Seriously, what the fuck is this?
-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This prescription is 3 years out of date, if you’re ordering new glasses you should just get a new eye exam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. 👍
There’s a bitter bastard in every thread. 🤷♂️
And I thank you for not being one of them. 👍
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.
Your comment has brought me a little but much needed positive energy today. Thank you for that. 👍
Those aren’t cursive. You missed the minus sign on the cylinder corrections.
i disagree. I’ve seen many examples of the zero with the leading line into it, it’s a weird cursive habit.
The zero in the left axis field does not have that leading line, nor do the two zeros in the dates. The other four zeros have such a line connected to the zero, but in two cases, it’s the horizontal crossbar from the 5, and in two cases, it’s a minus sign. Both horizontal strokes from left to right, leading into the top of the zero.
Spherical and cylindrical corrections would have an explicit sign, positive or negative. If they intended a positive correction, there would be a plus sign.
Those are definitely minus signs.
I’m glad your so confident.
Three examples of zeroes without the leading marks, two examples where they dragged the crossbar of the 5 into the zero, and two unknowns. Why are you so confident that they aren’t negative signs?
They are consistent. Parent comment missed the negative signs in front of the cylinder corrections.
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…
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?
Some people look me in the face and express concern that I might not see well through the scratches. And they’re not wrong.
What is wrong though, is people insisting that I get a new eye exam, as if they’re my opthalmologist or something…
My current prescription is fine, although technically outdated. All I need is new lenses that aren’t scratched to hell and back.
And all I asked was how to actually read the chicken scratch on the prescription…
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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?
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.
Just saying. New RX > 2 old RX
I never asked any one of you for any medical advice or opinions. All I asked is how to read this doctor’s handwriting shit in the first place.
People have been telling me for years to just order glasses online, just type in the numbers from the exam.
Well how the fuck am I supposed to do that when I can’t read doctor’s jibberish…?
Sorry I asked a question about obscure handwriting. I wasn’t asking any medical question.
If I would have known how to read this chicken shit handwriting years ago, I would have ordered new glasses before the prescription expired.
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.
-4.25. 0.25. 134.
-4.50. 0.50. 70.
But this prescription expired 2 years ago. Get a new one.
You missed the negative signs on the cylinder corrections.
Not negatives. They’re “cursive zeros”. My old doctor used to do that. Annoying as hell.
Why do three of the seven zeroes on that page not have those weird lead-ins? (Left axis, and both date fields each have non-cursive zeroes)
The other two non-controversial zeros are each after a “5”. The horizontal stroke of the 5 extends to the top of the zero.
Coming to the controversial ones, why do we expect them not to look like the zeroes in the axis or date fields? Why are we expecting them to be “cursive” with so many examples of non-cursive zeroes present? Why are we thinking there isn’t the horizontal stroke of a minus sign in front of them?
“cursive zeros” are only this annoying when they’re the first number in the sequence. I don’t know this doctor, so this person could have meant negatives.
I’ve never actually seen a positive cylinder correction on a script, and I just read this page which suggests that pretty much every cylinder correction will be written as a negative number.
That’s interesting and not at all comforting lol… I have a positive cylinder on both eyes.
I didn’t ask a medical opinion. I only asked a handwriting interpretation. Thank you though, for whatever it’s worth.
Would have been nice to know how to read this garbage before the prescription expired though…
You didn’t get medical opinion. You got the written number. And if you wanted to know three years ago, you probably should have either posted or called your doctor three years ago lol
Ah, yes, during lockdown no less…
What’s the doctor’s name again? Let’s read the paper together…
Dw R
Edit: I have no clue what her name was. Plus Walmart is shutting down all it’s health centers…
Dude. You went to the doctor. You have their number. You don’t need to read it off the paper. You need to just call the place you went to when you got this prescription. Word of advice: don’t be a dick to those who are trying to help, for a day will come when willing help will cease.
Walmart done shut down their health centers homie.
Recently. Not 3 years ago. 3 years ago, they were active. You could have called then, instead of waiting to now. To each his/her own, though, and I hope you get what you need. I would recommend getting a new prescription at this point anyway.
I do realize that I should get a new prescription sometime soon. But over the years, people have suggested I can order glasses online. But how could I do that when the prescription looks like Greek?
The whole point of my post/question is to learn to decipher doctor’s chicken scratch handwriting.
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. “Perfectly 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.
You have a 3 year old prescription that you can’t parse. You need a new eye exam and new prescription. Walmart isn’t the problem here. You are.
God damn maybe they can’t afford it. Stfu
Oh come on, how many people do you expect to read that weird character as a zero? That’s not common Arabic numerals…
You’re talking about the “weird characters” in the cylinder corrections? They are minus signs in front of the zeros. The other commentator missed them as well.
Spherical corrections are given in diopters, which are rarely outside of +9 (very farsighted) to -9 (very nearsighted) with 0.25 precision: You will only see .00, .25, .50, or .75 after the decimal point in those fields.
Cylinder corrections are also in diopters with 0.25 precision, but are usually pretty small.
Axis is in integer degrees, so will be a number between 0 and 360. This is the angle at which the cylindrical correction should apply, to correct astigmatism.
You may encounter “Add” for bifocal/trifocal lenses, which is given in positive diopters with 0.25 precision.
“PD”, or “pupillary distance” is the spacing of your eyes, given in millimeters.
Once you know what should be in each of the fields, figuring out the handwriting is pretty straightforward.
I’ve already been educated. Apparently my eye doctor didn’t know how to write a fucking zero.
How am I supposed to know that weird Greek looking symbol is meant to be the Arabic numeral 0 ?
It looks absolutely nothing like a zero.
My bad, sorry I don’t know how to read chicken shit. Been wondering for years…
Your doctor does know how to write a zero. They did not write a zero. It’s not a “zero”. It’s a minus 0.25 and a minus 0.50.
If you don’t have those minus signs, the cylinder correction is going to double your astigmatism, not negate it.
Nope. Same handwriting, according to you, would yield…
-0 .5 -0
That’s how the doctor apparently wrote his zeroes.
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…
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.
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?
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…
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 not right. You missed the negative signs on the cylinder corrections. This will worsen OP’s astigmatism.
This is probably the most helpful comment I’ve received here. Looks about right, I guess, I think…
Thank you. 👍
It’s the same info provided in this comment and you started arguing…
thank you! I’m glad you pointed that out
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.
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.
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?I probably should have, but ya know what? My eyes were still adapting after the exam and I couldn’t fucking see to read.
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?..
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:
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…
Indeed, how are babby form?
Just be glad it’s not in Russian
Are we sure it isn’t?
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 😂.
Although I must admit I would feel a bit embarrassed asking them as well 😂.
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 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.
