The Land of the...Seeing

It has been over four years since my last visit to the eye doctor, I decided that it was time for a checkup to see how bad my eyes have become. I will chronicle yesterday's visit, nay, adventure, below.

A fellow employee recently started using contacts for the first time in his life instead of his reading glasses. He had nothing but good things to say about contacts. This encouraged me to shcedule an appoitment for myself and explore the opportunities of contacts.

I scheduled myself an appoitment on Saturday morning at 9:20am. After frantically searching for my most recent prescription (which I didn't find) I headed over to Lens Crafters. After exchanging pleasantries with the receptionist, I was taken into the pre-testing room where I underwent the basic eye tests. Cover your right eye and read the letters aloud as far down as possible. Repeat step coving left eye, etc.

Kelly, the very helpful girl that was testing me, then opened a book to see to what extent I can, or in this case, can't, see colors. This so called color blind test has been only one of a couple tests that I have failed miserably in my lifetime. I'm not exactly sure of the reason for this test and how it applies to testing my vision. A part of me thinks that this was Kelly's attempt to spend more time with me.

You can find a similar color blind test at this website. View the 6 circles at the top of the page to see if you can see the colors, then scroll down to see the answers. For the record, I could make the top left circle, showing a 25. I could just barely see the middle right circle, showing a 56. Scrolling further down you will see the answers and the description that I am red-green colorblind. I failed with a 33%, ouch.

The second test at the bottom of this page is another common test. If you're red-green colorblind you will see a 2. If you have normal color vision you will see a 5. I see a 2.

The book that Kelly showed was about 8-10 pages of these circles and numbers, I could only make out the number on page 1. Following this test, Kelly proceeded to laugh and say, "Wow, you are really color blind." Yeah, no kidding, why don't you pour some more salt on a 23 year old open wound?

After completing the grueling rounds of tests, I was finally able to see the eye doctor himself. We talked for a few minutes about my glasses and that my vision has worsened to the extent that I need to wear them all the time. For me, the alternative was to start wearing contacts. My vision is around -1 in my left eye and -1.75 in my right eye. Lucky for me, they had these contacts in stock (even for my right eye with mild astigmatism).

The next step was for Kelly to explain to me how to care for my contacts and how to put them in and remove them. Having watched all of my siblings wear contacts since I was young, I felt ready to tackle this challenge. I sat down at the table, managed to get the contact to set properly on my right index finger, then proceeded to use the middle finger of my left hand to open wide my right eye-lid. I then used the middle finger of my right hand to pull down my lower eye-lid. Through this process, each step has been easy enough for me to accomplish. However, gradually moving my right index finger holding the contact to touch my eye is where I struggled for a couple of minutes. I eventually was able to get the contact in and repeated the steps for my left eye. All in all, not a pleasant experience, but one with definate rewards.

After completing all of the paper work and purchasing my 2-week disposable contacts I left the eye doctor a happy man. I can see more clearly at a distance and without the need to be wearing glasses.

The tell-tale sign that contacts were a good life decsision for me: I went to the bank to deposit some money at the local Wells Fargo. The bank teller and I made small talk while the transaction was processing. She was going out with her friends that night, I was playing a couple of church league basketball games. I told her that I had just come from the eye doctor and am wearing contacts for the first time. She has been wearing them for years, she said that I would be happy with them, and I quote, "You look good."

In other news, my church league basketball team had our first victory last week Saturday. It was a close game, but in the end the five of us were able to hold out for the victory against the four guys on the other team. Yes, they had four players, not everyone showed up, but we still played and we still won. A "w" is a "w" no matter how you get it. Yesterday, however, we were not as fortunate. We had 2 games in a row, and lost both, by 3 points and by 16 points.