Vision Changes and Issues Connected to Them

[Steve Connally]

As I said, I have been wearing tri-focals since I was 15 so I never could make a level cut. And I know it is the glasses. We look straight ahead to get our bearings for the cut to be level, and then we look down where we are cutting and the perspective changes. You would notice it in a heartbeat if you had separate focals instead of progressives. If I look at something through the uppers, tilt my head back so I see it through the next focal, the object jumps a distance upward. With the progressive lenses you are not so aware of the shift, but it affects you just as much.
Age is taking a serious toll on my work. Holding a big saw up; climbing. Hell, I can't go more than about thirty feet without taking a rest stop. Spur work kills my back for a few days. The golden years is all a lie started by AARP to sell memberships. And I won't even get into the forgetful parts, like getting up in the tree and forgetting half of what you need up there. Things like your helmet.
I don't deal with it well at all.

I appreciate your perspective and I'm sorry you don't deal with it well. I'm not sure I do either. You're still getting at it. I hope I'm still waking up when I reach your milestones. Lots of respect to you Sir.

 

[Steve Connally]

Have you talked with your team of eye folks?

They likely have no clue about face cuts so having some pics might help. Or illustrations from books like Jepson's To Fell a Tree.

Aging isn't a warm-fuzzy topic. The reailty of a lifetime career in any physical job is either boring to hear or something that doesn't want publicity.

Have you found that this glitch in our vision manifests itself in other situations?

Have you come up with 'coping mechanisms' or triple checks to audit your work plan?

My vision folks are not what they have been for the last 20 years I've been seeing them. They've brought in a couple new docs and I'm not impressed.

I have noticed it manifest in judging how tall trees are lately. Jobs I sho up on that I feel are too tall for the crane, I end up getting them don with a little stick to spare. Its a judging thing. Trees look really really tall all of a sudden. I have not had any issues running the crane or judging distances or angles in relation to the boom. Maybe because thats a known in relation to what I'm looking at. Distance is uneffected

 

[Steve Connally]

I feel like I’ve aged by about a decade in the past 6 years.
My body started giving me troubles. First with tennis elbow, then carpal tunnel. Last year my hands were at the point I’d wake 4+ times a night, then my shoulders started up shortly after.
It takes a huge toll on me mentally, as I am a ‘doer’ type personality. Or another way to put it is I’m ADHD as fuck, and my physicality is my grounding focus.
The problem is now running a saw, climbing, swinging a hammer, or pushing my lil girl on the swing all causes pains. And if I’m not careful I can be set back days to a week! It is driving me batshit crazy.
Im now questioning my career, and have no other resource to provide for my family. Tree work isn’t fun anymore, it’s just work.. I also feel that way about where I’m at in life, so many fronts where everything is a struggle and accomplishments bring no joy.

I hear you. It's been a very difficult 9/12 months for me as well. Physically and mentally. Really struggling with aging, loss of relevance in the industry, and some other stuff. Mostly a huge identity crisis. It finally sunk in retiring from the fire department after 25 years and no longer being a "climber" after just as many years. I wanted to be a crane operator but now I am one, its not good enough. I wanna be the climber again too. Its a real struggle. Dark night of the soul kinda shit. Sorry you're struggling.

 

[Steve Connally]

I think it’s worth reflecting on how our society/culture views and treats getting older. Just look at half the products being advertised and you can see how terrified of aging we are. I believe there are many places in the world where the diminishing of physical functions is balanced out by a genuine respect for the wisdom of experience offered by those who’ve been walking this earth (or climbing it’s trees) far longer than the younger of us. Making perfect face cuts isn’t the epitome of contributing value to your community. I wish more young people would come to terms with the fact that aging is the reality for every human body. I feel extremely grateful for the multi-generational community of friends where I live and really appreciate being able to support folks with my (relative) youth where they’re losing particular skill sets, while gaining so much in return from their perspective/experience/wisdom.

Super kind words and a great perspective. Thats how I've always looked at the veterans, especially in this industry and the fire department. Unfortunately the youth of today doesn't see it that way. If you weren't a bad ass (or looked like one, or convinced everyone you were one) in Instagram, you get dismissed. Things are just different with the socials. I'm not sure they were a great addition to society sometimes. Thanks for commenting.

 

[Steve Connally]

On the topic of progressive/bifocals, I have another optometrist appointment this morning to get into my first set of contacts. My only glasses are safety, progressive (bifocal) and transitions. They are pretty worked after 3 years and I miss real sunglasses.
She is reluctant to ruin my depth perception for tree work with one contact for near vision and one for far. Does anyone work with contacts that correct for this vision issue?
I will agree with Steve that losing my unassisted vision and struggling with work tasks is demoralizing. It breaks through my self-created confidence and leads to the feeling of "I can't..."

