Halos aren’t always a symptom of cataracts. I didn’t have them, and I was going blind from cataracts. I mention this because I would not want anyone to think that because they don’t see halos they don’t have cataracts and not get their eyes checked.
Only an ophthalmologist can tell you if you have a problem.
While cataract surgery can enable you to throw away your glasses, it isn’t perfect. The new lenses don’t have the elasticity of natural lenses, and don’t have the focal range. The distance for your vision can be set by the ophthalmologist. I have what they called “monovision”, where one eye is set to midrange to distance and the other to midrange to close. I see far with my left eye and read with my right. My brain reprogrammed itself to use the correct one at any given time. A friend has midrange to distance in both eyes and uses glasses to read. BUT BE ADVISED: another friend lost his vision in one eye due to a surgical problem. This is major surgery and carries risks, so I don’t recommend it in lieu of glasses.
Besides, you haven’t lived until you’ve lain awake with your eye propped open having the lens removed and replaced… … it’s a truly strange experience.
I have to echo mountainbike’s advice for Honda Blackbird to get a thorough eye exam.
When I was in my early 50s, I began to complain about being blinded by oncoming headlights, and my passengers would usually look at me with puzzled expressions on their faces.
As it turned out, I was developing an early-onset type of cataract in both eyes.
Cataract surgery on one eye was like a revelation in terms of improved vision, and when the other eye was ready for surgery a few years later, it completed my newly improved outlook on life (pun intended). In addition to not being blinded by headlights after having surgery on both eyes, I was able–for the first time in about 35 years–to watch TV without the aid of glasses.
Recently, my nephew–who is 47–related his tale of ocular woes, and he also has a cataract developing in one eye at that relatively early age. That was the good news–believe it or not. The bad news was the diagnosis of a detached retina in that same eye.
He was scheduled for emergency surgery at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia–which is the premier eye hospital in The US–and a brief laser procedure was done to repair his detached retina. Thank God for Obamacare, because without that coverage, he would never have been able to afford that surgery at that hospital.
His cataract problem is not yet ready for surgery, as those lens issues have to get to a certain point before they are considered operable, but at least he knows that he will be able to get extremely high-quality medical care when he needs it, thanks to The ACA.
Anyway…the takeaway for Honda Blackbird–and anyone else who is bothered by oncoming headlights–is to get a thorough eye exam from an Ophthalmologist. Don’t go to a place like Lens Crappers, which is the eyecare equivalent of Jiffy Lube.
Oncoming headlights are not too bad for me, I have one eye vision more or less, cataract in good eye, doc wants to wait till I really need it as any chance of problems is to great a risk. Rainy nights are bad, daylight driving is fine, remembering looking up at the moon and there were 2 other moons shadowing it. It went away when I put on my glasses, I quit driving at night except for emergencies, I know my night vision is deprecated. Life goes on.
Apologies to Carolyn for contributing to this tangent, but this subject is just too important to not address… and since it’s critical to safe driving, it could be argued that it’s car-related…
I had VDC’s “wow” emotion after my first eye was done. I had forgotten what it was like to see clearly. And in my case it truly was a safety issue, because I had to drive home from work at night and could barely see… although I hadn’t realized how much vision I’d lost. It got to the point where I wouldn’t drive at night anymore except home from work.
I also developed the aforementioned halos from macular degeneration from glaucoma. My cataracts got so bad the Ophthalmologist could no longer see the area around the optic nerve through his equipment to monitor the progression of the glaucoma-caused degeneration. It was like looking through a dense yellow fog. It actually tinted everything yellow on me… blues looked green, whites looked yellow. I didn’t realize it until I got my first eye done, and then I’d see a clear blue image with one eye and foggy green with the other.
As I said, it IS major surgery, so don’t underestimate its risks. They wait until the first eye is fully healed before doing the second so that if there’s an unforeseen complication you don’t end up totally blind.
This truly IS a driving safety issue, and I strongly recommend anybody who has not had a checkup for years to get one. And, as VDC said, go to an ophthalmologist, not an optometrist. An ophthalmologist is an eye surgeon, and optometrist is a refractionist. Optometrist are trained to recognize common pathologies and will then refer you to an ophthalmologist, but they have nowhere near the medical knowledge that an ophthalmologist has.
Yup!
Many years ago, one of my students had an obviously serious visual problem, and when I reported it to his mother, she said, “Okay, I’ll take him to Poil Vision”. (Translatiion=“I’ll take him to Pearl Vision”.)
