“I Can See Clearly Now”

I had my eyes examined yesterday.  It’s been about four years since I last had them checked.  I know I’m supposed to go every year, but new glasses are expensive and, honestly, I just kept forgetting to make an appointment.  I’m notorious for doing that with other yearly checkups too.

However, as of late, I’ve had a really hard time focusing on things because I get a really bad headache or get dizzy.  This usually happened when a room was extremely dim (a movie theater during the “First Look” ads) or when the sun was way too bright (usually in the car).  The headaches and dizziness have been more frequent in the last month so I decided it was time to make that appointment and use part of our tax refund to pay for it.

In the last four years, one eye has gone from a -1.50 to a -2.75 and the other has gone from a -2.25 to a -3.00.  There’s quite a difference. The doctor was worried about the huge change, except he said that it was more tolerable since it’s been four years.  He’s having me try contacts first before I order new glasses.  He wants to make sure I won’t get headaches from the huge change in prescription before I spend $200+ on glasses.

I’ve wanted to get contacts for awhile so I can have real sunglasses.  They’re not much of a change since I’ve had them before.  I just haven’t had them for almost three years because I forgot to order more.  And, I knew my prescription had changed so there was no point ordering the old prescription.

It’s amazing how much you don’t realize you’re missing until you’re at the doctor’s having an eye exam or you have the right prescription.  For the first time since I started wearing glasses (at 14 years old), I couldn’t see the top line on the eye chart when I stood behind the line.  Now that I have my new prescription, everything is so clear, clean, and crisp.  It’s a little dizzying because I’m not used to it.

Anyway, I’m glad I finally made an appointment.  Hopefully, I won’t have anymore headaches.  And, I’ll be able to enjoy going to the movies more because I won’t have to deal with the effects of the dim lights in the theater before the movie starts.