If you asked me today if I could tell you the point in my life that was the pivotal point of my obsession to wear glasses I guess I would have to tell you that it was when my 12 year old sister was prescribed her first glasses. For Sarah, having to wear glasses was the absolute worst thing that could ever have happened to her, and I could understand her feelings. Sarah had worn hearing aids for a mild hearing loss ever since she was 5 years old, and while she could go around without them there was a range of sounds that she could not hear properly, so she wore them pretty much all of the time. Then, a year before she was prescribed her first glasses; Sarah had gotten braces to straighten her teeth. Because Sarah had been sitting at the front of her classroom for most of the school year I suspect that she was likely already slightly myopic when she had to get her braces, and I think she managed to struggle along for another year before it was discovered that she “couldn’t see a thing past the end of her nose”, as my father stated when he came home from the eye doctor with Sarah. I didn’t think it was quite as bad as Dad made it out to be, but I had already noticed that Sarah really couldn’t see much of anything and I already knew it was only a matter of time before her poor eyesight was discovered.
It took about 3 days before Sarah got her new glasses, and when she came home from the optician’s wearing them I could tell that her lenses had a pretty decent amount of power in them. I didn’t know what -3.00D meant, but I soon learned that once Sarah began wearing her glasses they became, like her hearing aids, something that she no longer wanted to go much further than past the door of her bedroom without wearing them. To Sarah, on top of her hearing aids and her braces, having to wear glasses was the end of her world. But as I looked at her, wearing her new glasses, I was extremely envious of her. I would have given anything to have been able to wear her glasses.
If the truth had been known at the time I could have gotten glasses myself. All I would have needed to do was to have complained to my parents that I couldn’t see properly and they would have taken me to see the eye doctor. But I could see well enough to fool everyone. I could see distance perfectly with my left eye, and I could see up close with my right eye. After Sarah came home with her new glasses I managed to try them on, and with her glasses on I could see very well through her right lens, but could only see through her left lens if I closed my right eye and really worked hard to make my left eye focus.
I thought I had managed to escape having my eyes tested, but three months later Sarah started to complain that she couldn’t see the board with her new glasses anymore. My mother made an appointment for Sarah, and at the same time decided that it might be a good idea if I had an eye exam as well. That’s why we both ended up at the same eye doctor that Sarah had gone to before. Dr. Brickell was young. He couldn’t have been any more than 10 years older than I was, and I knew that was very young for a Doctor. I asked him how he had managed to become an eye doctor at such a young age and he told me that he had skipped a few grades in school.
Of course he could immediately tell that I had a problem with my eyes. He explained to me that I was farsighted in one eye and nearsighted in the other. I told him that I had sort of known that for a couple of years, and when he asked me why I didn’t come in earlier I told him the truth. If I had to wear glasses I wanted to wear glasses that were strong enough that everyone who looked at them could tell that I really needed them. I told him that I would really like to wear glasses that were as strong as my sister was wearing.
“I don’t think we can do much about making your glasses stronger than you need Brady. However, I think maybe I can do something about trying to even out your prescription if you are willing to participate in a little experiment.” Dr. Brickell said.
“How would you do that Doctor/” I asked.
“I am thinking that I could give you a prescription of -2.00D for both eyes. You don’t really need any prescription in your left eye, because you are +0.50D farsighted in that eye. But you do require a prescription of -2.50D in your right eye to see the 20/20 line. I am thinking that by putting a -2D lens in front of both of your eyes we might be able to trick your left eye into becoming a little nearsighted without having your right eye get any worse. Your left eye will be struggling to see through a stronger lens than it requires, but it will be able to focus well enough to see clearly through that lens. No matter how much your right eye tries to see clearly through the weaker than required lens it will not be able to do so, and your brain will use the image from the left eye. By wearing a minus lens in front of that eye it is possible that we might be able to change you from being a little farsighted into being a bit nearsighted.” Dr. Brickell explained.
“I am willing to try that Doctor.” I answered.
