14 year old concerned about vision

[staymetal99]

Hi, for the past couple months I've had some vision problems. It started when I put my hand up and noticed a feint image of my fingertips above my actual hand. I moved my hand close to my face, it went away. I moved my hand farther away, the ghost image became larger. I shrugged it off as being tired and went to bed. The next couple days I noticed a lot of scattered light around streetlamps, not exactly starbursting, but more like light was stretched above and around the bulb. When on the road I'd notice that as I got closer the the excess light would gradually dissapear. I also noticed a lot of ghosting above LED signs and billboards at night that had the same principle. I also noticed ghosting above more objects during the day mainly inside. I never see a full second image, just a feint sliver of it above, and to this day it hasn't worsened much. Also I can sort of squint, and they'll go away. These problem also seem to worsen when my pupils are more dilated, and when I'm tired, or stressed. I went to get my eyes examined and was told I'm bit nearsighted, which kind of makes sense since all my vision problems have the same principle as nearsightedness. My distance vision is also a bit blurry, which I hadn't payed much attention to before. I was prescribed with glasses which I had to wait a while for because of my insurance. Fastforward a month and I'm also seeing halos around certain lights, and increased intolerance to glare during the daytime. I'm not sure if I'm noticing things I haven't before or my vision's really gotten worse. At one point I picked up a pair of old binoculars I have and looked at a distant streetlamp through them and was amazed at what I saw. Everything looked absolutely normal. I tried this with ghosting, glare during the daytime , and no matter what, my binoculars fixed the problems entirely! My glasses arrived and I assumed they'd do the same thing for me that my binoculars did. They only slightly reduce my problems, don't come close to eliminating it like my binoculars. The doc said an anti glare coating would fix my problems and I dont like to question doctors but I'm not sure how this will help? I could really use some clarity or reassurance. Thanks

[staymetal99]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I haven't received the anti-glare coating for my glasses yet, It should be ready in a couple of days. I wanted to hear your thoughts on whether or not you think it'd help for my problem in particular, as I'm kinda skeptical. I've read about these types of coatings and I thought they were just for correcting issues caused by the lenses themselves. But I guess I should trust the optometrist over an article I read online, haha
Thanks

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Well obviously the anti-glare didn't work.  Just FYI  most ophthalmologist/optometrists don't charge for one glasses recheck.

JCH MD

[lennartstek]

If the ghosting disappears with other glasses and by taking them off i wouldn't worry too much at your age.

[staymetal99]

I saw an optometrist. It's hard to tell if my glasses are adjusting or not. I've had them for a couple of days. Since my problems with lights/ghosting vary so much in intensity based on amount of sleep, pupil size, distance, stress level, etc. It can be hard to tell if they are getting worse or not. Perhaps I need a stronger prescription, similar to that of my binoculars? No matter what, they always seem to completely eliminate the problem. Also, do you think the optometrist was incorrect in the assumption that an anti-glare coating would fix my problem? He seemed sure of it, and suggested my binoculars must have some kind of anti glare coating on them.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Glasses will not make things as clear as binoculars because the imaged it magnified.

Your problem could be due to incorrect glasses RX, or your glasses RX need a week or so to adjust (often the case with astigmatism).  Less likely at your age are diseases of the cornea, lens or macula.

Hopefully your eye glasses exam was by an Eye MD ophthalmologist. If so would suggest you schedule a "glasses recheck" if you saw an optometrist you might want also to schedule a glasses recheck.

JCH MD