Gransnetters share the difficulties they have experienced as their eyesight has deteriorated

I am short sighted but my near vision has steadily deteriorated over the last few years my TV’s have got bigger over the years ha ha too easier to see!

I have just been told by my optician that I have cataracts starting. I wear contact lenses most of the time with one eye for reading and the other for distance. I struggle to read small print, and we really need to buy a larger TV as neither my husband nor myself can read subtitles. My husband has had cataracts removed from both eyes, and his focal length is fixed at 13 feet, which he doesn't find very useful for anything. I hate having to wear glasses because they steam up in wet weather and when I'm cooking. I'm not sure if the best way to go when the cataracts are removed.

About three years ago I found it very difficult to cope with bright sunlight and driving became difficult. I am very short sighted in my left eye had little sight so I did not notice a black blob in the centre. This was diagnosed as wet macular degeneration. This means a bleed from a blood vessel which caused scarring, taking away my central vision. I was regularly monitored and six months later developed MD in my right eye. I have injections regularly into my eye which has improved my eyesight, I am no longer short sighted but long sighted needing 3+ lenses. I will continue to lose vision in future years. I no longer drive as colours and perspective are not true, someone wearing t6black I would not see.
The condition is age related. Wearing good sunglasses with side protection whenever there is any glare can help to protect your sight. Eating dark green veg rich in luten or taking supplements containing it is recommended.

I have AMD (wet) in its later stages.
Have been having Avastin injections in my eyes for the past 10 years.

In addition, the opthalmologist has diagnosed Sorsby's Fundus Dystrophy.
I've had one cataract removed and the 2nd will be done when it becomes more opaque. I also have incipient glaucoma.
Since the age of 12 have worn glasses for astigmatism.

Obviously I don't do things by halves! .

I have learned to use light and shade, contrast, sounds and smells - touch and my computer's ability to talk to me.

I can't see my mobile phone now but when I could, used the audio facility to speak texts via Siri.

I have never had a TV because reading was my main leisure interest and pleasure (and part of my job as a writer and researcher).

I could, in my prime, read 2 books a day.
Now I can't read anything: text undulates and part of each letter is 'missing'. So I am confined to audio books.

This is fine and I'm deeply grateful but 99% of audio is fiction, 1% none-fictions (see, I'm good at maths! )

This precludes me from reading what I most enjoyed: biological and medical research, books on art, science and technology, photography, cookery, crafts and much more.

I am ineligible for this prize unfortunately as I am not in England but on the plus side, the decade of care I have received for free in this country, would have been so expensive in the UK that I would have been condemned to blindness long before this.

I’ve been very short sighted since about the age of 9 & am now 58. Worn strong prescription glasses since then, never went to contact lens as I hate the idea of doing things to your eyes. From about age 43/44 needed more reading addition help, which was annoying. My work paid for eye test & reading glasses, as we were looking at computer screens all day. That became inconvenient after a while, swapping glasses to even read food packaging.

I then went on to bifocals, strange at first, but got used to it. Wouldn’t go for varifocals as my balance is not good & think it’s a gimmick anyway. I have noticed that I still struggle a little with much smaller type/print & what’s annoying about bifocals is that it limits choice of frames somewhat.

I had heard of serious readers previously, I think it was adverts in newspapers.

I have been short sighted all my life and have worn glasses or contact lenses.
However, when I turned 50 I began to develop long sightedness. Then I needed contact lenses and glasses together for reading. Or, I had varifocal glasses that I cannot get on with. Or, I was prescribed two contact lenses of different strengths, one for far vision and one for close work. And, most recently, my longsightedness and shortsightedness seem to be decreasing so I have just one contact lense - another solution that I don’t get along with.
Now I have given up with lenses and just have varifical glasses that I take off for reading. The issue of reading in the dark has been solved by buying an e-reader.

Like Mislayed, have worn contact lenses since late teens and am now the age that Lennon and McCartney sang about! The prescription for both eyes became the same a few years ago and still is. Have trouble seeing small print in the evening when eyes are tired, and not keen on night driving either. Have not heard of Serious Reader but sounds brilliant!

