Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I want to rip out my eyes...

...because they hurt. Naturally, they hurt most when I'm staring at the computer while working.

I have two pairs of glasses, both bifocals: one is for driving, the other is for computer work and reading. The former give me no troubles.

But squinting through the latter has become a painful experience. So I guess it's time to head off to the eye doctor and get new specs. When I can wrest the extra money from what I perversely term a "budget," that is.

Oddly enough, most of the time I don't wear glasses, and I do just fine. I can read most things, can walk, shoot pictures, even drive* and never notice I'm somehow visually challenged.

Hand me a book, or plunk me down in front of the 'puter, though, and everything seems to go blurry.

I didn't wear them until I hit my mid-20s anyway. My first eye doctor, senile when I was first taken to him at about age six and progressively worse thereafter, said they wouldn't help me. My parents believed him; for some reason I have long ago forgotten, they had been convinced that I would go blind during my childhood, and I was, for a time, put in a class with blind kids and started on learning Braille.

During my last eye exam, the doc mentioned that contacts would be good for me, but hard as I tried, I found jamming those puppies in my eyes a psychologically draining task.

I know better than to dream of surgery, laser or otherwise. That ain't cheap, and even if I had the spondulics for it someone would be right there with hands out, asserting a prior claim.

Maybe I just don't wanna work anymore. I suspect there's some heavy truth behind that, but I don't feel like going there right now.

With or without glasses, I can see beauty clearly. I know what sight would soothe my hurtin' eyeballs the most, but it is far beyond my field of vision.

Alas.


* The last time I renewed my license, my eyes were tearing so much from something in the air at the DMV office that I ripped off my specs and did the eye test without. But the clerk still checked off the "must wear corrective lenses" box.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i get this. i have cataracts in both eyes. X-mas time, with all its lights, makes me think i've been spiked with a hallucinagen..it's awful. goodvibes to ur eyes.

Kimmywoo said...

Wow, it does sound like you're overdue for a trip to the optometrist! Hey, I'm fairly blind without my contacts = -6 for the left eye and -5.5 for my right. The world is a blur without them... which is often not such a bad thing!

Anonymous said...

I'm nearsighted. I can read perfectly without my glasses, but without them I can't see the TV across the room. Maybe we should team up...you drive, I'll read. :)

S

Doug said...

Laser surgery is no good for naturally aging eyes. So far I use reading glasses for anything up close and/or tiny, everything else is ok, similar to your eyesight.

Contacts are foreign matter as far as I'm concerned. I hate anything touching my eyes. I'd rather wear glasses.

Anonymous said...

Hello from someone who only wears one contsct lens, but typically needs someone else to put it in. Can remove same pretty well ... but not always. Fortunately, this is only a weekly occurance.

Dorrie said...

I have those bifocals that you don't notice. I think I need stronger glasses, yet I wonder if bifocals is really what I need.

go get those peepers checked!!

John0 Juanderlust said...

It always gives me the creeps when even figurative mention is made of destroying eyes.
That is rather strange about the blind period.

I hope it helps getting specs.
Do the exam in case there is further info, and if you get the bucks, and some type of surgery is needed, screw the prior claims. They can wait.

Anonymous said...

I am blind as a bat. Thank God for contact lens. I wear them from the minute I get up to the time I go to bed. Vision is so precious. I hope you get yours sorted out.