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Thursday 5 November 2009

The eyes have it.

I went to the optician today, my two-yearly check up. Only apparently it was four and a half years since I last went. Oops. Where did that time go? They were running behind, so I had to wait for a while. I sat watching the shoppers go by in the shopping centre. Well, I sat watching the blurs go by in the shopping centre. I wear glasses for distances, but I tend to only wear them in the car or at the movies or theatre, so everyone was a little out of focus.

After telling me off for being so slack and not coming for four years, the optician wanted to know how I’d got on wearing my reading glasses? Another oops. I haven’t been wearing them. I hate the things. They’re all right while I have my head down reading, but as soon as I look up I feel sick. It’s like being underwater. I can’t see that they make any difference to my close sight anyway.

All the usual checks followed – reading eye charts, deciding what’s clearer, having my eyeballs blown with some awful machine to check pressures. We discussed night driving (I can’t see much at all at night without my glasses) and special coatings that can be put on the lenses to stop glare. Then we discussed prescription sunglasses and how important they were.

Into the shop then to order frames – a nice gold frame for everyday use (and night driving), soon to have anti-flare coated lenses. Then some fashion sunnies, which will have their lenses replaced with layered, polarised, prescription lenses. A little bit off the price here for the voucher I brought in, a little bit more off out of the goodness of their hearts, a little bit more off with the private health cover. And that comes to…eeeeeeek!

The irony is that, despite getting in trouble for not coming for check-ups and for not using my reading glasses, I didn’t actually need new glasses at all. My eyes have not changed in four and a half years. But the frames I have at the moment are awful (they bend if you give them a hard look) and I really did need the sunnies. So P can’t complain too much, can he?

5 comments:

Angela Ackerman said...

Ha, same thing happened here! My one son has perfect vision and for some reason the cards for appointments stopped coming to the house even though they came for my other son who does need glasses. Two years went by without a check up and I finally brought him in only to find out her has better than 20-20 vision!

Ugh and don't you just hate that machine that blows a puff of air at you?

Kate said...

I think it was invented by someone with a really strange sense of humour, Angela. :D

Unknown said...

My husband used to tell me I looked really young for my age. That's until her received his first pare of reading glasses. When he looked at me with them on, he said, Eww, you've got wrinkles.

I hat my reading glasses. I just want to smash them and I hate going into supermarkets to discover I’ve left them at home. I bought a cheap pair to keep in my handbag only to discover that I like them better. They’re much more comfortable.

Kate said...

LOL, Trish. Don't you just love comments like that? I had a friend who, when I first started wearing glasses, said, "Oh, you look quite intelligent now." :D

Lily Cate said...

Ha ha!
I've been dependent on glasses since I was about 12. Lots of nearsightedness in my family, so regular eye checks are just par for the course. I go in to get my prescription for contacts renewed- my eyesight hasn't changed in about 15 years. I've had three different sets of frames in that entire time.
My son has glasses now, to correct a case of farsightedness. And my husband has started wearing reading glasses he probably doesn't really need- because he likes them!