New Eyes

I have been needing new glasses forever. I got this green BeBe pair of frames and lenses at least 5 years ago, if not longer. These glasses are held together in one piece by superglue. The lenses are scratched up. The temple pieces are corroded.

I was whining in the car with Cara and her kids on Sunday about all I need to do. One of those things was to get an eye exam. Madison called and made an appointment for me at Lens Crafters at the Largo Mall for today. Madison even called me today at 4 pm to remind me to go to my appointment. I don't know why I haven't gone earlier than this. Like I said, it was so needed.

I sat in the waiting room of the Lens Crafters for about 5 minutes while I filled out paperwork. On a flat screen TV attached to the wall, informational videos played. I learned about treatments for glaucoma. I learned where the macula of the eye is. I learned about eye vitamins. I was soon called by Theresa to do some preliminary tests. She was quite friendly. She did the glaucoma puff test and two other tests on two other machines. She read my prescription off my glasses. I don't know how they do that since those glasses were in such bad shape. Then she escorted me to the next office over and said the doctor would be in soon. Within 2 minutes, a female optometrist entered the room. I got a good feeling from her right away.  She probably got a bad impression of me though. See, she walked up to me and shook my hand and introduced herself as Dr. Homsi (pronounced home-zee). I replied with an eloquent, "Hey." I wanted to remember her name, so I repeated her last name in my head. Trouble was I didn't actually say it in my head; I said it out loud. So she introduces herself and gets the reply, "Hey, Homsi". Nice. It sounds like a rapper greeting. Yo, hey homsies!

She gave me the standard Which one is clearer? 1...or 2? 1...or 2? She put orange dye in my eyes, which she assured me would disappear in 30 seconds. This was a test for the moisture in my eyeball. She finished up all the tests and then we discussed options. She said my eyes looked great. She showed me pictures of my retina, optic nerve, and macula. They all look great, she said. I could have pointed out where my macula was on the picture because I had learned it from the waiting room videos. I told her that. Maculas look great. Blood vessels look great. Pressure is really good.. Right eye vision actually improved where left eye vision declined. I did not know it was possible for vision to improve.She was very friendly and smiled the whole time. She was kind of funny in spots too, which I always appreciate. I liked her and not just because she told me how great my eyes were!

I went there to find out about contacts. The doctors advised I have mild dry eye and that contacts are not recommended for me, at least for long hours of wear. I told her if she wanted to see wet eyes to just keep on telling me I shouldn't have contacts, because I might start crying. She told me I could wear contacts but that I had to be careful about not wearing them for long periods of time. She told me that I needed to use rewetting drops at least once a day too. But she told me I could certainly try them out and see how I do. So she fitted me with some contacts. I am trying them out for a week and then I go to see her again. The contacts I am trying are only for distance, so I need to wear reading glasses for reading or other up close work. She advised the dollar store readers are just fine for this purpose. I wore the contacts for 2 hours today. I am to add another hour of wear each day until I see her again next week.If my eyes look OK at the next visit, I will purchase a 6 month supply. The contacts I am getting are worn for 2 weeks and then thrown away. She recommended I not sleep in them. That is fine with me. I have no desire to sleep in contacts.

Contacts have improved so much since the last time I wore them regularly. Back in my day, you purchased one pair of contacts and you had to make them last for a long long time. I remember panicking when I lost or tore one. Now I will have plenty on hand to replace one if needed. Also, I had to make this solution by dropping a tablet into a special liquid and shaking the container until the tablet dissolved. Then I had to soak the contacts overnight in this protein-eating solution. The contacts would fizz when you put them in the concoction. There was one bottle with thick oily-feeling cleaning solution and another bottle with storing and rinsing solution. It was much more complicated back then. Now one solution handles all of it.


I got new glasses too, Ray Ban red tortoise shell frames. I tried on lots of frames. The minute I put this pair on, I knew I liked them. The girl who was helping me out in the frame department was also very good. She was helpful and competent and had a good personality. She was also a Cancer like me and we talked about how great Cancer babies are and how it is so true that the people we are close to in life often turn out to be Pisces or Scorpios.

My new glasses - sorry picture is so dark. Ooh, sorry that the bed in the background is not made either.

The problem I seem to have with glasses is that they never sit straight on my face.She and I could both see that the glasses were not exactly straight on my face. She attempted to adjust them a couple times. She said my ears were probably not the same height on the side of my head. She said this quietly to me, as if delivering some unexpected and unpleasant news. I told her that I really suspected that one eye is lower than the other and that this was the problem. She seemed relieved that I was aware of my less than perfect features and that I would not take offense at her ear comment. She called an associate over to see what he thought. The glasses were still sitting a bit crooked. He looked deeply into my eyes and then pronounced that the glasses are not sitting straight, that she needed to adjust the glasses this one little way to fix the problem, and that it was probably due to one ear being higher than the other. I made a crooked face and said jokingly, "poor little asymmetrical girl"! He leaned down and "comforted" me by saying, "Nobody's perfect. We are all a little asymmetrical." Thanks dude. The lady made one little adjustment to the frames after he left. I put them on my face and presto! they were sitting straight. We were both surprised and pleased!

I spent a little over $400 on the exam, glasses, and one pair of contacts. But this all came out of my HSA account, where I am quite wealthy. I then went to the Dollar Tree and got a pair of readers. I went to Target and bought normal sunglasses (whee!), not big grandma pupil dilation sunglasses that go over regular glasses, and some re-wetting drops. I am ready for any vision situation now!