Thursday, June 22, 2006

bespectacled


I so vividly remember that life-altering day in 3rd grade. A community nurse came to our school and all the kids had their eyes checked. I was given a paper advising my parents I needed to go see an eye doc as I needed glasses. Oh the shock, the horror. I guess we weren't all that surprised. After all my father's side of the family are all bespectacled except for him.

And sure enough, I ended up with these ugly looking cat shaped spectacles (still have them somewhere in the house). I wore them as little as I could possibly wear them. Wearing glasses wasn't "cool" back then. It lead to teasing. And for someone with a weak self-image it was devastating. I would make sure to sit in the front of the class whenever I could. Most movies I saw as a teenager and young adult where blurry: no way I'd go on a date with those things.

And then the contact lenses revelation. Yeah. Except one had to get used to taking them on and off and playing with all those solutions. Coming home in a drunken stupor and too lazy to remove them, waking up in the morning with dried up eyeballs and eyelids stuck to them.

And then going on trips. Hubby and I needed a bag just for our eye stuff: prescription glasses, prescription and non-prescription glasses, lenses and a bunch of extra ones, bottles of fluid.

And then the laser eye surgery revelation. Hubby and I had ours done at the same time when big sis was 4 years old. The best thing ever. Throw out all those bottles and vials and glasses.

When preggo with the twins, my vision deteriorated. Normal pregnancy phenomenon I was told. Should go back to normal after they are born. Well it did with one eye, not the other. Major bummer. I was getting major headaches from one eye with clear vision and one eye with fuzzy vision. I could go get my eye laser eye corrected again. Just haven't gone around to setting all the appropriate appointments. So I'm back to wearing glasses. Which I don't mind really. They have such cute ones out now. I even got two pairs of diffferent colors to go with different outfits!!

This past year, big sis got her first glasses. No big deal for her. Thanks to Harry Potter, its now cool to wear glasses and kids have such a great selection, unlike what I had. Laser eye surgery will still be a possibility for her later on.

Yesterday, I brought the twins for their first eye exam. They impressed me so with how great they did. She did a full half hour exam, same one she does on me. The good news is their vision is fine now. The bad news is that they should be far-sighted at this age. So they will most likely be near-sighted in the future. More bespectacled family members for us!

4 comments:

BeachMama said...

I remember almost crying in Highschool because I thought I needed glasses. The eye doc told my parents not to waste their money as the prescription was really low. I suffered with headaches all through high school. Then they stopped. Then,I went to University, and they started back up again. I went to the eye doc and got glasses. Now, I no longer have headaches. And I have really funky (or so I think) glasses. Only for reading though, just call me Granny ;).

nancy said...

I have been wearing glasses since I was 11, started contact lenses at 13. I am trying to work up the guts to go through with the laser correction. One day...

Tonya said...

I have never needed glasses before but I know it is cool to have glasses today. My neice sometimes wears them and she doesn't even need them.. there is no perscription in the lense. Its good that kids are no longer teased for wearing glasses.. all the cool kids are doing it!!

Silver Creek Mom said...

I'm on my way to geting glasses this summer. I can't read fine print on bottles anymore...my arms aren't long enough. Although I figure I did pretty good towait till I was almost 43.

In a way I'm exxcited to get a pair of cool glasses.

And your always looked cool, you should see Jack's old glasses. Miranda's are frameless so they look good but she wear contacts most of the time.

I wonder where Nathan will be on this scale.