Presbyopia has well and truly caught up with me

I got varifocals last year for when I'm wearing glasses rather than contacts, but up until three months ago I mostly only needed reading glasses with the contacts for 12 point print when I was tired or in poor light. Now I just need reading glasses, and for the computer as well as books. :-( Which meant that I spent a couple of hours and a chunk of change in the opticians' this evening, getting a current sight test and then measured up for occupational bifocals to wear with the contact lenses. This apparently is the term for bifocals with a monitor-distance prescription in the top and a book-distance prescription in the bottom. These are not cheap when compared with off the shelf reading glasses, even before the fancy coatings and lightweight plastic options. They do, however, come with proper prescription lenses which include the correction for my astigmatism and correct adjustment for my inter-pupil distance, which means I should have much better close vision than with off the shelf.

The optometrist confirmed that I'm getting this level of presbyopia about five years earlier than is normal, and suggested that it could possibly be a side-effect of one of the many medications I've had over the years causing some early weakening of the muscles. I would cheerfully blame the one that was giving me actual muscle problems recently, but I know I had a measurable requirement for reading glasses at least 5 years ago, when I was living in California.

Middle age sucks. It's better than the alternative, but it still sucks.