“You will also likely need a pair of glasses to allow you to read while using both eyes together. Rather than making you a pair of bifocals I will make up 2 pairs of the proper glasses for you, and then we can switch the lenses as we require.” Dr. Brickell replied.
And that is what we did. Dr. Brickell wanted to keep close tabs on how my eyes were progressing so he had me come in after school one night a month. He now also had Sarah coming in every three months, and by the time I had been wearing my glasses for a year Sarah had required a number of sizeable increases. Now her new glasses were -9.00D for both eyes and I loved the appearance of her glasses. They had flat fronts, and the reflections were awesome, although Sarah didn’t think so.
I had asked Dr. Brickell why Sarah’s eyesight seemed to be getting as bad as it was, and he explained that between the ages of 11 and 14 young girls go through a number of hormonal changes as they become a woman. And Sarah was certainly becoming a woman. I knew that she had started her menstrual period a few months earlier, and it was quite obvious that her breasts were growing bigger and bigger. He also told me that since Sarah was quite a reader and always seemed to have her nose stuck in a book, it was no wonder that she was getting more and more nearsighted. Apparently as your myopia gets worse and your glasses become stronger a myope generally brings their reading material closer to their eyes because the print seems bigger and easier to read. Doing this can then push their myopia even higher.
It took almost 6 months before my left eye began to move ever so slightly towards being myopic. Now my prescription for my left eye was -0.50D and fortunately my right eye was still at -2.50D. Dr. Brickell changed the left lens in both my distance glasses as well as my reading glasses to reflect the change, and now I was looking through a -3D lens with my left eye. This must have done the trick, because at the end of another 6 months he was able to increase the prescription for my left eye to -4.00D. Now my real prescription was -2.50OD and -1.25OS. I suggested to Dr. Brickell that maybe be could increase the prescription in my right eye now so that it was also looking through an over correction, but he was strongly against that idea as he felt that my right eye might like the over correction too much and could decide to become even more myopic. I listened to his advice, and went another 6 months before I had any further change. This time I ended up wearing a -5.25D lens in front of my left eye and had a real prescription of right around -2.25D.
It was now time for me to go for my driver’s license, so Dr. Brickell made me a new pair of lenses for my glasses to wear that would allow me to pass the eye exam. These glasses were a -3.00D for my right eye and -2.75D for my left eye and I could see perfectly with them but I only wore them long enough to pass the eye test at the motor vehicle division.
After I got my license I went back to wearing the -5.25 and -2.00D glasses for another 6 months. I had gone up to -3.25D in my left eye, and now my right eye was -3.00. I pleaded with Dr. Brickell to give me an over correction for both eyes, and I honestly believe that if we had not become friends over the past 2 years he would never have done it. I know he always gave my sister as much of a correction as she needed, but I never had any indication that he had been giving her any more minus than she actually required. But he finally gave in to my pleadings, and I ended up with my new pair of glasses being OS. -6.00D and OD. -6.25D. My sister was now, at age 15, wearing glasses that had a prescription of -15.50D and I would have loved to have her prescription.
“I can’t do it Brady. I should be shot for letting you talk me into giving you a -3D overcorrection the last time.” Gavin told me.
I had still been dropping by his office on a Thursday afternoon once a month, even though he really didn’t need to look at my eyes monthly anymore. Gavin Brickell and I had, even with a 10 year age difference, become good friends. Sometimes we would sit and talk for almost an hour after everyone else in his office had left. We didn’t always talk about eyesight, although that was generally the centerpiece of our conversations. I found out that Gavin had quite an attraction towards ladies that were nearsighted, and of course I had admitted that I had the same attraction. Gavin didn’t wear glasses himself, and when I asked him why not he told me that he had not known enough about myopia and its progression when he was still young enough to do anything about it. But he did tell me that there was a way for him to experience being a high myope, and that he did that from time to time. It was then that Gavin explained the ins and outs of doing GOC, and he suggested that I should attempt to keep my minus prescription right where it was so I would always wear a prescription no stronger than the -6.00 and -6.25D glasses that I was presently wearing. I could then do GOC if I felt I wanted to have the appearance of wearing stronger glasses.
