A Tip for Those With Visual Impairments

I don’t know why I never thought of sharing this sooner, but it is an inexpensize, simple and amazingly helpful bit of information for anyone that has dealt with some type of visual field loss. This is not so much for those that require prescriptions and already wear glasses, but for those that have had an AVm and/or surgery that has caused a partial loss of visual field.

A short background… When I was first diagnosed with my AVM back in 2001, I was having a lot of headaches and along with them came difficulty focusing my eyes, eyes strain, and the feeling that there was always something that was just a fraction of an inch away from my eyes. It drove me nuts! An optomterist prescribed some reading glasses that were such a weak magnification that they could not even be found in stores. So it was mostly to reduce eye strain. They worked when it came to using computers and reading books, but that was about it.

After my surgery, I had lost exactly half of my field of view… The right side of each eye was completely blind, but the vision left on the left side is still a perfect 20/20. I found that while wearing sunglasses, the eyestrain and feeling and fear that something was going to poke me in the was not as strong. This was great, but wearing sunglasses indoors was impractical. So I started my search for an indoor replacement! Having grown up as the son of a carpenter and having been in wood shop and metalworking for many years, I thought that maybe using safety glasses would do the trick. I grabbed some glasses from the garage and they seemed to help, but they were bulky, did not do much to block out the glare from computer monitors and the ever-annoying fourescent lighting. So I went online and started a search. Turns out, there are many many styles of sagety glasses out there. They come is all sorts of sizes, shapes, colors, materials, they are very strong and durable, and best of all, they are generally less expensive that even drug store reading glasses. It took me a while to find the right pair, but I found some glasses that have a light blue tint that all but eliminates the lighting problems, covers almost 90% of the area around my eyes, are very lightweight, comfortable enough to wear at work all day, and best of all, they’re inexpensive!

Better still… These glasses are available all over the place online and there are literally hundreds of styles, many of which don’t even look like safety glasses. I get people coming into work and some will ask me if they are prescription. I’ll tell them about why I am wearing them, and many think it is one of the most clever ideas they have ever heard of.

Here is the site that I buy my glasses from whenever I need a replacement set (maybe 1-2 times a year) or get bored and want a new style.

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/

They have glasses from $3 all the way up to a few hundred bucks, but there are plenty under $10 that should fit your needs.

Here’s my current style of choice…

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/t4113af.html

Don’t let the blue lenses fool you, not everything looks blue through them, they just help block out glary lights and yellow still looks like yellow, red still looks like red, etc.

Hopefully this will help someone else out there!

For those who have visual impairments, I thought you might be interested…

Thank you for the great post. Very interesting as I have left Homonymous Hemianopsia. I will have to check this out. Always like to learn new things. no matter what.

Lord, I have had a visual field loss to the left for 55 years, hate fluorescent lights, hate gong light to dark and the other way, and the sun hurts, and glare is awful at times, . Always wear sunglasses inside and they are readers. But I look like I am hiding something. This could be great, so thank you so much for your info.

beans

WOW, Jake Man...thanks for posting this...I'm going to order a pair for my visual loss (both left and right sides).

One other thing, Jake, the Epilepsy Foundation said those of us who have seizures should have blue lens glasses. Did you know that and that is why you order the ones with blue lens?

As always, your friend, Lou

Hi Louisa. Thank you for the reply to the post. I also have seizures due to the rupture. Never did anyone tell me about blue lenses. I have learned more about medical stuff here.

Thanks again, always pick up something on this site. My journey is going on old , in time. But new in the learning. I get sad at times that DR.'s never say much