Doctor My Eyes
Blogger would not publish this morning, so this is a little late!:(
One of the inevitable setbacks about getting older is that things no longer work the way they used to. This isn't only true of people, it's also true of things. A new car only keeps its "new car smell" for so long and that favorite new sweatshirt you wore so much eventually gets worn out and faded.
But sometimes things go down hill before their time. As a kid, I had my fair share of hearing problems. I suppose you could say that made my ears the "lemon" part of my body. At the age of three I got tubes in my ears for the first time to help with the drainage. A few years later I ended up needing tubes in my ears again. Ultimately, I hated getting sick because I knew what was coming next. I can still remember how my dad would put me in one room and sit in another to test how well I was hearing. I hated this because I couldn't cheat. On those stupid tests they'd give you where you had to raise your hands for the beeps? Those I somehow could beat, but deciphering what my dad was saying one door down proved much harder to fake.
At the time my ear/nose and throat specialist said my life could go one of two ways. I could continue to have problems with my ears my whole life, or I could grow, my ear canal would change and the problems would fix themselves. Neither one of those things entirely came true. While I haven't needed tubes in about twenty years or so, I still have traces of ear problems when I get a cold since my ears don't easily clear up by themselves. It's the price you pay for having a stunted sense. Overall though I can't complain about my hearing. I can now what you're saying at least three doors down. As for how long that's going to last, I guess you could say I'll have to play it by ear.
But as an aging rite of passage I have started to feel the slight pinch of father time. This has come in the form of my vision. Growing up I was convinced that the five senses had sort of a sixth sense. This "sixth sense" compensates, filling in for the other sense that is lacking. So while I had all of these ear problems as a child, my eyes on the other hand were a "vision" of perfect health. I remember having better than 20/20 vision, at one point being able to read marquis signs that were streets away.
Yet as my ears started shaping up, my eyes I noticed started to slowly ship out. It's like they somehow realized they didn't have to be the ring leader of the senses anymore. About ten years ago is when I first noticed my eyes were not the same as they used to be. I fought it for a few years but then I started feeling like I needed glasses for driving.
So about five years ago I purchased my very first pair of glasses. While I felt a difference, I had one of the weakest prescriptions you could get. To me though succumbing to purchasing glasses also meant acknowledging a weakness. No longer was I the girl who could read signs from far away. Now I had senses that were more on equal footing, making me just like everybody else.
Recently I noticed that the glasses I purchased some years ago just weren't doing it for me anymore. I would put them on and test myself by going in to school and trying to read the fine print on posters from far away. This is when I realized I couldn't do it, even with the glasses on. And while I was driving I didn't really feel a difference, unless of course I was driving to someplace new and had to be more dependent on being able to read those pesky little street signs. So begrudingly I went back to the eye doctor, with my eyes open to the fact I might have to start wearing my glasses more often.
Lucky for me I work in education which is one of the few fields left that offers excellent health coverage. That means I have vision. Incidentally, I never understood why vision was a seperate category all unto itself. I mean why is vision often not covered? Is it somehow the bastard son of the senses? If I have an earache I can see a regular physician or even a specialist, no problem, but problems with your eyes? That's gonna cost you extra. It's enough to make you see double.
I went to the eye doctor and was able to see how my "old" prescription stacked up to the new one I needed. I anticipated it being much worse than it was when she compared old to new. I noticed the doctor having to click at least four times to get to where my eyes worked best. With every click I cringed all the more. But in the end, I breathed a sigh of relief. When I asked the doctor if I had to start wearing my glasses all the time now she said no, that in fact, I shouldn't be since my prescription is still very light and thus why I only need them for distance.
So I purchased my new glasses, content in wearing them every once and awhile. If I had known what not a big deal getting glasses would have been I probably would have sucked it up and gone a lot earlier. But admitting any shortcomings, especially age related ones, is often easier said than done.
Then again, hindsight, like they say is 20/20.
One of the inevitable setbacks about getting older is that things no longer work the way they used to. This isn't only true of people, it's also true of things. A new car only keeps its "new car smell" for so long and that favorite new sweatshirt you wore so much eventually gets worn out and faded.
But sometimes things go down hill before their time. As a kid, I had my fair share of hearing problems. I suppose you could say that made my ears the "lemon" part of my body. At the age of three I got tubes in my ears for the first time to help with the drainage. A few years later I ended up needing tubes in my ears again. Ultimately, I hated getting sick because I knew what was coming next. I can still remember how my dad would put me in one room and sit in another to test how well I was hearing. I hated this because I couldn't cheat. On those stupid tests they'd give you where you had to raise your hands for the beeps? Those I somehow could beat, but deciphering what my dad was saying one door down proved much harder to fake.
At the time my ear/nose and throat specialist said my life could go one of two ways. I could continue to have problems with my ears my whole life, or I could grow, my ear canal would change and the problems would fix themselves. Neither one of those things entirely came true. While I haven't needed tubes in about twenty years or so, I still have traces of ear problems when I get a cold since my ears don't easily clear up by themselves. It's the price you pay for having a stunted sense. Overall though I can't complain about my hearing. I can now what you're saying at least three doors down. As for how long that's going to last, I guess you could say I'll have to play it by ear.
But as an aging rite of passage I have started to feel the slight pinch of father time. This has come in the form of my vision. Growing up I was convinced that the five senses had sort of a sixth sense. This "sixth sense" compensates, filling in for the other sense that is lacking. So while I had all of these ear problems as a child, my eyes on the other hand were a "vision" of perfect health. I remember having better than 20/20 vision, at one point being able to read marquis signs that were streets away.
Yet as my ears started shaping up, my eyes I noticed started to slowly ship out. It's like they somehow realized they didn't have to be the ring leader of the senses anymore. About ten years ago is when I first noticed my eyes were not the same as they used to be. I fought it for a few years but then I started feeling like I needed glasses for driving.
So about five years ago I purchased my very first pair of glasses. While I felt a difference, I had one of the weakest prescriptions you could get. To me though succumbing to purchasing glasses also meant acknowledging a weakness. No longer was I the girl who could read signs from far away. Now I had senses that were more on equal footing, making me just like everybody else.
Recently I noticed that the glasses I purchased some years ago just weren't doing it for me anymore. I would put them on and test myself by going in to school and trying to read the fine print on posters from far away. This is when I realized I couldn't do it, even with the glasses on. And while I was driving I didn't really feel a difference, unless of course I was driving to someplace new and had to be more dependent on being able to read those pesky little street signs. So begrudingly I went back to the eye doctor, with my eyes open to the fact I might have to start wearing my glasses more often.
Lucky for me I work in education which is one of the few fields left that offers excellent health coverage. That means I have vision. Incidentally, I never understood why vision was a seperate category all unto itself. I mean why is vision often not covered? Is it somehow the bastard son of the senses? If I have an earache I can see a regular physician or even a specialist, no problem, but problems with your eyes? That's gonna cost you extra. It's enough to make you see double.
I went to the eye doctor and was able to see how my "old" prescription stacked up to the new one I needed. I anticipated it being much worse than it was when she compared old to new. I noticed the doctor having to click at least four times to get to where my eyes worked best. With every click I cringed all the more. But in the end, I breathed a sigh of relief. When I asked the doctor if I had to start wearing my glasses all the time now she said no, that in fact, I shouldn't be since my prescription is still very light and thus why I only need them for distance.
So I purchased my new glasses, content in wearing them every once and awhile. If I had known what not a big deal getting glasses would have been I probably would have sucked it up and gone a lot earlier. But admitting any shortcomings, especially age related ones, is often easier said than done.
Then again, hindsight, like they say is 20/20.
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