Archive for the ‘Humourous’ Category

Christmas Contact Lens Wear!

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

As Internet Glases Company regulars know, we are not just internet spex suppliers, we also all work part time in practice. This gives us the opportunity to see real patients face to face, and keep up with the word on the street! Obviously we deal with contact lens patients too, and as the fun festive season approaches we have some food for thought for all you lens wearing party people out there!

It’s easy to get carried away as the festive spirit flows, and extend partying into the small hours and even, dare we say it, not go home at all if the party mood takes you! Now this is all very well, but the morning after the night before can be even more agonizing if along with your raging headache and sense of shame you’ve had a contact lens mishap. Patients have reported drinking their contacts, putting both in the same eye, sleeping in them, storing them in everything from beer to fruit juice – the list is as endless as it is terrifying!

Contact lens solutions are designed to fulfil several functions – they clean and sterilise the lenses after wear, lubricate them for all day wear, and maintain the correct hydration. While beer has many good points, it cannot be said to be at all effective in any of the above vital needs of a contact lens. Storing the lens in any liquid other than the prescribed solution can damage the lens can cause eye problems. Even water can be dangerous – it contains some nasty bugs that can attach themselves to the lens and cause permanent damage to the cornea.

So try and think ahead as you plan the big night out. Slip your contact lens case into your pocket, ready filled with solution, even if you’re not planning to stay out. Remove lenses before you become too incapacitated to cope! Get yourself some specs for nights out if you don’t trust yourself with lenses – we can supply something groovy and trendy that won’t eat into the Xmas budget too much. A little thinking ahead could save you time, money, and even your sight……

Varifocal Glasses

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Twice as Nice!

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

If we ever get the time we’ve often thought about creating a museum of amusing glasses artefacts, displaying for the viewing public some of the weird and wacky specs we’ve seen over the years. You may see specs as a boring combination of frame and lenses that allow you toe read the paper or drive the car, but have you ever seen dual purpose specs, or those extra special specs that set the wearer apart from the crowd?

The most common double duty frame we see is the infamous hearing aid spec, a subtle blend of sight and hearing enhancement. For certain types of hearing loss these are just the ticket, if you don’t mind wearing frames with enormous heavy sides that whistle every now and again…..

For some, glasses are a medical necessity in terms other than correcting their sight. Specs can be used with frosted or tinted lenses to disguise an eye defect, or to hold a built in prosthesis that corrects a facial deformity. They can also hold a Ptosis prop, a metal bar that lifts a drooping eyelid. Glasses can be a vital tool in aiding facial reconstruction for patients who’ve suffered traumatic injury.

In more frivolous terms, we’ve seen glasses with earrings attached, with hidden elastic to hold them on for sports, and nifty joints to allow them to swivel for looking down the pool table! They can protect your eyes for sport, give coverage on the ski slopes, or have prescription built in – diving masks with lens inserts give perfect sight underwater.

In recent years we’ve even had Oakley building MP3 players and blue tooth attachments into frames, for sight and sound on the move! Very James Bond, who must have had surface to air missiles at the very least built into his glasses over the years!

Lenses themselves can also do more than correct short or long sightedness. There are tints to aid Dyslexia, enhance sporting performance, and maximise light for drivers. Whatever will they think of next? You’ll have to wait for a visit to our museum to find out!!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Question Time Again!

Monday, December 27th, 2010

We’ve run a few blogs replying to some of the questions that come up after eye exams or as a mails we get with your queries. Obviously you all have your fave opticians that you go to visit, but the consulting room can be intimidating, or you simply don’t like to go back and ask having left the building. So in case you are all wondering about the same thing, here are our FAQ’s of 2010!

I don’t know if my new glasses will work because I’m not sure I answered the Optician properly. I wasn’t sure if one or two was better….

The optician checks and double checks your answers, repeating the test in tiny steps until your answer makes senses to them! They also use your previous prescription, and their Retinoscope to make sure everything is as it should be.

My Mum and Dad hated varifocals, why are you suggesting them to me?

Varifocals first appeared in the Sixties, and like all other technology they’re improved since then! The failure rate is minute now. If you are one of the tiny percentage of people who doesn’t get on with them, we’ll refund you anyway, so there’s no risk!