I liked the idea of being able to wear GOC, but I didn’t like the idea of putting contact lenses into my eyes. My sister had tried them, and even with contacts that supposedly would be suitable for her eyes she had not been able to get used to them. Even though she supposedly hated them, she continued to wear her strong glasses until Gavin was able to find a contact lens that would work for her. .
I kept pestering and pestering Gavin to give me an over correction again, but he kept refusing. My eyes, after a year, had completely adapted to the lenses that were in my glasses and I was more than ready to try to wear stronger lenses. I had even gone as far as to take my sisters old -9.00D glasses from their case in a drawer in her bedroom and I had experimented to see if one of my old frames would hold these lenses. I did find a pair of my old glasses that the lenses fit into, but they didn’t fit perfectly and they left a little gap at a couple of points. The lenses were tight enough that they wouldn’t fall out though, so I managed to wear them around frequently enough that I got to the point where not only did I feel quite comfortable with my vision through them, I had started to notice that distance items were not very clear with my own glasses anymore. That is when I wore them on my monthly visit with Gavin.
Gavin took one look at me wearing my sister’s old lenses in my old frame and I knew he could immediately tell what I had been doing.
“How well can you see?” Gavin asked curtly
“Pretty good. They are better than my own glasses and I can see well enough that I know I would like to wear them all the time.” I replied.
Gavin didn’t say much other than “we’ll see about that.” He indicated to me that I should sit in the chair in front of the phoropter, and he took the glasses from my face as he swung the machine over in front of my eyes. He played around with the lenses in the machine a lot, asking me which was better numerous times. Finally he swung the machine away from my face and handed me back the -9D glasses.
“The doctor side of me will tell you that you really need an increase to -7.00D to get you back to 20/20. And as an eye doctor I could likely be persuaded to increase that to -7.50D for both eyes. You continue to amaze me Brady. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to get your left eye to make the swing over to the minus side, and not only were we able to do that, but we managed to bring you up to close to -7.50D in that eye. I am not really surprised that your right eye was able to go from -2.50D up to -7.50D at your age, but I am a little surprised that we have managed to bring both your eyes to an even prescription.” Gavin said.
“That is what the doctor side of you tells me. I know that you tested me with a lot of different lenses so what does the friend side of you say?” I asked.
“I shouldn’t even tell you. But I know that if I don’t you will likely go home and get out another pair of your sister’s old glasses. The friend side of me tells you that I tested you with lenses as strong as -13.50D, and you could still read the 20/20 line. It is amazing how much accommodation people have when they are young.” Gavin said.
“What is the strongest prescription I could wear?” I asked.
“With the -13.50D lenses you could not focus to read. The maximum strength that allowed you to read at a normal reading distance was -11.50D for both eyes.” Gavin replied.
“Wow that would be fantastic if I could wear glasses that were that strong.” I answered.
“You better be absolutely certain that this is what you want. I really hesitate writing you out a prescription for glasses that are so much stronger than you really need.” Gavin said.
“I couldn’t be more positive. I want to be at least that nearsighted, maybe even more.” I replied.
With that conversation ended and a few days later I got my new -11.50D glasses. My sister’s eyes had gotten worse and worse at a fairly rapid rate, and her latest glasses now had a prescription that was right around -17.00D. Her lenses were slightly dished in on the front surface and they had the rear of the lens shaved off to allow the temples to close. My parents had not been willing to spend the extra money to buy high index lenses for her, and I knew I would be getting regular plastic lenses for my new glasses as well. I was given the choice between either having a full field lens, or having the back of my lens shaved off a little bit. Since I had chosen a frame that had the hinges set well back from the face of the frame I told them to go ahead and make them full field. When I picked them up I was pleased with how thick they looked, although I knew if I told that to anyone but Gavin they would think I was certifiable.