Sorry Mike. Hope you get some answers. I totally empathize on how you feel broken and kind of "I can't"-ish. I totally feel what you're saying. From me to you...........follow some of the advice on here and push through. Somehow we'll figure it out, or we wont and we'll just have a pItty party. Hopefully the former.

 

[Steve Connally]

My issue with having to wear glasses is the rain. I can't wear contacts, so I am stuck with glasses. I do a lot of work in pouring rain, and trying to see sometimes gets to be near impossible. I have gone to full face shields with a coating of Rain-X and that helps.

*One thing I have found that helps when making cuts is, I kneel down so my head is the height of the cuts I will be making. Then I score the bark around the tree level with my light battery saw. When I stand up I know where to cut, even though it looks wrong from that perspective. It is the best method I have found so far to getting level cuts for us with whacky vision.

Great Idea. I also spent some extra time and stood up and walked a few feet away to take a look. I wonder how I'd do cutting at waist height?

 

[Steve Connally]

A couple of felling cuts I made last week were frankly crap - even with a pull line, one stem resulted in cracking corner cement work but the HO didn't really care, it was all coming out anyway. Whew. Difference with these v.s. more successful endeavours was they were both really low on the stem (i.e. PITA) - HO wanted sawable wood as long lengths as he could get them. This height and being on my knees cutting, somehow totally changed the 'situation' for me and the Humbolts looked, well different (Humbolts to try keep the bottom of the stem piece square on the bottom). So my learning is, if it matters, cut higher up like normal maybe and use the trusty old red or yellow crayon trick (saves starting a second saw maybe) - crayon stays on the felling belt/ saw pants pocket and makes cutting "on the lines" way easier. Progressives - well aren't the greatest sometimes I guess too.
Still really working on colouring in the lines in grandaughter's colouring books though . . . .

So glad you posted this. Makes total sense and great suggestions. These were low cuts for me also. 2" off the ground. I like your idea. Also if worse came to worse I could just stick a bubble level on the handle. I always thought that would be a good idea anyway. I only use my saws so nobody would be bothered by it. Bystanders could use it as another think to joke me about. Sounds like you can relate to the struggles.

 

[Shadowscape]

I appreciate your perspective and I'm sorry you don't deal with it well. I'm not sure I do either. You're still getting at it. I hope I'm still waking up when I reach your milestones. Lots of respect to you Sir.

Old age is going to get us all. All we can do is give it our best, and even though it doesn't meet our past standards, we learn to shift our standards to fit our condition. Did we get the job done safely, and was the client happy? Whatever took place along the way is really not important in the big picture.
Reminds me of my math teachers. My senior high school math teacher had to see every step of work you did to solve a problem. My freshman college math teacher said he didn't give a rat's ass how you got the problem solved as long as the answer was correct.
Maybe they should mount bubble levels in our chainsaw bars....

 

[Steve Connally]

I am fortunate to have excellent vision for my age. Not so 3 years ago until last year. I had a pretty bad cataract that went misdiagnosed for a year and when it was caught the dr claimed I was legally blind in my left eye because of it. Had the surgery a year ago and have 20-20+ for distance in that eye now. Right eye is a little off but not bad enough for surgery yet. Reading and close work still need 2.75 readers but I will gladly accept that.

Everything changed when I went in to get the correct updated strength for my readers and they added some far correction. I would have been happy top just update the readers. My far vision was good enough to take some good distance shots hunting. I didn't feel like I needed correction for distance. I shoulda stuck with that.

 

[Steve Connally]

About the time I went back to glasses from readers I had gone in for a check up. My mom has glaucoma so I try to stay up on the exams. The new dr added some distance correction to my near correction and thats where everything went down hill. I don't think I needed it and I think it made stuff worse. I went from a right hand, right eye dominant shooter to a right hand left eye dominant shooter. I've had to relearn shooting and I cannot shoot CQ weapons with both eyes open. I'm learning how to with the handgun through repetition and making great progress but the carbine is a no go because of the optic. Its a real pain.

I did find this but I haven really dove too deeply yet. I don't know how I feel about it but I should invest some effort into looking into it. I have a practitioner in my area. https://seeing.org/

 

[Steve Connally]

Old age is going to get us all. All we can do is give it our best, and even though it doesn't meet our past standards, we learn to shift our standards to fit our condition. Did we get the job done safely, and was the client happy? Whatever took place along the way is really not important in the big picture.
Reminds me of my math teachers. My senior high school math teacher had to see every step of work you did to solve a problem. My freshman college math teacher said he didn't give a rat's ass how you got the problem solved as long as the answer was correct.
Maybe they should mount bubble levels in our chainsaw bars...

Sounds like a good plan. Thanks for the wisdom!

