With my annual eye exam approaching, I knew it was time to consider a new prescription. Reading was getting progressively more difficult and less comfortable, even with 2x flip-down magnifiers over reading glasses, with an occluder clipped on to the clip-on, covering my right eye. (My bad eye, which also insists on pointing in the wrong direction, normally closes automatically to let my good eye focus. This causes muscle aches around the right eye.)

We determined that we could leave the bifocals alone, but could do better with the reading glasses. After careful examination, and with consideration for my non-existent glasses budget, Dr. Taylor advised that changing the left lens on my reading glasses would do the job.

Armed with a prescription for one new lens, I headed to our family’s favorite optical shop. After calling around to find the right high-index lens blank, they created a new lens and put it into my old glasses. Indeed, this did make reading easier, and eliminated the need for the magnifier, as Dr. Taylor had predicted. Of course, I lost the occluder in the bargain, as the glasses lens is too thick to hang the occluder on directly and the clip-on magnifier is no longer necessary. Since reading is now easier, however, the occluder is at least less crucial.

But alas, that isn’t the end of the story. For as long as I can remember, I have used my reading glasses to work at my computer. Now, glad to have my reading glasses back, I sat down to go to work. Since my old reading lens used to work at both focusing distances (holding a print document closely and sitting before a monitor), I assumed the new lens would do the same. I was wrong.

I immediately discovered that I simply cannot use the new lens to see the monitor. I was thus forced to resort to using bifocals for computer work—an untenable solution, at least for the long-term.

Enter, Plan B. Dr. Taylor suggested that I could put the old lens, which still works for monitor reading, into a new frame. Of course, I also had to get a new right lens to finish filling the frame. Thus, I ended up with the equivalent of a new pair of glasses, but spread over two units.

I am now the proud owner of three pair of glasses: one for walking around (old bifocals), one for reading (new left lens—the thickest I’ve ever seen—in old glasses), and one for computer work (old left lens and new right lens in new frame). Add to that clip-on magnifiers, a now unusable occluder, a CCTV, and ZoomText on my computer, with a 19 in. monitor.

How did reading become so complicated?