Special

I finally went for a contact fitting eye exam today. As I suspected, contacts are probably not in my future.

Turns out my astigmatism is VERY pronounced. It’s a 4. (A 4 what you ask? I have no idea, but she kept referring to that number to demonstrate the severity of the situation). Evidently if it were a 3 then maybe I could get away with the easier, cheaper, more comfortable throw away contacts, but at a 4, I need to get custom order monthly contacts, and more likely special custom order monthlies (I guess the difference is in the material). These contacts are way more expensive, and generally less comfortable. So yeah. The woman I saw says I’m a very special case, and does NOT think contacts are going to work for me. Boo.

It’s weird because as far as my actual eye sight goes, it’s not that bad. What I mean is that if I’m not wearing my glasses, I can see things relatively well. They just aren’t clear (so I wouldn’t run into anything, but I wouldn’t be able to read mu either). And yet my prescription (in one eye) requires this very thick lens to correct. My facther can’t see anything without his glasses and he can wear contacts. He can also get Rx Oakley sunglasses. I cannot get Rx Oakley sunglasses because my Rx requires very thick lenses, so thick that they can’t be cut to fit Oakley’s bent frames. I find this so odd, since the correction in vision is so much less for me. It’s frustrating.

I’m going to try the monthlies, but I don’t have a lot of hope. I am also increasingly worried that my astigmatism will just keep getting worse and that eventually it will be so severe they won’t be able to correct it to 20/20 (I was alerted of this possibility today). It worsened by a half point since just last year and I know that prescription was a lot stronger than the one prior. She says it’s really important to wear my glasses all day, every day, and I try to, but by the end of the day I can always feel them and I always want to take them off, even my ultra-light comfy pair. (My right eye sees relatively well, so if I shut my left eye I can read things with my glasses off).

So yeah, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but I wasn’t surprised. And I guess the people who told me a long time ago that I wouldn’t be able to wear contacts were right; even then my astigmatism was too pronounced to be a good candidate.

I just hope my eye sight keeps steady for a while. Already I’m becoming farsighted, which is common with age, but with my astigmatism it will complicate things, as far as prescriptive correction. Blerg.

I’m so glad we have vision insurance with my husband’s work. This is my first time ever having it and I sure am taking advantage of the coverage.