Hatrack River Forum: Come Laugh at the (nearly) Blind Woman

This is topic Come Laugh at the (nearly) Blind Woman in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :

Went to see the eye doctor today. Been putting it off for years (three years since last visit). Insurance had changed. Very expensive.

Did I mention that my eyes are really bad? And I DON'T mean your average everyday "My eyes are really bad." The doctor told me he probably wouldn't see another patient with my level of myopia this year.

He put me on the 'fast trigger' list, so that if I have any problems or even minor symptoms of a retinal detachment I can just come into the office and see him, without calling ahead. He gave me his cell number and told me to call him immediately if I started seeing light flashes or an increase in 'floaters' whatever that means.

He was genuinely shocked to discover that he could give me a prescription that would allow me to make out some of the letters on the 20/20 line of the eye chart. [Big Grin]

I can't do LASIK, BTW. Well, I could, but I'd still have to wear glasses or contacts afterwards. They could do a lens exchange, but the tech is fairly new so he suggested I wait until they work out the kinks in the proceedures. I'm legal to drive with correction, so I can afford to wait until they've done a few hundred thousand of these operations before I consider going under the knife. I may have to eventually, to prevent legal blindness (with correction-- I'm already legally blind without it).

FUN, fun, fun!

Actually, I know how lucky I am to be healthy in all other aspects of my life, and to not actually be blind yet. It was just sort of uncomfortable to have the technitians show each other my prescription, then watch them give a low whistle and ask, "That's HER?"

*sigh*

*bumps into wall*

Posted by Tammy (Member # 4119) on :

That's nothing to laugh at.

I'm glad you finally were able to go!

My mother has been legally blind forever . I had a hard time understanding that when I was a child.

My oldest son wears contacts and my daughter just got her first pair of glasses last week.

Bad eye sight is not funny! [Frown]

(((Olivia)))

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Sounds like my ex, Olivia. He showed me the one pair of glasses that he has with a relatively current prescription once. (He keeps them for emergencies.) With the ultra-thin lenses, they still looked like huge coke-bottle-bottoms.

In his case, even with contacts AND (low prescription) glasses at the same time, he just barely makes it to 20/20. And he's also not a LASIK candidate.

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

Sorry, Olivia.

One of the most horrid things I have ever seen was that old Twilight Zone show where the guy ends up being the last man on earth, and his glasses break. Also, Piggy in Lord of the Flies. I get a stomach-punch of empathy just thinking about those things.

If yo CAN get the lasic, I bet you would still be happier. I sure wish I couls afford it.

Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :

I do too. I worry about world disaster and not having new contacts/glasses. [Eek!]

Must get LASIK before it's too late.

Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :

I'm also getting cataracts. Yes, CATARACTS. I'll be 35 in two days, and I'm getting cataracts.

So the lens exchange would be better for me anyway, because even with LASIK I'll still need to have my lenses removed eventually.

Ditto with the Twilight Zone/ Piggy thing. It also pisses me off that lens-grinding for spectacles was once considered witchcraft, or the work of the devil. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Tammy (Member # 4119) on :

quote:
I worry about world disaster and not having new contacts/glasses.

*laughing* That's the very reason I choose to not take anit-depressants. Around 9/11 I was given a prescription.

I declined.

I was worried about what I'd do if my source became hard to get.

[Roll Eyes]

Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :

[Kiss]

Poor baby. My eyesight is also bad, but obviously not as bad as yours - I'm at the big "E" on the chart, whatever that is.

space opera

Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :

If the world ends, I'd rather be crazy than blind.

Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :

Umm, Mack...does this mean the world is ending currently?

space opera

Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :

Elizabeth

quote:
Sorry, Olivia.

One of the most horrid things I have ever seen was that old Twilight Zone show where the guy ends up being the last man on earth, and his glasses break.

The most ironic thing about this was the guy was anti-social and just wanted to be alone with his books. His glasses allowed him to read. What a tragedy! I could so identify with his torment. If I couldn't read I think I would go insane, or more insane I suppose.

