Optician help please. So fed up.

[tectonicplates]

Went to the same optician for about ten years, all fine, no problems. Then one day they got my prescription wrong so they changed it. Was fine for a couple of weeks, then didn't work any more so they changed it and got it wrong again. Couldn't help me with contact lenses, gave me about five different strengths of contact lenses and told me they wouldn't change them again until I'd decided on my contact lenses. None of them were right so I gave up and found a new optician.

Second optician changed my glasses and they were wrong again. Changed them and they were wrong AGAIN. Gave me contact lenses that were wrong and made me feel sick. Every time this happens my neck seizes up and I end up seeing an osteopath. So far I've seen two osteopaths and a physiotherapist, and all of them have helped but said my neck will never fully resolve itself until my glasses get sorted. The optician said he'd never heard of such a thing. So they changed my glasses again, they were fine for a week or two but then didn't work any more.

Second optician actually phoned the first optician to ask for prescription records but couldn't find anything useful or any clues to anything.

I want to the second optician again this morning for another eye test and they told me a slight change in prescription which they insisted was right even though I couldn't see properly. They have now told me that some people have a weaker eye and will never be able to see 100% properly, even with glasses. Sorry but I don't buy this at all. Surely the whole point of glasses is that they make you be able to see properly. Otherwise what's the point?

The second optician have now said they can't help me any further and have offered to give me refund (their idea - I didn't even ask for a refund). Which is fine but they're basically washing they hands of me. They said they can't even suggest who could help me. I've had all the eye health test things where they look at the back of your eye etc and peripheral vision tests etc, which showed great eye health and no problems.

The first optician has refused to see me again, apparently because I "upset" them by asking for a refund (which they refused) and going to the second optician.

Can someone PLEASE tell me what to do? It's actually got to the point where opticians are refusing to help me! If I go to a third one, I'm sure the same thing will happen again.

And please no replies that just recommend opticians. I went to the second one on a personal recommendation and it didn't work. There is obviously something deeper going on here.

Why do I keep getting glass that are either wrong straight away, or right for a couple of weeks but become wrong again?

My neck hurts.

Every prescription I've been given had been quite similar. The second optician have been implying that I'm too sensitive and need to just get over it Sorry but the point of glasses is to make you see properly!

My vision fluctuated a lot (to the extent my optometrist referred me to hospital because they were concerned about keracatonus as mentioned above). I saw a consultant orthopist at a big teaching hospital and luckily my eyes were healthy - it turns out it was hormonal. Could this be the case with you? Also my right eye is weaker than my left and they are unable to give me perfect vision in that eye. No one knows why.

Go to your GP and get a referral to an opthalmologist. Tell them about the neck issues and the optician/prescription problems.

Sorry to crash the thread but: Gunpowder, may I ask, can you expand at all on the hormonal thing? My eyes are chronically dry, which contributes to problems with my eyesight and means my optician can't always get a meaningful or stable prescription. I've seen opthalmologists but they all look blank/uninterested when I ask if there might possibly be an underlying hormone issue.

What do you want out of this thread? Be ause there have been quite a few helpful suggestions but you keep focussing on your opticien. Going to the opticien isn't helping you so why don't you try something else?

@DarlingNikita this is problem that unfortunately happens with age/menopause

If you are at an age where these could be affecting you, unfortunately you might not get too much help - like a lot of menopausal issues

If these don't apply, was it your optician who referred you on?

lostvoice, I'm not menopausal or (I don't think!) peri-menopausal; and it started in my late thirties.

My GP referred me. My optician has since suggested that, if my new glasses, which they're making again for the umpteenth time, don't work properly, I should be referred again. I didn't know that opticians could refer you but might take them up on it rather than trying the GP again.

@DarlingNikita the optician will be the best bet to refer for that, if you've tried everything they've suggest - drops & eyebag are generally the suggestions
They will be able to give the specialist more information about your tear film etc

The opthalmologist I saw did loads of tests and investigations –ones like looking at the backs of my eyes etc, but also checking tear production by inserting blotting paper in my eyes and leaving it for 10 minutes and checking/squeezing the meibomian glands. I'm not sure the optician could add anything that he didn't know or wouldn't discover, TBH.

He gave me punctal plugs and said if they didn't work he'd try Plan B, although he didn't know what Plan B might look like.

They've been slightly better for the plugs, but clearly still not good enough for the optician to be able to make me a pair of glasses properly.

Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack.

Are the lenses single vision or varifocals?

As has been suggested several times you need to see your GP.

They will refer you to an opthamologist at the hospital.

If for some reason you dont want to see your GP then you shoukd be able to purchase the service via private healthcare, i know that my consultant opthamologist also does work for Spire Healthcare.

I dont know what the problem is, i suspect based on your description that it may be your visual accuity that is reduced, this cant be easily corrected by glasses.

