@ray666 - I had my annual eye doctor appointment this week. I mentioned how I’ve just come to notice this past winter that it’s more challenging for walking and balance to be outside in the dark, which I find I am more in our new home community. Nighttime walking to the bathroom has the same challenge but it’s so few steps that it is not as concerning. I told her I avoid driving at night because with my PN, I think it’s safer for me to be able to have a little visibility of my feet, but that when I do drive in the dark, I still feel my vision is off a little, despite having had cataract surgery.
Her answer surprised me. I had my cataract surgery 1 year after I came down with my severe PN. The surgery implanted lens for “mono-vision”. Before the surgery, I wore glasses (or contact lenses when I had good fingers/hands before PN) for a few years that had me seeing mono-vision. (For those who may not know, mono-vision is where one eye is set to see/read close up, the other for far away, and your brain adjusts so both eyes work together for complete vision)
She explained that it’s extremely common for people with mono-vision to have a harder time adjusting to night vision, as darkness makes it harder for the eyes to adjust to the distance part of the vision, which can be just a few feet. She said they have glasses that help folks with mono-vision adjust to being in the dark better, but without glasses, to try not to look too far away while walking at night when I do.
In hindsight (no pun intended), I believe my nights were a little more challenging at night vs day for the 3 years I had contacts/glasses corrected to mono vision before I ever got PN, so I believe this Ophthalmologist when she says I might be wrong (in my case) for blaming my night time balance woes on PN when the mono-vision dilemma occurs in folks without PN as well. (So maybe a double-whammy for me)