My new reading glasses are great for small print but now I can’t see the computer. What do I do?

Stronger reading lenses let you see tiny detail, but at a shorter focal distance than an older, weaker pair. Either wear your old readers for the computer, or order varifocals if you need to see small print and computer screen distance at the same time.

My Optician wouldn’t let me have the big frame I love, just because I’m a bit short sighted. Can you make them for me?

We don’t turn you down on your frame choice just to be mean! If you’re short sighted your lenses will be thick at the edges, with the thickness increasing as the frame gets bigger. Fall in love with a scaled down version, you’ll be much happier with the result!

We hope you all enjoy wearing the glasses we’ve supplied over 2010, we enjoy communicating with all of our customers and doing our best job for you. We love hearing from you, so feel free to add to our question list any time!

Varifocal Glasses

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Ski Safe

Monday, December 13th, 2010

If you are a keen skier and you’re busily preparing your Christmas list, you might be wondering what new and exciting equipment you need for the upcoming season. If it’s time to update your eyewear for the slopes, here are a few tips to help you make the right choice for you.

If you’re a keen skier, with several trips during the season, you’ll probably get your money’s worth out of investing in ski goggles. These give you physical protection and will have suitable lenses to protect long term eye health. You must try before you buy – the correct fit is crucial. Go for the best you can afford, and make sure they are a snug fit over the nose and that they cradle the face to protect your eye orbit. The best will have a padded inner layer which absorbs sweat and impact, in case you have a bit of a spill!

If you need a prescription, there are goggles with inserts that can be glazed with your lenses. These are then relatively cheap to replace when your sight changes. Due to the large and curved nature of goggle lenses, it’s very tricky to glaze the goggle itself with your lenses, so if you don’t like the look of inserts, now may be the time to try contact lenses, which you wear under ordinary goggles. Disposable daily wear contacts are an excellent part-time option for times such as holidays.

If you are only an occasional skier, you can make do with ordinary sunglasses, if you choose wisely. Find a large wrap around plastic frame, which will be warmer on the skin and doesn’t have sharp metal nose pad arms that may dig into your nose in the event of an accident! You need as much coverage as you can manage without the frame resting on your cheek bones.

The main essential to look for, whatever your choice of eyewear, is 100% UV protection, over all types of UV rays. The UV layer is colourless, so don’t assume that very dark lenses are all fully protective. You can’t tell by looking, so check the labels carefully. Obviously good quality manufacturers like Oakley and Rayban all conform to EU specifications, but if you’re not sure of the brand, investigate fully before purchasing.

Then take to the slopes knowing you look good and your eyes are fully protected – although double vision after the après ski is difficult to avoid!

Prescription Glasses

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

It Shouldn’t Happen to an Optician!- Glasses online

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Our opticians work in practice as well as spending time at the InternetGlassesCompany – a valuable reality check to stay in touch with real patients, not just those of you in Cyber Space! Opticians are all different of course – although they usually share a love of very weird glasses and geeky eye test gadgetry! But all of ours love the diversity of who they meet in the consulting room. This can range from newborns to very elderly people, all needing a different variety of TLC, technical expertise and optical and medical know how. With regards to the latter, you’d be surprised at what our opticians sometimes have to deal with from their swivel chairs…..

“Over my years in practice I’ve had some very odd encounters that you wouldn’t expect an optician to deal with. I once had to cut the very long nails of a young lady who wanted contact lenses but couldn’t bear to get rid of her nails herself. As she was in danger of damaging her corneas with her talons, I had to get a receptionist to witness me giving her an impromptu manicure while she looked the other way! I’ve had to drop everything and drive a chap up to A&E when he had a very severe nosebleed all over the reception area, and also transport an elderly lady who fell off her high heels and twisted her ankle. I’ve diagnosed high blood pressure, a couple of Pituitary tumours, and Diabetes. Skin cancer is another common one that we can spot, I’ve seen Melanomas in the eye itself, but also spotted them on the skin around the eye. Rodent ulcers, also called Basal Cell Carcinomas, are another common one. I’ve also had the pleasure of being shown various scars, re-built joints and even some reconstructive surgery that were all nothing to do with eyes! Then there’s the nappy changes, doing tests with the patients toddler sibling on my knee, and warming milk for hungry babies – never a dull moment! I love my time in practice, however bizarre it sometimes gets, but I like the InternetGlassesCompany offices and Lab too. Working for the InternetGlassesCompany means I can give my technical knowledge and clinical expertise to an internet specs provider, making sure that this new way of dispensing glasses is as ethical, technically correct and professional as any other optical outlet.”