We are in our mid seventies and do have serious reading lights. They help enormously as our eyes are getting worse. Neither of us needed glasses when we were younger but time has moved on. We have varifocals and I have a pair of reading glasses for reading in bed. Every bit of extra light is useful particularly in the evening. We are now needing hospital appointments at the eye clinic so I think these lights will be even more useful in the future.

Now 72, I had ops on both eyes age 7 and have worn glasses ever since. I am short sighted and wear varifocals during the day but need intermediate glasses in the evening as I am on my laptop a lot. My new laptop has blue light shield enabled and I have found this very beneficial for my eyes. I have yearly eye checks as Mum had glaucoma and always have the retinal screening which shows my eyes are in good condition. So glad because I am passionate about books and reading and the loss of my sense of sight is the one I fear the most as I have got older.

I am as "blind as a bat" without my varifocals, and the optician tells me I have cataracts beginning in both eyes which explains why I find driving at night such a struggle. However, if I could just step into my shower and pick up the shampoo instead of the conditioner, I'd be happy!

One day I bent down to plug in the vacuum cleaner and suddenly, there was a flash in my left eye and it was full of firework type flashing.My husband took me to A&E where I was diagnosed as having a retinal tear.This was repaired by laser treatment and has been fine since then.
But then came my second experience some years later which happened just as I passed through customs after landing at Birmingham airport.Then again came the flashing but this time it was in my right eye.I was on my own at this point and tried to look for a first aid post but could not see one.I managed with blurry vision to make my way to the arrivals hall where my husband was waiting for me.We knew what was wrong and we went straight to A&E where I had laser treatment as before for a retinal tear.
My point about this is, if you experience any flashing in the eyes, go straight to A&E.A retinal tear is a serious condition and needs treatment a soon as possible as the tear can peel across the whole of the retina and sight can be lost completely.
This happened between 10-15 years ago and I have been fine since but I am always aware that this could happen again as the tears can start at different parts of the retina.
I am short sighted and this condition tends to affect those with this problem.
All the best to everyone and keep on eye on things!

I have been shortsighted since a teenager however resisted glasses for ages (boys don’t make passes with girls in glasses!). Over the years slowly got a bit worse. Now have the start of cataracts and I do notice it’s harder to read at night. I have started to get migraines again in the last few years so have the funny lights which are horrible of course. Hubby suddenly got glaucoma- the optiticans pick it up thankfully, he has gone on to have eye op in one eye as pressure so high, the other eye came down but the pressure is starting to rise again, so monitoring that. It’s so important to have regular eye checks as you would never know you had glaucoma.

My eyesight has deteriorated and I am using my varifocal specs all the time now. I find it difficult to judge depth sometimes so steps down can have caught me out once or twice and it does affect my confidence. Would love to wear contacts but having tried one eye for distance and one eye for close up, that was not going to work. My friend said persevere but I don't think my brain can adjust to it.

Started with reading glasses in my 50s - family history of glaucoma so regular checks

I started to need glasses for reading in my fifties and the vari vocals at sixty - which I struggled to adjust to - but working in a classroom they where practical as constantly changing from near to distance work.
I have just had a cateract done in one eye and can’t believe the difference in my eyesight- you really do not realise the deterioration as it is so gradual.

I don't actually know if it's age related, but my eyes seem to be producing a lot more liquid, which tends to end up on my glasses so that I'm forever cleaning them. PITA...

Like others, I wore glasses for years, then had cataracts done. Result - no need for glasses except for reading and then only for very small print. I have a couple of Serious Reader lamps and they are excellent for regular readers like me. Also, they supplied a small magnifier with my order which I find useful to read labels on goods when out shopping.

I'm now 73, I had good eyesight until I was 40-ish, when I had a job that needed me to see rather poor quality computer print-out. I then had to have glasses for reading. Gradually I needed stronger lens, & for the past 15/20 years I have had vari-lens specs., so need to wear them all the time. Over the past 5 years or so, my optician has said that I have slowly progressing cataracts, (as the NHS has "moved the goalposts" they are not yet ready to be done on the NHS)
I hate to drive at night as the light all "sparkle", I really avoid driving at night. I need a good light to read, & I really do love to read.

