I started wearing glasses when I was seven years old (yes, this photo is ME – on stage for our production of “Up With People” – I was “Miss Brazil”). My eyesight is really, really, really bad. When I started junior high, I got my first pair of contacts. They were hard contacts, and they always irritated my eyes. I went to an opthomologist who practiced this method of vision correction which involved wearing lenses that were just slightly out of fit. By the time my eyes molded to fit them, it meant it was time to graduate to a new pair of unfitting lenses. But miraculously, these lenses actually did change my eyesight.
My father would tape a newspaper at the end of our hallway and measure the distance I could stand and still read the headlines. When I began, I think my face was about four inches – maybe less – from the paper. At the end of two years and a ton of discomfort, I was able to read the same sized headline (he changed it every week, so I wouldn’t “cheat”) from about twelve feet away. But those contacts were super uncomfortable and I couldn’t really deal with the “retainer” lenses that I’d need to wear, virtually forever, to hold my eyes in that shape. I switched to soft contacts when I was in high school, and boing! my eyes went back to legal blindness, or 20/500 vision. Damn.
At a certain point in my mid-twenties, I decided that contacts were just a pain. I switched to glasses and have pretty much never looked back.
Until last week. I was up at the river, celebrating my 50th birthday with friends. I was so exuberant and happy to have everyone there, that I leaped into the river – yahoo! and it wasn’t until that split second in the air that I realized – OH NO – I still had my glasses on. I felt them fly off my face as I plunged hard into the water. I scrabbled around with my hands but they were gone. DAMN.
I spent the next two days feeling my way around the furniture, holding books and food and everything up to my face. I am soo blind. Because not only do I have my old myopia, I also have old-age reading problems as well. I called my eye doctor first thing on Monday morning and arranged to get some emergency contact lenses. It was a real revelation when I put them in and wow! I could see a LOT better than I could with my glasses. Add a pair of dimestore reading glasses, and I was also READING a lot better than I have in years. (I was getting very sad about the horrible quality of my reading vision) Amazing!
I thought, THIS is the answer! Contacts plus reading glasses! Yay! I was all blissed out for about … three days. The the reality hit me. I wake up in the morning and I had to put in my contacts immediately, something I hated the feel of first thing in the morning. (I do believe that contacts need to come AFTER coffee) Then, I realized that they have a wearing time of about 8 hours, and then my eyes get incredibly sore and itchy and blood-red. Ugh.
I know, I KNOW so many people have touted the wonder of Lasix. I’ve asked my doctor. She said because of the many many complications of my eyes, that I am really not a great candidate. I’d still need reading glasses. Only one eye would work. Etc etc etc. Plus, my physician husband has been very wary of the 1-3% complication rate and has convinced me not to mess with my precious eyes. So that’s out.
I’ve gone back to the eye doctor and renewed my prescription (worse, yet AGAIN, after two years – it just keeps going!). During this vacation, I’ve been juggling reading glasses, 15- year old spare eyeglasses and sunglasses in my purse. I need a new big purse just to contain all my eyewear. It looks like I’m going to be doing a combo of contacts (nice for sports, but NOT swimming, heh) and glasses. Besides, I think I look “funny” without glasses. In the years since I wore contacts, my eyes have developed old-lady bags underneath them. I do not like this, and think my glasses are a pretty good disguise. I can’t believe the time and energy I’ve expended thinking about my eyes and eyesight in the past few weeks. It’s incredible.
I’m in awe of people who can just wake up, blink, and SEE the world.