I think we vary on this. It took me 8 years to completely recover from ON. After that, I was fine for 16 years, then had a recurrence this year in June because of smoke from forest fires. This time, my eye improved more rapidly but it's still not whole, and I did get glasses, after not having had them for a long time. I know what you mean about glasses expense. I paid a pretty good price for mine, having been burned before by glasses made at one of those nearly-free companies.