Because we believed that this child’s visual problems were far beyond the ability of a mall-based vendor of eyeglasses, I was able to get the school district to tap an emergency fund in order to to pay for an exam by an Ophthalmologist. And…guess what?..It turned out that our proactive approach saved this student from a lifetime of blindness because of our refusal to accept his mother’s approach to healthcare.
the same mountainbike: My ex got the one contact for distance and one for near. She swears by them. I’m sure glasses could be the same. I wear glasses and don’t consider them a big deal. Regarding your unfortunate friend. That is why they normally do surgery one eye at a time.
Sarge, I do have a prescription for glasses, but I’m fine without them. I got the prescription filled and hated the results. I wore glasses for most of my life, bifocals in the later years (I was prescribed trifocals and couldn’t get used to them), and I don’t miss them one bit. I’m technically 20/40 in the worst eye without correction, so it works okay.
I think I paid a lot of money for my trifocals and don’t like them either. I very seldom use them if I’m driving and my eyes are tired, otherwise I just use reading glasses.
Before you boys have me relegated to “Mr Magoo Status” I think I am over thinking this…I dont see Halos round anything…and I can read the fine print 12 inches from my face as well as on a bumper sticker on a Smurfs Car from 100yds. My vision was always better than 20/20 and I have no reasons to think it has changed, none at all…except these massively bright lights.
I will get my peepers checked as a matter of course, however this blindness I speak of is a direct result of these high power new bright white lights…in my face…at night. No other headlights blind me…at all.
I can see it coming when it happens…some of these new cars headlights illuminate the friggin neighborhood prior to the car passing me…I can see the houses on either side of the street…fully illuminated and then…oh my…I cant see! Some of these look like Close Encounters of the 3rd kind type of light…Bright, White, Bathing everything in light.
Wondering why I am being blinded might just be me asking a stupid question. Of Course I’m blinded…cause the light is BLINDINGLY Bright.
I have an eye check on Tuesday… But methinks I wont be getting any surprises at the eye docs
Here are just a few of a massive collection of people who agree about this new lighting…and yep…thats me in the Pic with my arm in front of my eyes…haha. Do a simple search of “New Headlights too bright” and you will have more than you care to read
I truly am sorry for blinding you with my HIDs but would you rather be blinded or have me blinded and not be able to see the road? Now those gol dang pick ups in back of me with their headlights about four feet high is what blinds me.
the same mountainbike: My optometrist advised against trifocals. My vision was tested 20/10, then 20/15. then 20/20, then glasses. My right eye has returned to near 20/20 distance. I still need near vision bifocals or arm extenders. I renewed my driver license in 2007. I told them I now needed to wear glasses for driving. They insisted I had to have their vision test. It was very crude. Of course I failed. And it extended my 15 minute license renewal to over 1 hour. Bureaucracy at it’s finest.
That’s a lotta change. But, then, my own vision has changed substantially over the years too.
NH requires the vision test too with every renewal, which is every five years… except my 2015 renewal. I got a card in the mail that I could renew it over the internet, and I did. No test, no new photo. I don’t really know how the new program works, but it saved me the trouble of going into the DMV, so what the heck.
Ya know just barely passed my recent drivers license eye test, I always wear glasses for distance, but glad I did not have that requirement on my license. Sure I could read well enough the left and the middle, but the right was totally blank, but I could id the peripheral test lights accurately.
Actually it kind of scares me, without glasses a kid all dressed in black walking or riding in a highway at night could be easily missed if I was not wearing my glasses. I am at 40/100 for my good eye, no wonder so many old people drive slow
LOL, ya know, I used to wonder why old people drive so slow. Then I got old. And my vision went downhill. Now I know why old people drive so slow. We can’t see!!!
I agree about the possibility of being more sensitive to light…But i honestly feel I dont fall into that category. I have no issue at all with any other headlights…At ALL…
The light I am talking about is BRIGHT by anyone’s standards and it isnt a matter of opinion in the instances I am talking about. I swear I could see a burned in X-RAY imprint of my skeleton on my back seats after a few encounters with these lights !! Haha…
I am also of the opinion that many of these lights are being Aimed in a “Not so fair to others” manner. Maybe they just aim the bulb in these newer vehicle and the “amount of light scatter after the fact be damned” I dunno…its not my night vision…Ima tellin you!
But methinks I wont be getting any surprises at the eye docs