Participating in Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge
Yes, here I am so close to the end of the alphabet, and I’m cheating. I’m capitalizing on the fact that the E is silent in the word I’ve chosen to represent X. I had another fine X word picked out, but on the way to unplugging my computer in my study to work on it while in my LR chair, I was supposed to find my glasses. Or correctly, the three pairs I wasn’t wearing, because at any nutso time my eyes decide they want another pair. But I got distracted.
I first must explain that this inconvenience of my glasses, or I suppose it’s my eyes, running my life is a situation that just started this year. When I was only 81, one pair of glasses sufficed. At that eye appointment, the doctor said I had a slight beginning of cataracts, but if my eyes weren’t bothering me, she’d suggest waiting for surgery. But there was enough of a concern that she was willing to give me a referral. Up to me.
I asked how will I know when I absolutely need surgery.
You’ll just know, she said.
I think now that I’m 82, I’m beginning to know. Whatever that means.
Practically, it means I must have all four pairs of my glasses ready to answer the beck and call of my eyes. All of a sudden, letters fade away on the computer screen . Forget trying to catch a typo or see the difference between a period and comma.
To add to my xasperation, this eye problem of calling for another pair of glasses always happens right after I’m seated, legs up, blanket on under my laptop, all comfy, when I’m trying to type (like now), and I see only black blurry things on the screen. I assume they are letters and not bugs, but there’s no way of knowing without lifting my laptop to rest the keyboard on my clavicles so I can see the screen.
My other option is to unwrap myself, get out of the chair, and hunt down my other three pairs. Then do a little trial and error to find out which pair will work next. Soon, I fear, none will work and I’ll have to schedule my annual eye appointment early.
I didn’t want surgery earlier, because one can just take so much of doctors–first my hip which couched me a few months, followed by my fall that robbed another few months, both of which required twelve dozen visits to doctors and PT. I’d have to examine my rationality to choose to have surgery. I said, No thanks.
Not so smart of me. Because now I have to pack at least 2-3 pair with me when I travel.
So why do I have four pair? The medium-sized black ones (below) are my last prescription from three years ago. Because it was summer when I got them and very hot, and I had some extra money, I bought another pair with clear plastic frames. I thought they’d be flattering for summer until my son-in-law said I looked like an old lady. They went into a drawer until I developed this new problem at 82. I retrieved them so I’d have another option (even though they’re the same prescription as the black ones. Yes, I know. Go figure).
The third pair, then, I bought on a whim at Costco when I was in AZ a year ago. I have this thing when I go there to try glasses on, and there were these navy blue ones that were larger than my black frames and so lightweight and comfortable, and much cheaper than the ones from my doctor, that I had to get them.
Now about the fourth pair. I don’t remember when I got the frames, but it was at a time I thought I’d look chic in greenish-blue frames. I must not have, because I found them in a basket of old glasses cases when my eyes started running my life, and I thought to have them made into reading glasses that I usually use at my computer, but am missing now.
You see my xasperation! Luckily, I can see that this is getting long, so I can quit, but I will make a note to call for that eye appointment soon. There’s no sense making an eye problem into one involving the heart.
Two more days of Blogging A to Z. I wonder what I’ll find for Y and Z. I hope my eyes will tell me what glasses to wear, so I don’t have to fumble around very long in my mind!
Write Along with Me 
You nailed the problem–how to decide when to have cataract surgery–but in a humorous, lighthearted way. Enjoyable. Lesson: don’t get frustrated. Laugh.
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Brilliant, Lois. Your line, “There’s no sense making an eye problem into one involving the heart.” So good!
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Thanks, Wynne! Don’t need a heart attack from worry!
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I had four pairs of glasses when I was in third grade and it was discovered that I needed glasses to read the blackboard. To get to our school bus stop in the country, I had to trudge across a big field from our dirt road. to the highway. Somehow I managed to drop my glasses from a pocket. I got another pair that winter. I lost those as well. Finally, my mother bought me a pair to leave at school and another to leave at home. Problem solved. Spring came, the snow melted, and I found the two lost pairs. I was then the proud owner of four pairs and when I was teased and called, and called “four eyes!” I’d laugh and think, “you have no idea that I’m actually 10 eyes!”. Good luck with the cataract surgery. I loved the results of mine.
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I may have found a way to comment on your posts through reader on my wordpress site. Four pairs of glasses seems normal to me. I have computer glasses, regular glasses that are photogray and turn in the sun, but I don’t find them dark enough on really bright days when I’m driving, so I have prescription sunglasses for that. As well, I have reading glasses for when I wear my contact lenses which are just for distance, as well as non-prescription sunglasses. Traveling with four pairs is normal.
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Then I should accept I’m normal too! Thanks for the reassurance. Glad you solved the mystery of commenting! In yesteryear it was not so complicated.
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It seems every time someone seeks to improve things, they muck it up!
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True! Way too complicated now.
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Goodness: cataract surgery is one of our most brilliant pieces of work (20 minutes, conscious sedation)—I no longer wear glasses, rarely did. Each case is different. I was lucky because I wore one contact for reading (I am farsighted) for decades. Medicare even paid for the mono vision lens implants, one eye done at a time over 4 months in 2012, age 67. There are many eye drops for weeks post op but Duke Eye laid it all out on a grid for me, plus I walked out of surgery with all the drugs. Thirteen years later, I continue to see well.
I had just moved from FL to NC October, 2011 and could hardly see at night driving to and from my son’s home 17 minutes away. ‘Could not read street signs and I was still new to the area. Oncoming headlights were blinding. Lucky to live 20 minutes from Duke Health where I get all my care and began seeing an Ophthalmologist (never an Optometrist for the older adult—age 65+)?
No glasses around my home…just brilliant. By the way, I don’t see how someone can get anything out of corrective lens in glasses with the anatomic eye lens aged, cloudy, hardened…is that correctable? I think not.
Goodness: with A to Z soon over—does that mean I will no longer worry about you? Waiting for the cicadas to appear?. Supposedly a heat wave for many of us in May; see 80’s here in a few days. I do better in humidity and NC is barely comparable to FL, although the locals do complain.
Do take care. Ann in Chapel Hill ________________________________
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Lois, four pairs of glasses is my life also.
Actually, I have five pairs for various “seeing” scenarios. My life often revolves around keeping track of or searching for my glasses. Even my grandchildren often join in the hunt for “Bhata’s” glasses. One time, I found a pair in the freezer. True story. This blog made me laugh. I am not alone!!!!
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Jane, how funny! The freezer. My husband was always great at finding what I’d misplaced. Often he’d ask if I’d checked my pockets. Sure enough, item found. Now I check my pockets first!
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