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Teenage Kicks

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Amid all the other teenage year traumas I suffered – spots, girls – too many of the former, not enough of the latter! Being told I needed glasses at age 16 was the final straw. I felt like hibernating until I was twenty and could squint and walk into buses if I wanted too! No such luck though, I needed them to see the board at school and was marched into a dusty old opticians to be fitted with a dreadful tobacco coloured frame that didn’t fit or suit me. In those dark days, the good old NHS supplied specs, which were pretty limited in choice. You could pay for frames but the mentality of parents was to be grateful for what you were given and frankly they were too expensive for growing teenagers who constantly headed footballs in them. (Sorry Mum!)

Fast forward a few years, and the old NHS frame is now rather trendy, thanks to David Tennant, and my teenage son almost looks impressed by the old photos of me in them. It wasn’t the end of the world when he was told he needed specs, as plenty of his friends wear them and actually like their glasses. He also gets far more choice, as thanks to internet providers and the wide range offered by opticians he can pick glasses which are trendy and actually cool!

He wears contact lenses everyday, as they are much more practical for all his sporting activities. I bought him a couple of really well priced specs off the internet as spares, useful to give him a break from his lenses and to wear during a nasty bout of conjunctivitis. His NHS voucher was used towards his lenses, so browsing web sites and getting him some specs cheaply helped soothe the household budget, suffering a battering from trainers and designer jeans!

Specs no longer suffer the stigma that they had in my youth, although the dread of picking a new pair never leaves me. My son seems very laid back about his short-sightedness, and I’m grateful that something as simple as a nice and economical trendy frame has spared him the trauma that I had. Now where did I hide my geeky NHS brown frames? Might just get my new varifocals put in them!!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

One for All!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

I didn’t need glasses until my early forties, when my previously perfect sight let me down and suddenly I couldn’t see to read. I could still manage if I squinted and held things at arm’s length, but obviously this became somewhat impractical as time went on and one day my poor tired arms simply became too short! The optician told me this happens to everyone but to be honest this was wasn’t much of a comfort! So I ended up gradually collecting glasses to help in different situations.

I had reading glasses, and after a nightmare meeting when I ended up with a raging headache and very tired arms when I forgot my specs, I started keeping one pair at work, one at home, and one in the car just in case! Then I started to need help for the computer, and couldn’t really see the dash board clearly either. This meant another pair of computer specs for work, one for home, and one for the car! This worked until I’d go home with the work pair in my bag etc and then end up with all of them in the wrong location! Then of course there were my sunglasses, which I wore for driving, but still couldn’t see the dashboard.

Exhausted by all of this, and fed up with my worn out glasses that got squashed in handbags and were constantly bent, I went back to talk to the optician again. I still didn’t need glasses for distance sight, but we decided that the time had come to go for varifocal specs. The advantage for me was huge – one pair of glasses that I could leave on all the time, so they wouldn’t get worn out or left anywhere. I could also have them going dark in the sunshine, so instead of seven pairs of specs scattered around my life, I had one pair that I could keep on for all situations!

This was life changing! My varifocals let me see to drive, at the computer, the dashboard, and all my close up vision. I don’t have to take them off and they’re always with me. The lens goes dark so I don’t need sunglasses, and they are clear when I’m indoors. The lenses looked expensive when I first got a quote, but of course they were less than my vast collection of specs and look an awful lot nicer!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Reading Between the Lines

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Out to dinner last night with five fifty-something friends, the conversation at one low point came round to counting grey hairs, checking out expanding waistlines and advancing wrinkles, and that other issue of ageing – reading specs! This was a hot topic because in the dimly lit restaurant only three of us could read the menu, which annoyed our waitress somewhat! The interesting thing was how six different people with different lifestyles have different ways of coping with needing help for reading….

