Inability to see the big “E” on the eyechart. Hell, I couldn’t even see the chart. Basically, I couldn’t see crap and got tired of crashing into walls. Actually, my parents got tired of me crashing into walls, I didn’t know any better, being quite young at the time.
I can’t remember when I got glasses; I know from pictures that I had them in kindergarten. Horrible, pointy, blue plastic frames. Tried many kinds over the years and have found none that I think look good on me. A couple of years after high school I got gas-permeable contacts and I loved them but had to give them up after my first pregnancy when my eyes became so dry that I couldn’t wear them. (At the time semi-rigid contacts were the only option for my astigmatism. I hear it’s different now.)
Three or four years ago, I got bifocals. Today I picked up my new trifocals. I’m only 46. What will I do when trifocals don’t work for me? My optician recommended Lasik surgery but he says I will still have to wear reading glasses. I don’t mind that, but I’m just scared of letting someone operate on my eyes.
I’ve had glasses since I was 12. Money was especially tight for our family back in the early 1960’s, & my younger sister had headaches at school which lead her teachers to suggest corrective lenses for the child. I didn’t have headaches; I “failed to reach her potential” for three years in a row, which finally convinced my mother to take me to an optometrist. I’ve had corrective lenses in one form or another since.
As faithful readers of the SD message boards know, I work for Walmart, so (now that I’m in the triphocal phase) I can get them through a WD optometrist at a discount.
Love, Phil
So many familiar stories. Migrating to the front of the class, squinting my way through school eye exams and the driving test. Years of headaches that were so severe my Doctor sent me for tests to eliminate brain tumours as a cause. Shame he didn’t send me to the optomertrist like a new employer did.
“How the hell did you find your way here?” he asked, checking the results. “You’re both short sighted and astigmatic to different degrees in both eyes, I’m amazed you can walk.”
I was nineteen and, like AngelicGemma, the prescription changed with every checkup till my mid-late 20’s when everything seemed to stabilise. Now, at 43, I’m looking at bifocals sometime in the next five years.
Most kids realize it (or it’s realized for them) when they have trouble reading the blackboard. I was about 8 when I realized I might need them because I was having more and more trouble reading the scoreboard in right-center field at baseball games.
You been bline since Day One
6th grade, couldn’t see the chalkboard or the TV (it happened, or I noticed it happening, in the middle of the school year segment on *Centennial *).
I got mine in the 6th grade and have never been without them since. I turned down free Lasik. Why? Because my glasses have saved my eyes so many times from flying debris. It’s helpful to always have a pair of safety glasses on.
Second grade like a lot of people here. I’m so used to them after nearly 50 years that I don’t want contacts, never have. My eyesight is getting better, I’ll probably be 20/20 for fifteen minutes or so, and then be farsighted.
I was trying to read license plates to see which states different cars were from in the car with my mom one day in 8th grade and that is when we realized I needed glasses. Then in college I started taking a vitamin specifically designed for occular health because my grandfather was diagnosed with macular degeneration (it is too late to check for spelling, sorry) and my vision improved so dramatically over the course of a year that I haven’t needed glasses for years now.
The first things I can recall not being able to read were ingredients and cooking instructions on stuff at the supermarket. It’s about the smallest print I commonly read. I then started to struggle with book size print in mediocre light and got glasses for reading only. It’s been all downhill since.
I was driving home from work and missed having a wreck by this much, all because I couldn’t see the other vehicles clearly.
I knoew I had some problems from at least third grade on. I told my mom and she didn’t believe me. She thought I was making it up to get attention or some such thing.
I was a bit of a nerd and thus always sat near the front of the class, so it wasn’t until fifth grade when they did vision tests at school that they called my mom and told her “your kid needs glasses”. I’ve had them since I was ten. I’ve had stints with contacts, but I have severe astigmatism and after my insurance i have to pay something like $140 every six months. So times do go by when I just go with glasses.
I figure in another ten years (I’m 32) I will probably have to get bifocals, right? I hate my vision. I’ve aways been jealous of people who can get up and see instantly.
One of the most familiar things to me about Harry Potter was that he always grabbed for his glasses as soon as he woke up. Sigh.