When reading prescription, how do read Jibberish to order glasses online?

over_clox@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 70 points –

Seriously, what the fuck is this?

107

-4.25 0.25 134

-4.50 0.50 70

This prescription is 3 years out of date, if you're ordering new glasses you should just get a new eye exam

How are his zeroes so inconsistent.

Fucker should go back to elementary school or buy a fucking computer.

Nobody should have tried to write cursive numbers. That's just a recipe for disaster

I don't know who downvoted you, but have an upvote.

Thank you for understanding. πŸ‘

There's a bitter bastard in every thread. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

And I thank you for not being one of them. πŸ‘

I'm still staring at exactly what I posted over an hour ago, and I'm still half scratching my head..

I think Lemmy is so small that people hold grudges over the stupidest things and downvote on sight to feel better about themselves. Don't mind those energy vampires. I could say puppies are great and still expect at least one downvote for no reason.

Thank you for looking and trying your best. I'm still confused though.

Last they told me was my left eye was -4.5, and my right eye was -4.25, both with a 15⁰ astigmatism.

But what's up with that 134? Do you really think that's meant to read 134?

I dunno, serious legit questions, regarding the handwriting, not asking any medical opinion, just handwriting..

134 indicates that this is a prescription for glasses and not lenses. Lenses are typically only available in increments of 10.

If that's the case, you should get a new prescription specifically for lenses, because the spherical correction (-4.5) will also be different between glasses and lenses, because of the distance to the eye.

What's the difference between glasses and lenses?

I need to understand this before Labor Day, I have to renew my driver's license, and that's a restriction on my license.

Class R - Regular Operator's License

Restrictions 1 - Corrective Lenses

The correction is typically slightly lower than for glasses, but besides the corrections (sphere, cylinder and axis), lenses also have curve (BC) and diameter (DIA) to fit your eye.

If you have an old box of lenses you can usually find all the numbers printed on the side.

I only use lenses occasionally, so when I recently ordered lenses online using the info from an old box and correcting for the change in my glasses since I had the old lenses, I could sort of figure it out, but they are probably still off by 0.5 or so.

I think you're better off seeing an optometrist than guessing.

I think I'm better at asking my neighbor for his old glasses which I can see crystal clear through than trying to piss $300 through a $30 bladder.

Optometrist for a new prescription. Not for new glasses. Get your glasses through any of the various cheap online retailers Zenni, lensdirect, etc. Contacts are harder to find for cheap and most will ask for a more up to date prescription to fill.

Costco does exams for $60.

My preferred optometrist has a 3 month waiting list. And the nearest Costco is 42 miles away from me.

I think they mean glasses lenses vs contact lenses.

They're the same under the law.

Sure, but typically you can only get contacts in specific strengths (increments of 10 as the other person said), while they can grind the glasses lenses to pretty much anything. So you usually get a different prescription for contacts.

Well, my last opthalmologist (before COVID lockdown and Walmart as the only fallback) gave me the best prescription I ever had, but it's now outdated.

I'd like to go back to my old opthalmologist, but he's now quoting me over $300 for a new prescription and pair of glasses..

See if he'll do the Rx for $75ish

Glasses are the high margin item here.

I prefer the quality of glasses he offers though, they don't scratch up like Walmart shit. My last prescription would do me just fine, if only I could get them new in a new set of frames.

That $300 he's quoting you is mostly the price of the glasses my man

My first prescription glasses were $40 plus tax, for the exam and two sets of frames and lenses.

I get the inflation thing and all, but when did they decide to start fucking nearsighted people right in the wallet?

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Oh yeah I had the same issue last time I wanted just a prescription, couldn't find a single optician that would just do an eye test without also getting glasses there.

Ended up finding one I really liked and just also got my glasses there in the end, didn't really have another choice.

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I'm not aware of your laws, but isn't it just self-certification? Like you tell them "I use glasses to have normal vision" and they reply "okay cool" and write corrective lenses on your license?

Um, the Department of Motor Vehicles does a crude eye exam too ya know..

They gotta make sure drivers can read the road signs, which I cannot without corrective glasses or contacts.

An your current glasses are so insanely scratched that you can't pass said test?

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It was written as 134. I don't know if that's what they intended.

Looks like 13y and fo to me.

At least I think I can read the rest of it, I guess..

But am I supposed to guess on bullshit like this to order glasses online?

You can call the office and ask them to read you the last prescription to confirm it.

You can take your glasses to a lens store and they can read the values your glasses use.

They can't do that anymore with my latest glasses, because the 'protective' layer is rotting off.

They won't get any valid measurements unless they go to my prior prescription from like 6 years ago.

Which is illegal for them.

Get a new prescription, fucking hell...

Please explain, why can people go to the Dollar Tree and purchase a positive prescription for super cheap, but people with a negative prescription get fucked in the ass?

Because quality doesn't really matter if it's glasses you're wearing on and off to read things close to your eyes but if you read a lot you won't buy cheap dollar tree glasses and if it's to see at a distance you'll wear the glasses at all times.