I did feel a bit self conscious the first day I wore them to school. I did get a couple of “new glasses Brady? Wow, are they ever thick.” But this was exactly what I had wanted so it did not bother me the same way it would have my sister. It was a little difficult forcing my eyes to focus through lenses that were -4.00D stronger than I required, but other than having a few minor headaches during the first week I managed quite well. After the first month had gone by I was quite comfortable wearing them, and by the time I had worn them for almost 2 months and I went to see Gavin for our monthly Thursday visit I felt that I had adapted completely. Gavin suggested that he would like to check my eyes, and he was surprised that in only 2 months I had gone up to -8.50D. It was no wonder that my eyes were not having any trouble seeing through a -3.00D over correction. Gavin did not take kindly to my suggestion that we could increase my prescription to -12.50D so I could maintain the same -4.00D over correction though.
By the time I was 19 I had managed to bring my real prescription up to -11.00D. Gavin had told me that I would likely take quite a while longer before my eyes reached the prescription that was in my glasses. Of course I asked for an even stronger correction and I was able to convince Gavin to give me a prescription of -14D for my new glasses. I was heading off to college to study accounting, and my monthly visits with Gavin were going to end, although we had become such good friends I knew that I would see him whenever I came home for weekends.
Since I hadn’t needed a new pair of glasses for the past 2 years it was easier for me to convince mom and dad to pay for hi index lenses for my new glasses. My poor sister had, at age 17, climbed slightly over the -20D mark and was still wearing the cheaper plastic lenses that had a front surface that was quite dished in and had a fairly small circle in the rear. Her vision was not all that good through her glasses, and, even without Gavin urging me to give up my quest for stronger glasses, I pretty much decided that I would not do anything further to increase the power of my own glasses. Gavin and I had discussed Sarah’s poor corrected vision, and he felt that her visual acuity would never get much better than the 20/40 that she now had. I didn’t want that, as this meant that Sarah would never be able to drive wearing her glasses and would always need to wear her contact lenses for driving.
I finished my course in accounting, and although I had to take more schooling to become a certified accountant I was now able to find employment. I searched for and found a firm that wanted to hire me that was in the same city where I grew up, and I rented a small one bedroom apartment, even though mom had suggested that they would love to have me live at home. I had been dating a lot while I had been away though, and I didn’t want to be living under my parent’s scrutiny.
Gavin had married shortly after I went off to college. I had been an usher at his wedding to Diane, an attractive blond with a rather nice chest size. I knew that she had been a patient of Gavin’s and we had discussed the fact that Diane would rather die than appear in public wearing her myodisc lensed glasses. Gavin had managed to convince Diane that it was for her long term benefit that she should remove her contact lenses and wear her glasses around the new house he had purchased for them to live in. That satisfied Gavin’s basic requirements for a glasses wearing wife, and he expressed privately to me that someday he hoped to convince Diane that her contact wearing days were behind her. I did manage to see Diane wearing her glasses on a few of my Saturday visits, but it had taken a few visits to their house after the wedding before she finally allowed me to see her wearing her glasses.
I had mentioned to Gavin that it would be greatly appreciated if he could keep his eyes open for a patient who had a similar prescription to that of his wife’s and during the first year I was back in town I had dated 2 young ladies that were quite nearsighted. But, like Diane, neither of them was prepared to wear glasses out in public. I did my best to convince them to wear their glasses for me once in a while, but my request seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. And, without the chance of them wearing their glasses for me I soon lost interest in dating them.
Highly myopic ladies that wear glasses are a pretty scarce commodity. There certainly are a lot more around now than there were 30 or 40 years ago, but the introduction of contact lenses and lens implant surgery has reduced their numbers significantly. I was fortunate that Gavin was able to keep the flow coming my way and I don’t know what I would have done if I had not had him to select the occasional high myope for me to date.
Gavin knew that the lack of attractive looking high myopes that would even consider wearing their glasses out in public bothered me as much as it did himself. He often would tell one of his highly myopic patients that they needed to remove their contacts and wear glasses for a week, or sometimes for as long as a month to allow a scratch on their cornea, or a case of conjunctivitis to heal and he would then arrange to have me come into his office while they were there. It was on one of these scouting visits that Gavin introduced me to Helen, a new patient.
