Yesterday, for the first time since my freshman year of college, I went to the eye doctor.
I used to wear glasses. Ever since I was very little, up until I was 19 or 20, I wore them everywhere, every day. They were a fairly strong prescription; +3.25 in the left eye (my “good” eye), and +5.0 in my right eye (in which I have severe strabismic smblyopia, otherwise known as a lazy eye). One day when I was a sophomore in college, I realized that everyone else in my family wears glasses because they see worse without them, and that, well, I see just fine without my glasses. According to my prescription, that should not be the case. So I decided to stop wearing them and go without, just to see how it went. Nothing happened- well, no, actually I stopped getting a certain type of headache I’d been getting. But other than that, nothing changed. I could see fine, read fine, do anything else I needed to do just fine without them (at least, with my left eye- I don’t use my right one at all, it just does its own thing).
Until last year. Last year, I got my current job. If you don’t know what I do, suffice to say it’s an admin type job where I stare at a computer screen all day, every day. I noticed a couple of months ago that this was seriously taking a toll on my eyes. I would leave work with serious pain in both eyes, and I was getting tension headaches more often than usual. I decided it was time again to head to the eye doctor, but this time I chose one with a private practice (so, not a “mall” one in lenscrafters or vision world or anything). I wasn’t sure it would make a difference, but because the situation with my right eye is sort of unique, I thought I’d give it a shot, and anyway my insurance is only taken at a few clinics around here, so I picked a nice close one and off I went.
It was actually pretty different from any eye exam I’ve ever had. A lot more comprehensive, for one thing– they used a new kind of drops along with the dilation ones that actually made it so I couldn’t focus my eyes at all, which was awkward, and they also used a set of prisms to test how off-kilter my right eye is (and the biggest one didn’t even get it completely… it’s way off). For the first time ever, my eye doctor asked me “what do you see with your right eye?”. I honestly can’t believe no one has ever asked me that before. They honestly believed me that I don’t use it at all, and my prescription- which is for computer use and reading only- is (get this) +1.50 left and a balance lens on the right. They arent even trying to correct the vision in my right eye, which makes so much more sense than putting a needlessly strong lens on a nonfunctional eye!
I picked out some pretty purple frames. They’re metal half frames, and I got the anti-reflective coating to help with the computer use issue. I’m really pleased with how it went… I finally feel like I have a correct glasses prescription.
