I wear glasses. I’ve had a prescription for near-sightedness since I was, oh, 13 or so. Throughout school, I only wore them for seeing the blackboard, going to a movie, that sort of thing. Should have worn them for driving…shh…don’t tell. But my eyes got worse when I was in college and I went to contacts. Loved my contacts. Loved.Them. I could see! Who knew that there were actual leaves on trees? I could see to drive! I could see my music and the conductor! Gasp! It was wonderful! Then I moved to Colorado. Colorado is incredibly arid. So very dry that at this very moment my hands are cracking and splitting and bleeding and no amount of handcream has helped. Contacts, extreme dryness, and my eyes…the Bermuda Triangle of contact difficulties. I tried every possible kind of contact lenses and nothing worked. I was either pouring drops into my eyes every ten minutes, or my contacts were fusing to my eyeballs. Unpleasant at best. So I reluctantly went to glasses. I spent a small fortune on glasses. They had to be super light, super thin, had to have the non-reflective lenses. Small fortune when you’re a grad student. That was 8 years or so ago.
I had thought of getting lasik many times. I know people who have had it and love it. They can see! Gasp! ; ) But I always thought, “oh, later…” or “not me…” or “too expensive…” I just got used to wearing the glasses, despite the irritation. Then last week A’s OT and I were talking about the exercises he had to do, one of them using a lens to strengthen his eyes. I mentioned that without my glasses I can’t see further than about 12 inches clearly. And she looked straight at me and said, “…and how much longer are you going to put up with that?” Bonnnnggggg….it was as though someone smacked a gong next to my head, the lights went on and someone was home. How much longer am I going to put up with this? With my glasses constantly sliding off my face. With my glasses pinching my ears, despite continually going and getting them adjusted. With them causing intense headaches if they are not perfectly adjusted, smudge-free, scratch-free, and the planets properly aligned. Our vision insurance provides discounts for corrective surgery and I’m going to look into it. It’s still expensive, and it won’t happen this year, but I’m going to do this. Yes, I’ll still need lenses down the road for reading, but if I can get out of having glasses day in and day out, I’ll do it. It’s time. My milk money is going to be saved.