Sue doesn’t go out to work but tends her small flock of specialist sheep which she hand rears. As she’s short sighted she doesn’t need specific reading specs yet, she just takes her distance glasses off! She then has to retrieve them from the barn or the paddock and wipe off any sheep dribble!

Phillip travels all over the world and is long sighted for distance and needs help for reading. He has Varifocals which go light and dark in the sun. This lets him see at any distance, and when work takes him to South Africa he has sunnies built in!

Jeremy is a GP, he uses vocational lenses for his desk and computer. He pulls them down his nose and looks over the top of them to talk to patients.

I’m bashing away at the keyboard all day, so I use an old pair of reading specs for the screen, and my strongest new ones to read small print.

Johnathan sells cars, he wears contact lenses, a distance lens in one eye and a close work one in the other. This means he can spot a potential customer a mile off and can always read the small print!

Rob just needs a little help for reading, but as a teacher he moves around the classroom all day, so he keeps ten pairs of ready readers in every useful location. He can also peer over the top of them to intimidate any troublesome students!

We had an excellent meal and over a few drinks we forgot about the issues of ageing – at least without our glasses on we can’t see the wrinkles!!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Emergency Measures

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Over our years in practice we’ve seen many ingenious ways that people have made temporary repairs to broken spex. In the process they’ve often caused more damage than the original disaster that has befallen their frame! So here’s what to do and what not do in an eyewear emergency!

Firstly, prevention is always better than cure, so make sure you have an up to date spare pair of specs. A four year old prescription pair will not be useful if you’re illegal to drive in them or can only read huge print, so get online and pick up a cheap duplicate pair. Always make sure you have spare spex with you for driving, being stranded miles from home with a vehicle you can’t drive is not much fun.

When screws have dropped out of hinges we’ve seen frames held together with bent paper clips, plasters (a la Jack Duckworth!) twisted fuse wire and actually sewing around the joints! We’ve had lenses stuck together with black electricians tape, kid’s stickers and cling film, wrapped ingeniously all over the lens! Then there are the impromptu replacements; – a chap borrowing a side from his wife’s Leopard print frame, a side arm made out of a drinking straw, and a big metal staple hammered through a plastic frame bridge. We never fail to be impressed by the genius involved in make do and mend!

So what’s the easy way to deal with all of this? Stay calm! If you have a breakage, and no spare, use a bit of sticky tape to hold things together. Use clear tape and get someone who can actually see what they are doing to put it in place. Don’t get anything sticky inside the joints on frames. Some serious words of warning – NEVER USE SUPER GLUE!! It makes the lenses mist over and will permanently gum up joints which we then can’t repair. It also damages the finish on the frames, and more importantly, it never works. It’s safer and more effective to just use good old sticky tape. We’ll never forget the case of one unfortunate gentleman who had to go to A&E to have his specs removed from his face when he put them on after gluing and got them stuck to his ear…

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Learning to Love my Specs

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

I’ve been wearing glasses for about twenty years now, since my mid-teens. This is probably the worst time in a person’s entire life-span to become a speccy four eyes, just when every single cell of your body is causing you dread and angst! At least the glasses gave me something tangible to focus (!) my immense hatred on!

I could quite cheerfully have punched the optician when he cheerfully announced that my borderline prescription had tipped over into full blown short sightedness, and I needed glasses. The sulks over the next few weeks were immense! I hid them at the bottom of my rucksack and only dragged them out if my life depended on it. Quite often it really did, as I narrowly missed getting hit by cyclists and small children and wandered into roads thinking I was still on the pavement.

In my twenties I got contact lenses, and the world was changed into 3D and a landscape with birds flying, buildings with bricks etc. The real shock has been the last couple of years, when I’ve gradually drifted back into wearing specs. This new love affair started when I saw a Marc Jacobs frame and was instantly smitten. It was shiny black with sexy curvy sides, and with my chunky fringe and power bob I was transformed into an intellectual and serious force to be reckoned with. I’ve now become addicted to spex, with ten pairs in an array of colours doing all the work for me when it comes to accessorising.

I wish I’d done it years ago, as lenses were never perfectly comfortable on me and I was always smudging my makeup and fiddling with my eyes. So I’ve made peace with my myopia and at least I have an excuse to splurge on Designer fashion!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati