u/cecirdr

I'm 70% certain that a monofocal IOL would be best, but I want to do a bit more research since I have my first appointment June 4th. I have plenty of time to consider my options.

While I'd love to ditch glasses, I'm totally ok with continuing to have them. I really want to retain superb near focus ability for crafting hobbies that I hold close to my face to be able to see small details. It's not just sharpness I'm going for, it's the ability to have a large enough image size for the details to be relatively big, not just in focus.

So, with that being said, once you get used to the notion of a trifocal being inside your eye, how large are the focus zones? What I mean by that is if you're holding a cross stitch pattern 8 inches away from your face, do you see the full 6 inch hoop area in focus or just a band across the image?

I currently wear bifocals. When I look through the reading zone, I have a large area that is in focus. I see the distance zone out of focus above it, but the in focus area is still plenty large enough for a big working area.

Also, have you adapted to night halos? Do you find the loss of contrast in lower light/dusk to bother you?

Thx!

I’ve been post menopausal for approx 8 years. I just started climara pro as an adjunct for osteoporosis treatment. I still have my ovaries and uterus.

If you started well after menopause and particularly if you use climara pro, I’d love to hear if you had side effects or not, what they were and how long they lasted.

Thx!

Let me elaborate a bit. I'm 85% sure I'd like to get monofocal lenses because acuity and contrast are that important to me. I actually don't mind wearing glasses since I've been myopic since kindergarten. I spoke to an ophthalmologist and he was loathe to use monofocals "worse" than -2 and he really prefers plano with patients getting reading glasses for anything else.

So let's say that I go with plano. Can I see my shampoo bottle in the shower? See to shave my legs? I work in IT, so I code using multiple monitors for nearly 10 hours a day. Will I see crisply at 18-20 inches away? If I'm settling in to do cross stitch, talk to my spouse and watch TV in the evening, can I have bifocals with enough reading correction to let me hold the fabric where I prefer which is 8 inches away? (and with a magnifier...yeah, I like *really* close up work).

My current vision is -7.25 and -5.5. I use that myopia as my "superpower" to really dig into details when stitching. If I can't hold things really close and see those details, I think I'd be upset.

I was leaning toward -2.5 for my IOL and getting bifocals with blanks at the appropriate spot for driving or close up work. I figure I'd need pretty strong reading lenses to "return me to the myopia" that I prefer for close work. If I get better distance vision, that level of reader might not be easily possible. Is my calculus correct or am I misunderstanding things? I tried to ask these questions of my doc, but he was in too big a hurry and seemed to be giving me glib answers. (I've made an appt with a different doctor. I'm just not comfortable with the first one I went to)

Thx for any info!

So far, all I've been offered is alendronate or reclast for my osteo. I'm not bad. My lumbar spine is -2.7 and hip and femur are -2.1.

I'm not keen on the drugs that stop all osteoclast activity with bisphosphonates because the stay in your bones for years. It just seems like it makes your bones basically "dead". There's no new bone being built because that requires a signal from osteoclasts for osteoblasts to activate. I'd much rather have an anabolic builder like forteo or evenity, but insurance may not allow it for me. (I'm going to try to pull any levers that I can, I am small with low BMI and I've had a non-union fracture many years ago).

Anyway, I'm considering requesting to get on HRT, take up weight lifting (LIFTMOR), do jumps, and make sure to have enough protein, calcium, K2/D3 etc. Would I be short changing myself if I go that route and opt to not use alendronate?

Edit to add age. I'm 61. Post menopause for about 8 years.

I ended up in a cataract surgeon’s office because my strabismus surgeon said I needed to take care of any cataracts first. So he set me up inthe same hospital system as him, but the initial appt is 4 months out and the next strabismus appt is 5 months out. The timing didn’t look good to not have a delay. So off I go to try to find a cataract doc in my hometown.

During my appt today, I felt rushed and dismissed. I mentioned that I have spent my lifetime focusing super close and that my goal is acuity. So I felt I needed to stay near sighted at about -2.5. He said he doesn’t like to do worse than -2. I also said that I didn’t feel like I could handle reading in my lap since I spent a lifetime reading much closer. He replied “yes you will. That where things will be in focus”. It was as if I was taking to a wall!