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

"If the world ends, I'd rather be crazy than blind."

Yes!

Posted by Shepherdess (Member # 6115) on :

I have fairly bad eyesight too, but nothing like Olivia's. I wouldn't be able to function very well without my glasses, and I've thought about what would happen if we were ushered into the Dark Ages again (especially since I just finished reading The Folk of the Fringe!)

I have a friend with Type I diabetes, and so she'd be out of luck without her insulin a lot faster than most people. Of course, if she'd been born 100 years ago, she wouldn't have lived to adulthood either.

Posted by Suneun (Member # 3247) on :

My eyes are still steadily getting worse. This year I tried monthly contacts, and I don't think I like them as much as my year-long contacts. But I think I'm in the minority of contact-wearers to use the long term lenses.

In the last few years, I've gotten to that point where you just can't read comfortably without corrected vision. Only a word or two are in focus, and everything else is in double-vision. Very disconcerting. So I wear my glasses when I read at night before going to bed.

Contacts are still one of my top favorite inventions of mankind. They really let you pretend you have perfect vision (until everything wobbles when the contact shifts....).

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

Your eyes sound very much like my hubbies, except his retina's look great. He qualifies as 'pathologically near sighted'.

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

What in the world do people mean when they say 'legally blind without glasses'. My husbands brother is legally blind and the definition of such is

'A person is considered LEGALLY blind when the best corrected visual acuity is 20/200, or the person's visual field is 20 degrees or less.'

Since the definition of legally blind is that your vision can't be adequately corrected with lenses, what does legally blind without glasses mean?

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

It must just mean that, without glasses, you are blind enough to cause harm to yourself or others if you get behind the wheel of a car. If my glasses broke or my contacts ripped while I was driving, I would be lost. Same if I were on a walk, actually. It's really scary to think about.

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

Olivetta,

I feel for you girl. Although I have fairly decent eyesight (I wear glasses for astigmatism, but I COULD get by without them and function somewhat well).

However, my daughter, who is only 14, has 20/600 vision without corrective lenses. She doesn't even put her foot on the floor out of bed without first putting in her contacts (which I nag her about, because I think she should wear her glasses in the morning and let her eyes wake up before sticking the contacts in, but she refuses).

She is SO looking forward to growing old enough for LASIX. But that is a ways off. I guess I should be more sympathetic to her.

Farmgirl

Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :

I hear you, Olivia! Bad eyes are no fun.

I didn't have eyecare insurance while in college, so it was five years before I got my eyes checked. I went in and they asked me if I had been driving. Apparently, my eyes were so bad that I would've failed the drivers eye exam. I've been paranoid ever since, but my prescription hasn't really changed so far. *knocks on wood*

Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :

Olivia, you sound like my wife. Her eyesight is as bad, if not worse than yours. She's been wearing glasses since she was 3 years old, and the prescriptions keep getting stronger.

Like you, Lasik would not do her much good, and she's scared. She's scared of the procedure (Jedi Light Saber to the Eye is not a good image) and she's scared that, without her glasses, she won't look like herself.

Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :

Rabbit- My retinas are fine, too, But the doctor told me with the extreme shape of my eyes, a retinal tear could happen quite unexpectedly. There aren't really a lot of 'warning signs' for that sort of thing (except it is a lot more common in people with eyes like mine-- my sister had a detached retina about 6 years ago). It just happens, sometimes.

I'm actually very lucky in that my prescription has stabilized. I only need new glasses/contacts every three years or so, but I have to go to the doc every year anyway (see above).

I didn't mean to be all "pity me" on you guys. It just felt funny having the folks at the eye doctor's ofc point me out to each other and stuff. It's a large practice, so I was surprised by his assertion that he probably won't see anyone with the same level of myopia for a year. It sort of made me feel weird. Singled out, but not in a good way. [Big Grin]