TOD - just the major highlights, since vision care has been a lifelong thing for me.
All ages are approximate.
Age 8: First glasses, on finding that I was very nearsighted. My grandmother realized that when she and I were waiting at a bus stop and I kept asking how you know which bus is the right one. I couldn't even tell there was a route and destination thingy on the bus. So off to the eye doctor, and that was the start of the rest of my life. I then wore glasses throughout school and college and my first several years in L.A., with changes of prescriptions as needed - and it seemed like that was every couple of years.
Age 27: My then-new and wonderful dentist was in the Cal Fed building in the Miracle Mile. I mentioned to him that I needed a good eye doctor because I hadn't had a regular one since moving out there. He unhesitatingly recommended one on another floor of the same building, a leading contact lens specialist who patiently, and over time, talked me into at least trying a pair of the latest soft contact lenses because I was a perfect candidate for them. These were new, super thin "breathing" ones you could sleep in. Friends told me I'd be an absolute idiot not to try, so I did. He put a pair into my eyes, I blinked, looked around, and my life changed right there. I didn't even want him to take those out. Because of the strong cleaners that irritated my eyes, the "sleeping" ones eventually didn't work for me, but I stayed in contacts for years, always keeping a current pair of glasses for alternate use whenever, and to satisfy FAA requirements for my pilot license.
Age 40: The need for reading glasses reared its head right at the time they say it happens for many people, and I wore the lowest strength readers over the contacts for quite a long time before another change was needed.
Age 50: Now in Connecticut, I was with another contact lens specialist who said I should try "mono-vision" - wearing a distance lens in one eye and a reading-distance lens in the other. This worked like a charm, and I did mono-vision from that day on. Eventually it became a little more difficult to get the prescriptions just right, due to what I now know was the beginnings of cataracts forming. And I always kept glasses for whenever I didn't want to bother with contacts. At one point I got my first pair of bifocals, then went to progressives to have the full range without the "line". Maybe I never had a really good pair, but those were always a compromise that never gave absolutely solid clarity at the various distances. But they worked. Fast forward to:
Age 70: I was now a candidate for cataract surgery, but I delayed for a couple of years - maybe because of the pandemic, I don't remember - but I finally got seen by my first ever opthalmologist who agreed that it was absolutely time, and she would do the surgeries. There are a few ways you can go in choosing what your new internal lens will be, and since I had never in my life had 20/20 distance vision, AND I wanted it all covered by insurance, I chose the standard distance lenses in both eyes. That meant from that day forward I would forever require reading glasses, and I was fine with that, because now both eyes would be the same and standard corrective strengths would work equally for both. For the first time in years, my vision would be "balanced". And it's been great. Since I'm an experienced contact lens wearer, I also have the option to do "mono-vision" again by wearing a closer lens in one eye so I don't have to bother with glasses at any time that I'd rather not be encumbered with them. Haven't done that yet, but I still might.
Thank you for coming to my little talk. Please leave your donation at the door.
