New Eyes

If you have good eye sight or had good eye sight until you were in your 40's I hope you are grateful. I've struggled with my eyes since middle school when I put on a friend's glasses and realized you were supposed to see every leaf on a tree, not just blurry green things at the end of each branch. But I've hit a new low in my ongoing vision struggles.

When I finally got glasses my sophomore year of high school, I was thrilled to see. Yet, I quickly learned, glasses had their draw back. They steam up sometimes, slip off your face when you get sweaty and generally, get in the way of any activity from hiking to softball...and don't even think about playing soccer in glasses. Sunglasses are impossible unless they are prescription too. So, by my senior year, I was trying contacts.

But they too had draw backs. First I had to touch my eyes. Ick. Then I had to get used to having something in my eye all the time. Ugh. Then, I had to take care of them. Boring. Why couldn't I just have good eyes?

I even went so far as surgery in my quest for good eyes. In the late nineties, I had Lasiks. Honestly, it was the best thing I ever did. For a good five years, I had twenty-twenty vision. Yes, I had the halo effect at night for a year or so, but it went away. But I didn't care. I could see my alarm clock in the morning. I could wear regular sunglasses. I could snorkel without getting a special mask for blind people. It was a miracle.

Alas with my 40th birthday, my eyes began changing again and not the way you think. I didn't start stretching my arms to read things or complaining about the lack of light, street signs started getting blurry again. I was so bummed. I got glasses and I only had to wear them for driving for a while, but my eyes kept getting worse and soon I was wearing them all the time.

So, in the full circle leap of the century, I'm back to contacts. I think it's my 5th go round with contacts? Something like that. When I went for my fitting last week, I had the lenses in my eyes before the woman even started explaining how to do it. And man, it was great. I could see across the room. I could read the eye chart. Free at last from glasses again. I could dance with joy. Then a little problem cropped up.

I couldn't read the fine print on the brochure. Damn! If it isn't one thing, it's another. I'm happy to report, I passed the close up reading pass with the contacts in. BUT, it was close. So, what am I going to resort to now? Reading glasses with contacts? I tell you, getting old bites.