I started wearing glasses in my early teens. It upset me that my eyes were bad as I hoped to join the police but they were not good enough. In those days I had the NHS glasses which I refused to wear outside in public, once I played drums on a strangers buttocks thinking it was a mate of mine as I could not see it was not them! As I have got older I now wear bifocals , this helps with my reading, doing crosswords, colouring with my grandkids, reading recipes to bake, . My greatest love is reading though, the ultimate escapism!

Hi, I am 77 and diabetic so have regular checks. I also have cataracts which must be getting worse. I had a sight check only about 5 weeks ago and was told that the cataracts are growing but should be OK for a while. I have to wear glasses for reading and am now finding this difficult, I am virtually housebound so do spend time reading etc , watching TV and am on the computer a lot. I have a fear of going blind I really do not think I would be able to cope with that at all.
I can see the TV without glasses but am unable to read any dialogue. My health has deteriorated over the past 2 years and I have been very unwell, I just wish my sight was better. i don't mind wearing glasses but really would like to have better vision with or without them,

This is a biggie for me as my most beloved hobby is to read...has been so since I was a child - curling up with a book in a cosy corner somewhere has always been my ultimate comfort zone.

Now in my late sixties, I am finding that despite varifocals, my vision is incrasingly blurred...'cataracts' pronounced the optometrist cheerily - not bad enough to be done yet! I am finding that I am also clunsier than I used to be - could this be eyesight related I wonder, for the umpteenth time.

To complicate matters, I had a Post Vitreous Detachment in 2005 and the legacy of this is a scar (due to laser repair and then haemorrhage) right across the centre of my field of vision in what was my stronger, left, eye. This was manageable 'pre cataracts' however now it's an added frustrations as the cataracts are affecting both eyes.

I find that my eyes become tired so easily now...and my reading time has dwindled to twenty minutes before bed. Interestingly I am better reading without my glasses, close up, however even this is beginning to blur.

I'd be devastated to lose my ability to read - I've experimented with talking books and indeed some of these are wonderful...but it's not the same, is it? All those years of book tokens as gifts - the anticipation of browsing in my local bookshop for new reading matter...stacking the books up beside my bed and then - which one to read first?

I hadn't heard of Serious Reader lights ...but I shall certainly check them out now.

Merry Christmas everyone and happy reading for as long as we can!

I don’t have to many problems. I just need glasses go driving and tv etc. Although I have noticed myself holding books further away but print generally doesn’t cause me problems yet

I come from a large family of glasses wearers, and have worn reading glasses since my 30s. In my mid forties, I hailed an ambulance, thinking it was the local bus! (No, the siren wasn’t going!) so back to the opticians for a good check-up: my longsightedness has morphed into short-sightedness!
Not unusual as we age, I was told, but I was devastated. The thought of having to wear glasses for the rest of my life was hard to come to terms with. To be fair, my vision really improved and art coincidentally reentered my life and brought so much pleasure.
My frustration is bad or poor lighting that’s in so many places: shops, offices, street lighting. And don’t get me started on labels!!?
I mostly miss simple actions, like threading a needle, which I used to do with my eyes (almost) shut, as they say!
I’m not sure that even very good lighting could enable that action ever again - although it would impress me no end if it did!

Always very short sighted I began having further problems which included double vision, blurring and difficulty reading. Prisms were recommended and as a consequence I required stronger prescription glasses plus bifocals for use with my contact lenses. Later still I was diagnosed with macular degeneration and am presently attending the hospital outpatients’ department for treatment. Nowadays I mainly use my strong prescription glasses. I confided in only one colleague about my eyesight problems and was publicly mocked by her in front of others. Consequently I have experienced a loss of confidence, have rarely socialised and tend to use lights to aid reading .

The worst thing I find with my failing sight is that I cannot see my grandchildren as clearly as I used to. Their faces are fuzzy now. Another great loss is reading which I can no longer do even with a magnifier.