 

[rico]

Just a little note to see if anyone has experienced any of the similar issues. SO I've been operating the crane for the last 5 years. Occasionally climb, almost never fell trees anymore. Work is super slow so I worked with one of my good customers doing a land clearing job. I spent the day as a feller and dropped a bunch of trees. A year or two into the crane game my vision changed. I had to go back to wearing glasses. I've been in progressive lenses for a few years and absolutely hate them but bifocals don't work for what I do either. I recently had a vision change and got new glasses and then after surgery and anesthesia I had another vision change and had to update again. 2nd change in 6 months (expensive 6 months with 5 pair of glasses frames). Anyway I almost got myself in trouble 3 times felling these trees. Couldn't wedge them over and had to get a machine on them to encourage the fall. I looked at those trees from multiple angles and the didn't look like hard leans at all. The other thing I noticed is my felling wedge cuts and back cuts were shit. From the cutters view point my horizontal cuts were level. Once I got the tree felled and stepped back and looked at the cuts from a distance Neither cut was level, The face cut was sloped down to counter clockwise and the feeling but was angled up to clockwise. So facing the back cut face down to the left and felling up to the right. I continued to really concentrate on the cuts taking extra time and distance to walk back and ensure they were level. It's really mentally messing with me. I've always held my own as a feller, (not like a lot of you guys) but not to shabby compared to my local competition. I guess its the fish bowl effect in the progressive lenses with wrap around frames. Gotta tell you I've not experienced the Oh shit moment felling a tree since my newby days when I thought I knew what I was doin but didn't. Now I have years of experience and I can't get it rite. I'd like to blame it on the glasses but maybe I suck and really was never as good as I told myself I was. This getting old stuff is pretty........well let's be honest.........fucked. Anybody have vision changes and has stuff like this happen? I cant be the only one but if I am, be warned.

My momma told me that I was gonna go blind if I kept cuffing my dummy. Instead of taking her advice I decided to do it till I just needed glasses...

Seriously though, I am in the same boat Steve. 2 major surgeries in the last 2 years and my vision has fallen off the map. Is it old age, too much anesthesia, a combination of both, the fucking vaccine, or something else? I do know that there is a percentage of the population who bodies have a very hard time clearing anesthesia from their nervous system, and for some it is almost impossible without help..I recently had some genetic testing done and wouldn't you know it I have a mutation that make it very difficult, if not impossible, for me to deal with anesthesia. Armed with this info I have recently begun working on my methylation pathways and supporting my liver with herbs, caster oil packs, and binders, and in less than a week I already see a positive shift in my vision. I am also using an eye chart (like the one at the eye doctor or DMV) to exercise my eye, which reportedly can help..Keep you posted.

 

[Steve Connally]

My momma told me that I was gonna go blind if I kept cuffing my dummy. Instead of taking her advice I decided to do it till I just needed glasses...

Seriously though, I am in the same boat Steve. 2 major surgeries in the last 2 years and my vision has fallen off the map. Is it old age, too much anesthesia, a combination of both, the fucking vaccine, or something else? I do know that there is a percentage of the population who bodies have a very hard time clearing anesthesia from their nervous system, and for some it is almost impossible without help..I recently had some genetic testing done and wouldn't you know it I have a mutation that make it very difficult, if not impossible, for me to deal with anesthesia. Armed with this info I have recently begun working on my methylation pathways and supporting my liver with herbs, caster oil packs, and binders, and in less than a week I already see a positive shift in my vision. I am also using an eye chart (like the one at the eye doctor or DMV) to exercise my eye, which reportedly can help..Keep you posted.

Interesting. Im seeing a functional Medicine Dr and she did some magnetic field stuff and I saw a little improvement. We aren't to the point where we're working that deep yet. I'm still at the point we're trying to get the neurotransmitters back into a normal range through supplements and nutrition. All my stuff is really bad as well as T. I'd be interested on what you're reading about that. Did you see my link about the vision stuff. The basis of his theory, old theory, is exercise can cure vision issues. There are some good exercises in there, I just haven't dove to deeply. You might find them useful and a nice change to the eye chart. Don't wanna overstep bounds here but I have some vax detox information from some pretty reputable sources. However, knowing you, if you were interested in it, you have probably already found it. Also curious about the test you had that revealed the mutation. My left eye went bonkers after surgery. I've been reading some very interesting stuff about fluid in the body and Zeta Potential. Ancient Chinese Medicine calls is Qi. Lots of stuff about fluid stagnation including lymph in the brain. Some pretty interesting information about the Spike's electrical charge and its effect on some water and cells in the body in relation to their electrical charge. Theory of sludging of fluid causing multiple different symptoms, many reversible with even simple earthing techniques. Fascinating stuff. Sorry Rico. Universe has been exercising your spirit for a hot minute. Best wishes for a time out.