My vision is better than yours and I still wouldn't do shit without my glasses.

The quality of my prescription is just fine, even if it is outdated. The quality of the lenses and frames is what's messed up. The lenses are scratched to hell and back, and the frames snapped in two over a year ago and are rigged back up with a hairpin.

And of course, Walmart is shutting down all of their health centers..

I'd be ecstatic if I could just get my last prescription remade by a different company in different frames. It's not like the lenses are out of focus, they're just extremely scratched up.

Ok, back to my point and not whatever you understood, it's about the quality of the glasses, not the prescription. Hell, your prescription is clear, both your eyes aren't the same, try to find dollar tree glasses with different prescriptions in each eyes, good luck.

Dollar Tree is not an option for me. They legally cannot sell negative prescriptions for myopia (nearsightedness). They only sell positive prescriptions for farsightedness.

Go ahead, go check. You won't find a negative lens anywhere off of a cheap rack.

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I have an old lens from over 6 years ago from broken glasses that works better than my newer old glasses from 3 years ago.

Pretty sure I know my own eyes and the lenses I have available. The best lens I have right now is a prescription monocle I keep in my wallet.

I would highly encourage a new eye exam. No need to get glasses or order anything from your optometrist but an eye exam.

It sounds like none of the above give you that nice crisp 20/20. I find every like 2 or 3 years my eyes change a bit and that slight change in prescription sometimes makes a significant difference before and after new vs old glasses.

My old backup lens gives me 20/15 vision, considered better than perfect.

I think I'll stick with what I know thank you.

Yeah buddy, you know eyes better than optometrists

I don't know everyone's eyes, but I know my own eyes. I've lived with them all of my life. And I know how to compare the results on my own with a pinhole occluder. Look it up.

My older prescription is better than this Walmart shit I'm wearing.

I can see you're frustrated with the handwriting on this prescription, and with them telling you you need a new eye exam. I don't know that folks here can help any more than they have - I've had the same experience where Zenni or Warby Parker wouldn't let me order new glasses without a more recent prescription.

Seems like the best way to move forward is to get a new exam, and right after verify that you can read what the prescription says. If your eyes are temporarily out of whack afterwards you could bring an acquaintance to read it, or even ask the closest stranger to verify.

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I'm cringing at the date format "1-20-21".

ISO 8601 is the only way

I filed my first complaint against a coworker for arguing with me about ISO standards. I'm an AV engineer and use YYYY-MM-DD for my print sets which he found "confusing" because most fools write M-D-YY. I told him I got approval to do it that way and it might even become mandatory (true) but he wouldn't drop it. He sarcastically told me I should teach a class on date formats because I think I'm so smart.

We're an international company and I'm gonna keep using the international standard for dates, douchebag.

I like how this person is confused by a four-digit year as the first field, like that's ambiguous!

2024-08-28?? How am I supposed to know if that means the 28th of August in the year 2024 or the 2024th day of '28???

Sounds like somebody suffered greatly at the hands of Excel.

Remember when you could specify more than 53 weeks in a year? Oh yeah good times. Remember when they changed how those got processed? Even better times......

Fucking negative weeks based on fiscal years! Ooph.... Such rage

I have my doubts that this guy even knows how to open Excel...

Have you considered CALLING your fucking optometrist and asking for clarification?

Edit: after reading your other replies in this post its clear you’re just trolling. Go get another eye exam, Mr. β€œPerfectly Stable Eyes.”

Have you not heard? Walmart is shutting down all of it's health centers..

Thanks for the positive words though, all I need is lenses that aren't scratched to hell and back.

some online shops let you upload a scan of it, do that and let them decipher the code.

If you saw the part I censored, you'd really see how bad their handwriting was. Of course I'm not gonna share that here, but I'm staring at the paper right now, wondering what the fuck?!

You've got a bunch of people who told you what's written on it so no it's not as bad as you think it is.

Because in the domain of what they're writing, there's certain expected values, so they're writing can get pretty wild, as long as the technical practitioner matches it to the closest value they're expecting it works.

And absolute worst case scenario, the technician will call the OD office.

Do you know what it's like to have two legal names, two legal birth certificates, and two legal SS numbers?

you lost me here. What does this have to do with getting clarification on your prescription?

They are not allowed to share an 'outdated' prescription with me, for 'liability reasons'... ☹️

I agree with them, you should get a updated eye exam.

You got $80 bucks? When I can tell you straight up that my older prescription is better and still crystal clear..

Fair enough. Order your older scrip from Zenni optical, I think they are still the cheapest. They just ship from china.

If you live in the USA they can't deny you a copy of your medic records. Just for formally ask for a copy.

ohh i believe you lol, I had a prescription once and the docyor put something in ink on it, the pharmacist had to call the doctor to work it out.

the pharmacist had to call the doctor to work it out.

Oh god, that must have been better than AES256 if even a pharmacist couldn't decrypt it.

