anybody have any idea how to read an optical prescription? (arrgh stereotypical Dr. bad handwriting)

[Kali]

FINALLY got my eyes examined and got a scrip for glasses (and contacts! not that I can afford those right now) and I am going to try ordering some cheap glasses on line.

Problem is I can't read one measurement number and have no idea what to guess for it. it is the Axis number for one eye and it LOOKS like it might be .03 or a 103, which seems like a strange number from what I gather from the google. the other eye is clearly 075.

any guesses as to whether that is a .03, a 103 or something entirely different? I suppose I could scan the scrip and post it if you really want.

thanks in advance (crossing fingers)

[PoliticAverse]

1. You may find the following web page useful...

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/how-read-eye-glass-prescription

Can ask the person that wrote it for clarification ?

[Kali]

3. that was much more helpful than what I found!

thankyou! so that is likely a 103 rather than a .03 I am guessing. But the 3 itself seems odd, most of the measurements seem to be in .25 increments so I would think if it was 103, he would have just wrote 100.


if I squint (ha) maybe the 3 is really a 5

[PoliticAverse]

5. I would guess 103 too, but considering that your money and eyes are involved I'd stop in...

and ask the person who did it for clarification if possible.

[Kali]

6. heh, that was about a 3 hour, 200 mile drive - no "stopping in" possible

but I can try to call tomorrow, I guess. dang wanted to get these going. do you think the 2 points would matter much (and if you could see the beat up 10 year old glasses I have been living with you would understand my question and my "urgency" )

[PoliticAverse]

9. I don't think there's that much difference between 103 and 105. You could put up a picture and let

DUers guess the 3rd digit.

You could always compromise on 104.

More than you want to know on the issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyeglass_prescription

[Kali]

10. scan, and now I am paranoid about another number

is that left spherical a 200 or a 290?

zooming sure makes the other question a 3 rather than a 5. should have scanned it earlier!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

8. Get your hands on a magnifying glass before you order anything. n/t

[Kali]

11. he gave me a pair of contacts and then I had to go buy reading glasses to see the prescription LOL

scanning and zooming works pretty good, but my scanner was here at home.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

13. I wear reading glasses

and keep a magnifying glass handy for the really faint stuff. I will soon need to get something for driving. I've ordered contacts online, but never glasses...fitting frames is more difficult that simply ordering contacts.

[Kali]

14. so far I don't need readers when my eyes are bare

but at 40 I started needing them when I wore my contacts. With my glasses, I have to take them OFF to read so the hand motions have been really mixed up the last couple days.

I am sure these things I just ordered are probably pretty crappy but again, if anybody could see what I have been living with the past 5 or more years, almost anything is going to be an improvement.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

16. I used to wear tinted contacts...

can't see a damned thing with them any longer. But as I'll be 65 next month, I'm happy to have just needed readers to date.

[greymattermom]

2. 103

It's an angle.

[Kali]

4. cool so it would be a 103 rather than me trying to make that 3 into a 5?

[PoliticAverse]

7. Since it is an angle between 0 and 180 degrees if there are 3 digits the first should be a 1...

Fortunately there's not that much difference between 103 and 105.

[shanine]

12. Left sphere 2.50nt

[Kali]

15. you think?

that doesn't look like any of his other 5s

I think it must be a zero since a 9 doesn't seem to be used for that measurement any where I could find.