I do know that neither a chiropracter nor a physiotherapist can diagnose eye problems from a stiff neck.

Some good advice on this thread

Also, tread carefully with those trying to help you. You might not mean it but if the opticians both won’t see you again you may have been rude to them.

darlingnikita are you in the pill? The drs changed the brand I was on and within 2 days I had dry horrible eyes. Went to optician who couldn’t find anything and said in passing about any changes in medication went back to the drs back on original pull and my eyes were cured

OP I have terrible eyes sight and even after eye patches and an operation to correct a squint my left eye can’t see 20:20 with glasses. Ask the Doc for a referral to the eye clinic at the hospital. Are the opticians you have been too big stores or independents?

I have difficulty seeing in focus all the time. It appears to be down to being both long sighted and short sighted. I find by concentrating I can change the focus - one eye is really dominant for both. With practice I can now read with one eye and distance with the other. If I don't concentrate my eyes drift to mid distance, 50 yd stare that makes everything blurry.

For another eye related matter my optician didn't refer me to the eye clinic even though they spotted the problem, they wrote to the GP who made the referral. Therefore the advice from PP would make sense... speak to your GP.

go to a gp and get a referral

Have you got any other health condition? I have fibromyalgia which affects my eyes, I’ve had a new pair of glasses and they have changed the prescription quite a bit for one eye and I can’t get used to it. It makes me feel sick when I am Wearing them. I went back and they just said I was not wearing them long enough. I took them off after a while because I felt unwell, they told me to put them on when I got up in the morning and not take them off. I still haven’t got used to them so might have to go back again

I don’t know if it’s similar but for the last decade or so when I get new glasses the vision in one eye deteriorates very soon after. I just put up with it, don’t have extra pain and as I’m not driving these days it doesn’t matter. For example a dvd box lying about 3 feet away, I can’t read title on the box with that eye, wearing glasses. It doesn’t bother me as the other eye does the job okay. I don’t know why it - age? I am in 50s, have varifocals. Checking it now, my close vision for that eye is blurry too - reading in bedtime doesn’t matter as I tend to just peer through naked eyes! Sitting at a desk I read with glasses so other eye works. I have autoimmune dry eye disease, use eye gels, had to give up contacts years ago.

@DarlingNikita I've just had this problem. Optician said it was either my thyroid or thyroid medication -can't remember which.

The thing is I'm in pain. One eye is constantly aching.

I wasn't rude to the optician. He just said there was nothing more they could do for me so there was no point in me coming back.

If there's pain you need to see an eye specialist which your GP can arrange for you.

@DarlingNikita my prescription changed every check-up for a while (this began in my early thirties and coincided with first baby, breastfeeding etc.) This triggered a referral via my G.P. When I saw the orthopist and had various tests she said my eyes were healthy and that it was hormonal. She said it in a ‘well, OBVIOUSLY it’s hormonal’ way like everyone should have known but didn’t really elaborate. Sorry that’s not more helpful. I don’t know if the fact she was an orthopist rather than an ophthalmologist made a difference. Coincidentally I have also had lots of issues with dry eyes. My prescription has settled but still changes a little bit and they can never get my vision perfect.

StoorieHoose, no, so that can't be it.

northernstars, I do wonder about thyroid issues as I'm thin, don't put on weight, 'run on nerves', generally feel cold etc.

Gunpowder, I've never been pregnant or had a baby, so it wouldn't be the same kind of hormonal issues for me, but I can't shake the idea that it's SOME kind of hormone thing. That's interesting about an orthoptist; I've never heard of those. Wonder if it's worth me trying to see one.

OP, for the nth time, why not ask your GP for a referral? Especially if you're in pain.

Changing the prescription isnt working and 2 opticians have now tried so its unlikely to be just that

it is something that they are not specialised enough to see and itsn causing you pain

Either referral via the GP or depending on your circumstances get an appointment with a private ophthalmologist who should be able to properly figure out what is wrong

@tectonicplates Make an appointment with your GP and ask for a referral to an ophthalmologist at the hospital. Explain the pain in your eye and your neck problems.

The eye and neck issues could be linked as the way you hold your neck (possibly without realising it) may be affecting which part of the lens of your glasses you are looking through. Depending on the strength of your prescription it doesn't have to be very far 'out' to cause problems with your vision and if you have varifocals it may be even more of a problem.

It doesn't sound as if the opticians are being deliberately unhelpful but that they have tried every option to correct your vision without success so time to try something else. Not everyone can achieve 20/20 vision - even with glasses - depending on what is causing the long/short sightedness.

It could be something as simple as a misreading of pupil distance or needing a prism.

My eye like to drift apart so a prism keeps them straight, I cannot get contact lenses that are the same as my glasses, I have to go for an approximation.

I agree with other people get a referral from your GP.

Get your GP to check things like blood pressure and medication to see if there is anything going on.