So I’ve spent money on the strabismus doc only to have to go back in early October to another appt. It’s as if the first one didn’t count. Now I’m out the money for this appt. Excuse I feel like it need to try to find another doc for my cataracts.

I feel despondent. I’m just spinning my wheels. Don’t even get me started on the insurance stuff I’m dealing with for my osteoporosis diagnosis a coupe of weeks ago!

There’s nothing to say really. I just needed to vent into the internet void. Sigh…

I just got diagnosed with osteoporosis. I'm 61 and have probably been post menopausal for 8 years. Back when I was perimenopausal and suffering from crazy bleeding, insomnia, anxiety, hot flashes, and racing heart I was told, that I didn't need HRT. It would all stop soon. I told my doc that I could hardly work because the insomnia was so bad that I literally got just a few decent nights of sleep in a month. No go, he wouldn't prescribe it.

Later, at menopause, I asked because my sisters were getting bio-identical hormones. I was told no because I hadn't had children. More time goes by, I move and get a new doc. She never even suggests HRT. So here I am now...8 years after menopause. I'm on anxiety meds, atorvastatin for cholesterol, pregabalin for restless leg syndrome and now I'm trying to advocate for myself to get generic forteo for bone density treatment.

My sisters...no osteoporosis. I'm peeved. Why didn't my doc even suggest HRT instead of letting my anxiety, lipids, and bones have problems first? (not to mention my massive increase in restless leg syndrome so much so that she's put me on pregabalin...that I'm now physically addicted to!)

Now she just wants to put me on alendronate. Yeah, it's the easy first line treatment for osteoporosis, but there are issues with bisphosphonates muting responses to forteo if the Fosamax doesn't work. It's as if I'm talking to a wall. No one seems even the least bit concerned about doing the best for their patient, it's all about checking off boxes. She's unwilling to even *try* to champion for my health with my insurance company.

I'm hoping another doctor will champion for my health and be willing to try to convince insurance that I could qualify for forteo and HRT (former non-union fracture in my past). I live in AL, so that's probably the most I can hope for, but maybe, just maybe, if I need some testosterone, I can luck into finding here there too. I'm giving it my best shot....fighting the good fight. But it's hard to "fight" if you didn't even know you were supposed to.

Thank you for attending my rant.

I'm 61 and I have a t score of -2.7 in my lumbar spine and 2.1 in my hip and femoral head. I was hoping that I could start on the generic forteo first, then reclast to lock things in. But my doc gave me a scrip for alendronate and says that I don't qualify for forteo.

Am I misreading the studies? It seems like shutting down osteoclasts for years can be a problem if you need to take anabolic bone builders later because you didn't gain bone density on alendronate/fosamax. It causes you to not respond well to forteo/teriparatide. So the "proper" cycle is teriparatide first, then reclast later. Then take a break and see if you need to do anything else to maintain your gains.

I have BCBS (I'm in the US). Is this "reverso" method really the way we have to do things or should I be more assertive? I've contacted BCBS, but all they say is that teriparatide is authorized and part of their formulary, but they won't speak to what's required to qualify for it.

-2.7 in lumbar spine, -2.1 in femoral neck and total hip.

I'm going to be starting alendronate 1x per week.

I'm 61 and female. Up until a year and a half ago, I lifted weights and used an exercise bike 3-4x per week for about 9 years. Can one lose bone density that fast?

None of my doctors ever wanted to start me on HRT. So what's done is done. How fast can alendronate get my bone density back up? I guess I'll have to be on something for life? Or can certain exercises help me keep the density up once it's back to a certain point?

In the last few days, the app is snapping to the bottom or top of a page. In the main homepage feed, it’ll suddenly snap back to the top of the feed. When reading comments, it’ll snap to the bottom. In both cases, I have to manually scroll back to where I was reading and hope it doesn’t happen again.

Just an fyi. I hope the behavior is fixed soon. It’s frustrating enough to make me not want to use the app or read Reddit at all.