‘So what you need to do,’ says the kindly consultant ophthalmologist, ‘is throw away your gas permeable lenses and wear your glasses until the eye is healed. It’ll take about three months.’ Three months! ‘What’s the matter?’ he smiles, seeing my shocked face. ‘I love my glasses and, if I may say so, you look perfectly all right in yours.’
For the second time this year, a consultant has proved me wrong. Good job I didn’t go into medicine then. The joke horror eyeball with a scarlet cornea and swollen eyelid I’ve been squirting with antibiotic for the last week, is not, after all, a complication of a suspected blocked tear duct after my sinusitis, but has been caused by my eye quietly rejecting a very old contact lens. Despite being a very careful user of contact lenses (of anything, really), the lens has built up protein deposits which have sandpapered my cornea and caused all sorts of havoc. There’s nothing to be done other than to apply eye drops and wait for it to get better. But just to make sure he’s covered all the bases, the consultant flushes out my tear duct, a procedure which involves a long, gleaming hooked needle. I pick up a few Brownie points for bravery.
By the time Tom and I reach the car, however, I feel sorry for myself and have a cry, firstly because the prescription in my glasses is out of date and I can’t actually see very well, secondly I’m so very short-sighted that updating my prescription will cost an enormous amount of money and thirdly, to be blunt, I feel very vulnerable.
Perhaps it’s the association with unhappier times? My seven-year-old self who was admitted to hospital for a tonsils and adenoids operation which didn’t quite go according to plan? When I leave hospital, I realise I can’t see properly. The change is so sudden that when I return to school, a teacher is so convinced I’m simply being naughty that she stands me facing a corner of the room for an entire afternoon. Ma, I can tell you, is not best pleased when she finds out and storms the school. ‘And if anyone calls you Four Eyes,’ she adds when she and Dad send me to school with new specs I know they can ill-afford, ‘you tell them four eyes are better than two.’
Ma’s advice equips me against the bullies who try to pick on me for my poor eyesight, and later, as a thirteen-year-old with a bumper bundle of specs, braces on my teeth and the most persistent and appalling acne. Nevertheless, swapping glasses for contact lenses three years later is one of the most liberating experiences of my life so the prospect of wearing specs again for any length of time feels like a backwards step.
‘But you’re still you,’ Tom insists. And once I’ve got my head round the idea, I agree. One obstacle cleared. Tomorrow I’m off to the opticians to get my prescription updated… quite how I’m going to manage without a spare pair of glasses in the meantime will be interesting. Ah well, one bridge at a time.
And finally, I’d like to stress that I have regular eye checks and I’ve always been scrupulous about lens hygiene… but if your gas permeable lenses have reached an age that’s into double figures like mine, you may just want to think about replacing them!
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| Still here. 'Selfie' with specs. |
Comments
I keep meaning to get my eyes tested, but not getting round to it, but you (and your cute glasses) have inspired me to make that appointment. x
I have to agree with, Rachel, you do suit your glasses very well. My son recently started wearing glasses and I think he looks better with them! xxx
I was a young spec wearer like you, and loved my contacts once I got them. I used contacts only for decades until I developed an allergy to the soaking solutions. (Another common problem.)
I used simple saline solution for a while for occasional use, but in the end it became too much bother, After a while, wearing glasses is no big deal. If they work.
Which is a whole other issue!
You do look good in glasses.
Jane, yes, do get your eyes examined... and, after my experiences this year, any other niggles that might be concerning you. I'm getting my head round the 'look', now I jsut need to be able to see! x
Liz, my best friend from school's an optom and lens replacement surgery is the one surgical intervention she'd go for. It's got a good track record and is generally successful. Thank you! x
Kath, I think that's how it might be for me in future, if this clears up so it's good to hear how about your experience. I'm not too bad at my desk (thank goodness) but distance is a problem until I get sorted. No excuse not to work, eh? ! x
Georgina, what with this and the BCC, it's been quite a year! I hope once this has cleared up that I can put it all behind me! x
I think I've mentioned to you that I was diagnosed with glaucoma almost 40 years ago. It was very odd, to get the news of that "quiet" intruder into my vision. I thought I needed glasses, but at that time I did not need glasses...I just had tired eyes. Still, it was great to have the early glaucoma diagnosis. It's been daily eyedrops ever since, and the glaucoma is all under control.
The funny bit is that I still don't need prescription lenses for my reading glasses. I rely on "drugstore" glasses. Yes, I am grateful!
xo
I first got glasses at eight years old and they were thicker each year. Contact, gas permeable like yours, did me well for nearly 40 years (well, they were hard at first, and then gas permeable when those came out). Five years ago I had laser surgery and wish I'd done it long before. Snorkeling, winter sports, swimming are all so uncomplicated without glasses or lenses. Might this be an option for you too?
To be honest, it was a bit of a relief. Glasses are so much more user-friendly! I can have an afternoon nap without worrying about them, I can go out in the wind without going half-blind, and I never lose them and go 'Nobody move!'
All that rinsing, putting them in, taking them out, rinsing, just wasn't worth it in the end.
Plus, I have a new fashion accessory. Glasses! I have a wardrobe of them now.
Oh, and my condition (some long word that means ick) means I can't have laser treatment, either.
Pondside, your experience of short-sightedness sounds very similar to mine. I tend to wear a pair of daily disposables for swimming and remove them immediately afterwards, but it is fiddly. My feeling at the moment is that lenses correct my sight to a very high degree of accuracy so I'm slightly reluctant to risk surgery which might change that. However, as I've mentioned, my optom friend thinks corrective replacement lenses is a good way to go at some point in the future. It's very reassuring to hear how positive your experience of laser surgery has been. Thank you!
All change takes time to get familiar with. Definitely let your eye take the time to heal before putting the lenses back in and it's surprising how little we know even when we are being careful.
Ooh, commanding, Fennie! I don't think I've ever commanded anything... although my daughter would probably tell you I can do a terrific withering look!
Lins, that's a very cunning plan, although I didn't see any laughter lines round your eyes! Thanks for being so supportive. Hope you are doing well. xx
I would HATE to have to wear glasses for a period, not so much for aesthetic reasons as because, despite the brilliance of modern ultra light lens technology, I am so shortsighted that glasses slip off my nose, give me headaches, make me feel slightly sick etc.
But you look fine in yours. Really.
Good luck with the healing.
Hello Joy, thank you for leaving your very kind comment - it's certainly easier just to stick my specs on and go rather than all that fiddling around with lenses.