most modern displays can't compensate for the eyestrain you've doubtless experienced with old TVs and such.


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31 Jul 2013, 5:49 pm

I may/may not be, but my eyesight often goes blurry randomly myself. Not a constant blur but a sharp unfocusing from times, sometimes white and black blurs together, hence the coloured text. It's a lot worse when having my usual migraines, but otherwise vision has always gets worse year on year. I've had glasses since about 8 years old.


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Vectorspace
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31 Jul 2013, 6:24 pm

How strong are your glasses, in terms of numbers?



HopefulFlower
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31 Jul 2013, 6:30 pm

Vectorspace wrote:
How strong are your glasses, in terms of numbers?


I don't remember I don't have the prescription anymore.


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HopefulFlower
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31 Jul 2013, 7:00 pm

Okay so I used this chart to see if my vision was okay.... my one eye (That is semi lazy-semi because it goes outwards when it decides "Okay this is too much work I give up," or I make it do it. They wanted to do surgery on me when I was really little but my mom wouldn't let them.) is moderately astigmatic and my other eye is very mildly astigmatic. I tried covering again and looking around the room and that one eye had everything looking kinda hazy and I had trouble focusing it. Now I get how I have astigmatism! It makes sense now!


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Vectorspace
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01 Aug 2013, 7:24 am

Why did they want to do eye surgery? Eyes change all the time when you're young. Mine still do. I used to be short-sighted, but that has changed into astigmatism now.



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01 Aug 2013, 11:55 am

I have severe near-sightedness (-11.25) and astigmatism. I've never had correction for the astigmatism and "see just fine" with the near-sighted correction. Last year the eye doctor gave me a trial pair of contacts specifically for the astigmatism. He said I should be able to see much better with the astigmatism correction. Correcting the astigmatism - I felt I was looking out of a fish bowl. I couldn't even wear the correction for 30 minutes and had to take them out. I think I "see just fine" without correcting the astigmatism.



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01 Aug 2013, 12:30 pm

The "fish bowl" effect is normal. When I got me new glasses, I felt a bit dizzy and I had trouble walking on stairs for almost one week because they made me think I was 20cm (8") shorter than before. But the "aaaahhh, HD" effect was still amazing, though my astigmatism is only about −1.5 and my short-sightedness is about −1.



patdbunny
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01 Aug 2013, 3:55 pm

"The "fish bowl" effect is normal."
Really?! 'Normal' people are supposed to see out of a fish bowl?

" But the "aaaahhh, HD" effect was still amazing"
No idea what you're talking about. I didn't see more clearly at all. I just saw fish bowl.

" When I got me new glasses, I felt a bit dizzy and I had trouble walking on stairs for almost one week because they made me think I was 20cm (8") shorter than before."
Okay. Maybe I have had my astigmatism corrected before and I just didn't know it. In the past I had a pair of glasses do as you described. I had those things for YEARS and never got used to it. I ended up not wearing them very often and just relied on my contacts. I kept taking those glasses to the eye glass place and the eye doctor complaining there was something wrong with the glasses. They kept telling me there was nothing wrong with my glasses.

The astigmatism diagnosis isn't wrong. Every eye doc since I was a kid has said I have astigmatism.



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01 Aug 2013, 4:41 pm

patdbunny wrote:
"The "fish bowl" effect is normal."
Really?! 'Normal' people are supposed to see out of a fish bowl?

Hm, no. For me, it disappeared rather quickly. Maybe it's hard to manufacture very strong glasses with cylinder. Was this when you were a kid? Maybe they have become better.



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01 Aug 2013, 5:22 pm

Vectorspace wrote:
patdbunny wrote:
"The "fish bowl" effect is normal."
Really?! 'Normal' people are supposed to see out of a fish bowl?

Hm, no. For me, it disappeared rather quickly. Maybe it's hard to manufacture very strong glasses with cylinder. Was this when you were a kid? Maybe they have become better.

The astigmatism contacts were last year. Glasses were within the last 10 years.