You're cute. I mean really. I'd pet you like my dog, but pharmecists aren't optometrists are they?

That's fully legible, but probably only because my handwriting is just as bad.

What is the y?

What is the backwards f?

What are the preceding symbols?

What the hell is that weird symbol in the Cylinder column?

What TF does any of this even mean?

I mean fuck, everyone tells me to order glasses online, but what the fuck does any of these cryptic symbols mean?

-4.25, 0.25, 134

-4.50, 0.50, 70

This is probably the most helpful comment I've received here. Looks about right, I guess, I think..

Thank you. πŸ‘

It's the same info provided in this comment and you started arguing...

https://hackertalks.com/comment/4796904

Thanks for the reminder link, but I'm not sure how anyone would consider my response questions as arguing..?

I'm legit trying to learn to read doctor's hieroglyphics, otherwise I have no way to order online as so many people over the years have suggested.

Life Pro Tip: trace the writing and you'll know

Nope, fuck that. My old prescription works better, even in the opposite eye.

It might sound a bit harsh and be uncomfortable to do but if that happens another time before you leave ask them to write it again. Tell them you can't read what they've written.

That's seriously bad. If they're good people they'll rewrite it and apologise. If they get arsey.... move opticians. Fuck them.

They're not allowed to do that after a year. They're required by law to do a fresh eye exam every year, even though my eyes are basically stable over 5 years..

That's fair, but I was talking about when they first write and hand the piece of paper to you. Much easier to get it corrected straight away. Although I must admit I would feel a bit embarrassed asking them as well πŸ˜‚.

Although I must admit I would feel a bit embarrassed asking them as well πŸ˜‚.

You, or someone else is paying for that prescription. There is nothing to be ashamed of in asking them to provide something readable.

My eye doctor is a very strange person as she uses that very novel piece of high tech called a computer and a printer, and never writes a prescription by hand. Oddly enough, nobody has difficulty reading what she writes :p

Maybe I blocked too much information. These current glasses I have came from COVID lockdown time, from Walmart, and I've already cashed in on the warranty just a couple weeks before it expired.

Fuck Walmart glasses, they're shit.

Just look at the prescription when you get it and ask what the numbers are.
Those are your eyes, and you paid for those numbers, either directly or via health insurance / taxes.

Doesn't count after one year, they can't give me the numbers after one year, by some stupid law they claim.

I have to have a new prescription for them to help me, despite the fact they literally know my prescription stays stable for at least 5 years.

In principle you should get retested but either way, you should be able to figure out your old prescription by measuring the focal lengths of your old lenses. I guess that could be hard for some exotic corrections but typically it's not too bad.

They can't legally measure my old old lenses. You know, the ones I tell them work the best?

Yeah, for 'liability' reasons, they can't go by my 6 year old lenses, even though they're the best I can see through, as a backup monocle..

You can do it yourself with a tape measure.

That's gotta be the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

But sure, I'll bite. How do you measure the exact curvature of a prescription lens with a tape measure?

Simplest case is you are farsighted. So your lenses are magnifiers. You move them away from a printed page til the magnification is at maximum. The distance to the page is the focal length. Diopter is 1/FL in meters, so eg. 50cm FL is 2.0 diopter. Negative diopters, astigmatism corrections etc are more complicated.

It looks like you can also test your own vision with a phone app and simple device:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/in-the-era-of-warby-parker-measure-your-own-eyeglass-prescription-at-home/

Idk anything about that though.

Seems neat I guess. I just wonder why the hell I can't just go in with my old prescription, tell them straight up that this is perfectly fine, I just need new lenses that ain't all scratched up..

That's easiest I guess. Just find out your prescription when you get tested. Yes a lot of the industry is bogus, but then a lot of the world in general is bogus. Part of being an independent and flexible person is being able to find ways around bogosity.

That's bullshit, but still...I meant, when you went to the doctor, you got the prescription, you looked at it, you couldn't read it.
Why didn't you ask?

You're literally reading it. What's a swapout Walmart employee supposed to make of this chicken scratch?

Dude, the guy who wrote it gave it to you at some point.
You took it, looked at it, and didn't ask what it even means. So why didn't you ask then?

Oh, also.. did you check the date on the prescription?

That was during lockdown, they were super stupid strict about dealing with people then. They wanted to keep their distance and get people in and out as quickly as they could.

So I didn't get my prescription paperwork until after they made my glasses. Corporate streamlining..

And now Walmart is shutting down all their health centers, ain't that fantastic?..

I probably should have, but ya know what? My eyes were still adapting after the exam and I couldn't fucking see to read.

Just go to Zennie and put in the numbers it gives you. You will need to figure out your own pupillary distance (PD) to finish the order, but that's pretty easy to do with a friend of you can't read a ruler without your glasses.

Put in the numbers it gives you? What's that supposed to mean?

My original question is how the hell do you read this shit?

Another commenter managed to interpret the doctor's hieroglyphics for me, long after the prescription expired though.