In case you’ve been wondering why the weekly blog post wasn’t weekly for a while now, I have an explanation. I’m lazy. Wait! That’s true, but it’s not the reason for the posts. I’ve been having eye issues. For some unknown reason, the vision in my left eye went whacko and dropped to 20/40. For most people, that might not be a problem, but while deciding what physical traits I should have, God evidently decided that good eyes were not an option. Because on the best of days, mine aren’t.
I see double. That does come in handy occasionally, like if I’m putting lights on a CHRISTmas tree. I can readily tell there are too many in one area, because there will be a double glob of fuzzy lights if I take off my glasses. Other than that, though, they’re definitely not an asset, and since I now use pre-lit artificial trees, I can see no point in having double vision.
On top of seeing double, my vision is far from perfect. If they weren’t correctable to 20/20, I’d probably be eligible for one of those fancy canes and a seeing-eye dog. I’ve said all that to say that when my vision went whacko, so did my computer ability. Even with my glasses, I was seeing double, or so I thought. It turned out to be that the vision had changed so drastically that the double I was seeing was actually a shadow.
I had an appointment with an AF optometrist, who was pretty spectacular. In January, she ran every test in the book on me and could find no reason for the change. Good news, right? Not in her world. So she told me to come back in two weeks so she could do it all over again. I am nothing if not patient, so I went away to spend another two weeks seeing weirdness on the computer screen. When I went back, she ordered me some AF glasses to try before I spent big bucks on a “civilian” pair. Why don’t I just stay with the AF glasses? They don’t call them “Birth Control Glasses” for no reason. They’re not too bad, but I really don’t want to walk around looking like a librarian. Although, that would be my dream job.
She wrote two different prescriptions, so I could see which one would work best. Remember, crappy eyes need special prisms and are a challenge to get right. So I waited the two weeks. A few days after they were supposed to be here, I called the clinic so they could check. They had to reorder them, because they were apparently lost someplace. (Sigh) Another wait. By then, we’re well into February. Finally, the AF glasses showed up. Well…one pair did, but not the other one. Which I really wanted to try since the prism was different.
To make a long story short…WAY too late for that…I finally got in the two different versions and was able to go to VisionWorks and order my new glasses. I normally use them because they are always perfect making my difficult prescription, but it takes a few weeks to get them back. They came in today, and I am wearing a new pair of glasses. Yay!!!
Purple frames. A little quirky, like me. They’re prettier than they sound, but my daughter is trying to steal them because purple is her color. Not that it would do her any good, because she wouldn’t be able to see out of them.
All of this got me to thinking. My first eye appointment was the third of January. It took just shy of two months to be able to see correctly again, and it is glorious. My AF glasses were straight bifocals and I don’t know how anyone can use a computer with them. Whoever invented progressive lenses should be canonized. I would drive with the AF ones on, and something as simple as looking from the roadway to the gauges became a challenge. Progressive are seamless viewing and more like factory-issued eyes. Such a great invention.
I used to complain about my vision but having crappy double vision is better than having none, and I just took it for granted that things would stay status quo with my eyes. I seem to always be looking for the “why” in everything, and I think God might have given me this problem so I’d more fully appreciate what I do have and not regret what I don’t. That same lesson can be applied to much of our lives. We spend so much time wishing we had more…we fail to appreciate what we do have. I’m going to try not to make that mistake again. In other words, I’m seeing things much more clearly now. Literally and figuratively.