No comment about the lens but about doctor's and other's assuming because you are older you are poor. While many do have to watch every penny I have had several doctors in the recent about 10 years who have hesitated to suggest or order tests or prescribe certain medicines because of the cost to me. I have also had various people point out other cheaper things at various places as if I cannot afford what I have selected. I am aware most of them are being "kind" but sometimes I would like to be "kind" back at them. While I am not rich but am financially comfortable would like to make a decision if I was provided with options.

My contacts are multi-focal, they have been fine for me. Not sure if a toric lens would provide multi-focal functionality. I tried a toric lens on my ”bad” eye, I could not tolerate it. My eyes are a challenge very farsighted in one eye and near sighted in the other.

Options, right? Why not present them? My medical doctors typically do .

I like the toric lens. Maybe my eye shape has degraded enough to need them? I would just love if it was a multifocal. Or maybe I'd love it if the multifocal was a toric? They both need to be improved somehow.

Ask for trials in at least a couple of options. I find daily contacts much more comfortable than monthlies. I thought I wanted multifocals but find single vision (one distance and the other close up) work just fine for me. One is toric.

Optometrist (a contact lens fitting specialist at med school university ophthalmology dept) had me try different lenses in the office to see which felt best, before doing a couple week trial.

I think I'll lead with can I try on more than one type for each eye and see what he suggests. I'll say what I've said here. If making the multifocal left one toric is enough, I'm good. If making the toric right multifocal, that's good. Whatever combination that might boost it a bit more. I'm glad to see it's more common to try more than one type.

This past time, the first set he gave me, it was horrible. He asked me to read any line, and I said it looks like Greek letters? He couldn't believe it! I said, did I somehow switch the lenses? I actually have done that before. He said no. Then he changed the right lens to toric. It's better, but still not enough.

Thanks y'all!

Bausch + Lomb makes a multifocal toric contact lens, as does CooperVision.

One issue that I had with multi focal when I trialed them was that my eye accommodated so much that I was looking thru the bifocal area when I was looking straight ahead. I had to try several brands to find one that worked for my eyes.

I have multifocal gas permeable lenses and they work great. I had a hard time finding a doctor who was familiar with gas permeables. The first "contact lens specialist" I went to only did soft lenses and they didn't work at all for me. I finally found manufacturers of gas permeable lenses and asked them to recommend a doctor in my area.

A friend of mine has one lens for distance and one for near. She said it just took a couple of days for her brain to adapt -- kind of like getting used to progressives.

"one lens for distance and one for near" -- yeah, no. My eye doctor suggested that, and I tried it. It was pretty much ok until it very much wasn't. Mine were done with the left lens for near vision, and the right lens for distance vision. One day I was driving on a two-lane road in an agricultural area. There was a slow-moving farm vehicle in front of me, and I wanted/needed to pass it. I leaned my head to the left to see the oncoming traffic, and the closest oncoming vehicle was quite a distance away. So, I proceeded to pass the farm vehicle...

The issue was that once I was out into the oncoming lane and had the benefit of full, balanced vision of both eyes, I could see that the oncoming traffic was *much* closer than I thought it was. I had to really accelerate to pass the farm vehicle and get back into that lane before I was creamed. Scared the you-know-what out of me. I called my eye doctor the next morning and got an appointment to get true bifocal contacts, which I've worn ever since. And, yes, they are gas permeables.

One distance and one close up to is supposed to interfere with depth perception and affect night vision.

"One distance and one close up to is supposed to interfere with depth perception and affect night vision."

Yes, it certainly did interfere with my depth perception, which is why I almost got creamed when passing another vehicle on that two-lane road. "One for depth and one for close-up" should be against the law.

I'm sorry to hear that Lindsey. So maybe the advice I was given was not that wrong?

I'm a million times more confident in my opthamologist now that I have my eyeglasses, and the prescription is a thousand times better than the last one. So we'll just get him to keep trying different contact lenses.

I had a problem with the one distance and one close up contacts because I have allergies and sometimes a contact clouds up. I realized that was going to be really dangerous if I was driving when it happened.

Maybe that's what I'm talking about when I say lens is interfering, rather than helping?