I have always been so prideful of my 20/20 vision until yesterday. As I was strolling the glass display at Goodwill, there were the cutest glasses. Since I thought they were for fashion and not prescription I asked to see them. When I put them on, everything was suddenly clearer. I was literally shook and yelled WTF. The employee started laughing, of course, I am always so dramatic. Since I don't have insurance I haven't been to get a vision exam in almost 15 years. Let me tell you about my last eye exam...
Maybe I was 10 years old, I can't really remember. My mother took me to get my big brown eyes checked and I was so excited because I wanted glasses. To make sure that I could get them, during the exam, I would tell the doctor the opposite letter or object I was seeing. Just complete sabotage, but not too many because I didn't want to get caught or diagnosed completely blind. The results came back in my favor and oh my how excited I was too. I strolled the entire store and picked these adorable purple oval glasses. Everything was going my way until it was time to pick up the glasses with the prescription in them. When I put those glasses on my heart sank. I couldn't see a thing and got an instant headache. My mother looked at me and said, "How do you feel?" I gave her the positive reply she needed to hear because if I told her the truth (after she paid $100+), I wouldn't see the next light of day. Her belt would have worn out on my hiney.
The doctor said they were mainly for reading luckily, the odds of reading in front of my mom were slim to none. She insisted that I wear them all the time even when not reading so that I wouldn't go blinder. After a few months, I suggested to her that maybe the doctor was wrong because my head just hurt too much. Eventually, she just stopped asking me to wear them (I never did wear them). Mother did take me to a different doctor that confirmed that I had 20/20 vision. The glasses were sent to the Dominican Republic as a donation for someone that may actually need them. To this day, my mother thinks the first doctor cheated her out of her money. If she only knew...
Presbyopia is the gradual, age-related loss of the eyes' ability to focus actively on nearby objects.
I am getting older, maybe I am actually losing my vision now. I found a couple resources that offer free or low-income vision care like Ramusa. Hopefully, I can get an exam done soon. I did buy the glasses at Goodwill for a $1 just in case it's the prescription I need.
P.S
How do I stop using the word "I" so much?