 

[moss]

Many of the buzzers know that I lost vision in my right eye after a cannabis/alcohol compromised person flipped a bungee into it. The result is my throwing game went to hell, I could barely walk logs, hop rocks or go off trail in the woods, I couldn’t judge position of anything, or where my feet exactly were. My saw cuts on the ground and in the tree were crap.

Five years later I’m glad to say the brain is incredible, it’s pretty much figured everything out. I can toss a piece out of a tree and nail my target drop zone, saw cuts are good, throwing is back. I can walk logs, hop rocks, and move through thickets very well.

You’ve gone through some vision changes, if it settles down and stays put your brain will work in the background and figure it out. It’s not instant but it will happen. Playing catch with a frisbee or ball is really helpful in retraining your visual/muscle/brain wiring.

My favorite hobby at a bar having dinner and a beer is looking for the waste bins behind the bar and sinking some challenging shots with a balled up paper placemat. Always done respectfully with the bar staff’s back turned. Retraining can happen anywhere ;-)
-AJ

 

[rico]

Neuroplasticity!

 

[Steve Connally]

Many of the buzzers know that I lost vision in my right eye after a cannabis/alcohol compromised person flipped a bungee into it. The result is my throwing game went to hell, I could barely walk logs, hop rocks or go off trail in the woods, I couldn’t judge position of anything, or where my feet exactly were. My saw cuts on the ground and in the tree were crap.

Five years later I’m glad to say the brain is incredible, it’s pretty much figured everything out. I can toss a piece out of a tree and nail my target drop zone, saw cuts are good, throwing is back. I can walk logs, hop rocks, and move through thickets very well.

You’ve gone through some vision changes, if it settles down and stays put your brain will work in the background and figure it out. It’s not instant but it will happen. Playing catch with a frisbee or ball is really helpful in retraining your visual/muscle/brain wiring.

My favorite hobby at a bar having dinner and a beer is looking for the waste bins behind the bar and sinking some challenging shots with a balled up paper placemat. Always done respectfully with the bar staff’s back turned. Retraining can happen anywhere ;-)
-AJ

As soon as I say your name in the notifications I instantly remember what happened to you. Sorry I didn't remember. Bit selfish of me. You certainly overcame and I remember you struggling. So happy things are back to a place you feel good about. Thanks for posting.

 

[islandarb]

Great stuff for depth perception is paddle tennis you play at the beach. And Frisbee. Those two will work the eye and brain connection well. Looking for that little squashball to return is quite hard because it travels so fast between oponents. Try it with your lad Stephen, and the frisbee. I do both often.

 

[islandarb]

Was throwing frisbee at the beach for easily an hour and a half at the beach yesterday.

 

[colb]

Steve, my near vision has been declining for three years and it kinda sucks, lol.

Just to offer for your consideration, do you think that the guys out there felling all the time are also good TreeMek operators? Is it realistic to expect felling skills to remain high if we are off doing other things and don't have to fell trees for our doughnuts? Btdubs, I'm climbing less than a dozen times a year now. It's crazy.

When I followed and studied capuchin monkeys for a year in Raleighvallen National Park in Suriname I noticed that I was really present in it, compared to those who had been out there and returned home. They would forget small details like how many days a round of gouda would last without refrigeration,, and they could not know which monkey was aging out of a certain behavior. I realized as the time approached for me to leave that I would never again be as legit at field work as I was the last time I left the monkeys at day's end. As I got on the plane, my frame of reference was starting to change and - without motivation to excel in the field, since I was leaving - I was starting to forget small details. Those who remained were the legit field workers and I no longer belonged, like I wanted to.

When I leave a position in our industry, I cannot ever return to where I was. I might become a climber again, or a pure feller, but I''ll come to it as a different person, like re-reading a book and not recognizing it because my frame of reference changed from being a teenager to being a parent since I last read it. The only thing for it - for me - is to use the energy of that impossible-to-fulfill longing-to-return as a way to motivate me to become all I can be in my new circumstance. A lot of this last paragraph is a paraphrase or reframing of a four podcast series about Leo Messi. It was made immediately prior to the World Cup by Jazmine Garsd.

I wish you success in processing your current experience. Thanks for sharing so much with me and The Buzz over the last decade I've been here.

 

[Bart_]

I was inspecting some mechanical equipment some years ago already and I thought a panel and it's structural bar were bent. Turned out it was the warpage of my fairly strong prescription in high index plastic (lighter) lenses. Was a sad eureka moment for me. A real case of "get some glasses, ref!" - your sight is bonafide degraded. When looked at dead center on axis the warpage wasn't present. This might affect other people too. If you swap a slightly older prescription or frame set of glasses on your world re-warps. Sliding your glasses up/down your nose re-warps the world too.

Lots of us in the vision club.