I have been in glasses since I was seven. I barely remember what life was like before my glasses dependence.
Neither of my parents had to wear glasses, so it was a shock when I needed glasses so early and so badly. I remember riding home from getting that first pair being AMAZED that I could read the billboard signs!
My glasses were hideous from the beginning. There were definitely not the cutie pie choices available today, for sure. In sixth grade, somehow I came home with the most horrid set of frames.
These babies were sort of an old lady chic marketed for 11 year olds… in a lovely clearish blue.
I remember the pushy sales lady being so sure that these were the frames I should get and I didn’t want to speak up and tell her no I didn’t want those. Isn’t that sad?
So then I was stuck with the old lady blue frames.
They had drop sides like this…
In maybe 8th or 9th grade the side of my glasses broke off, and we couldn’t get a new pair yet. I was blind without them so I wore them anyway with the missing side and all.
Such a trendsetter, I am.
I remember being asked by an adult, who was obviously puzzled as to this crazy new fad I was starting,
“Are you missing an ear, or are your glasses broken?”
My shocked, incredulous answer of Long Pause followed by “Uh, My glasses are broken.”
I guess that is something I could have been thankful for… yes, I had to wear broken glasses, but hey. At least I had both ears, right?
Finally when I was 15, I somehow managed to get the parental units to agree to contacts! Ah, I remember what a HUGE deal in my teenage angst filled life that was. No more four eyes for me!
I wore my contacts almost exclusively for YEARS with just short, brief bouts of forced glasses wearing.
Then, something happened during my pregnancies with Wade & Davis, and I just couldn’t stand to wear my contacts. It constantly felt like I had a piece of dust or something stuck in them.
That means for the last five years {on and off} I’ve been primarily in glasses, and I don’t love glasses. If I could manage to be comfortable in contacts, I think I would be perfectly content with that. But I can’t, so…
I am finally taking the plunge this week and going for it with Lasik. I’m trying to put away the trauma of witnessing Chris’s horrific experience and convince myself that the technology has sufficiently changed to allow me to safely undergo the laser.
It seems inconceivable that I could have a life free of glasses.
I am excited about a summer of wearing normal sunglasses! Oh the thought.
I know this is such a non big deal type of surgery, and I’m trying to be chill about it. Plus the doctor promised me the “I don’t care meds,” and that’s what I’m counting on to get me through it.
I know everyone is always back to work on Monday just fine, and it’s all rosy and peachy and everyone would do it over again a hundred times, blah, blah, blah.
But somehow I can’t help but suspect that I, of course, will be that exception. I’ll be the one where everything goes screwy, and I’m laid up with bloodshot, scary eyes for a week.
Right in time for our move.
Hopefully, I’ll see you on the other side. Literally!
I’d love to ditch my glasses…but I’m a huge chicken and doubt I could ever handle the Lasik thing (but I’ve definitely considered it!). Be sure and give us an update when it’s done…maybe a “why you should do this to” kind of post! :) Love the pics! :)
Jacinda, your story sounds so much like mine! My parents didn’t have to wear glasses (or barely did), but by the time I was in first grade I was in glasses full-time. Contacts came in 6th grade and that was fine for me, although without them I was legally blind and couldn’t read the alarm clock. I had LASIK in 2004 and could not have been happier with the results – totally life changing! Hope that your experience is just as wonderful!