Helen was gorgeous. She had shoulder length dark brown hair that was worn combed over to one side. She was tall and lithe and was perfectly proportioned. Her glasses looked fantastic on her face and her prescription appeared to be very close to, or maybe slightly over -20D. I immediately made up my mind that even if she didn’t wear glasses very often this was one girl that I would be able to put up with only seeing her wearing glasses at night and around home on the weekends. She was in her final year of teacher’s college and would be teaching at a school in the area. And best of all, when I asked her out to dinner that night she accepted.
Since this was supposed to be a chance meeting I couldn’t leave with Helen, but instead I needed to stick around on the pretense I had come in for an appointment. Gavin was really busy with patients that day and he asked me to sit back in the staff’s little break room and he would grab a couple of minutes with me whenever possible. I made myself a coffee and sat reading one of those optical magazines that Gavin always had around.
“I think this one might be a keeper Brady.” Gavin said as he came in and made himself a coffee.
“Why is that Gav?” I asked.
“First of all, she doesn’t wear contacts. I asked her if she had tried them, but she told me that she has, but she likes wearing glasses and she thinks her glasses look good on her.” Gavin answered.
“Oh wow! That is fantastic. And she is right about her glasses looking good on her. She looks fantastic. How strong is her prescription?” I asked.
“That’s the strange part. Her glasses are -19D, but she tested at 20/20 with only -18.50. When I suggested that I could cut her prescription back a little she just told me that she liked her sharpness of her existing prescription and wanted to continue wearing it.” Gavin said.
“That is unusual. Maybe I can find out who prescribed the -19D for her.” I answered.
“I have a gut feeling about this one Brady. Don’t let her slip away if at all possible. Listen, I have to run. My patient should be dilated by now.” Gavin said.
“I’ll keep you posted.” I answered as we walked down the hall together.
That evening I was right on time to pick up Helen. I had reservations at a nice restaurant. I thought it would be a place she would like, as it wasn’t too swanky, nor was it terribly expensive so the average joe like me could take a date there without blowing 2 days wages. When Helen came to the door of her rooming house I knew I had just pulled 4 aces from the deck. She was stunningly beautiful and her glasses enhanced her beauty like a diamond necklace would. She was not wearing the same pair of glasses that she wore to Gavin’s office, but instead wore a pair of rimless myodisc’s with gold colored metal for the bridge and gold metal temples. I told her how fabulous she looked and she looked me in the eye through those wonderful -19D rimless myodiscs.
“Thank you for the compliment. I am happy to see that my wearing glasses doesn’t turn you off.” Helen told me.
“Is that a problem with some guys?” I asked
“Once in a while. I have been told that I am a bit weird for never wearing contact lenses.” Helen replied.
“I don’t wear contacts. Never have, never will. I like wearing glasses and I feel quite comfortable being with girls who wear glasses. “I replied.
We went on to the restaurant and had a really good time together. Even though we had been together for 4 hours I didn’t want to rush Helen home to her rooming house. And I was pretty sure she wasn’t the type of girl who would go to a guy’s apartment for a nightcap on a first date. I proposed a moonlight walk in the park and she thought that was a good idea, so we walked for a while and then sat on a park bench looking at the full moon.
“Did the doctor increase your prescription today?” Helen asked.
“Oh, I wasn’t there for an appointment today. Gavin has been our eye doctor for years, and he and I are very good friends. I just stopped by today when I was passing by, but he was too busy to spend more than a few minutes with me.” I answered.
“Then it was just good luck that you happened to drop by just when I was finished my appointment. So far I am very happy about that.” Helen answered.
After we were tired of looking at the moon I drove Helen home and walked her to her door. She allowed me to kiss and hug her, and I told her I had a wonderful evening, to which she replied that she did as well. I asked her out again on Saturday afternoon to go for a hike, and she agreed that it might be fun. I was really looking forward to our date.
For the next 6 months Helen and I spent as much time together as we possibly could. She had a fantastic collection of glasses. She had 2 pairs of prescription sun glasses, another pair that changed from clear to sunglasses just by going out into the sun, a pair of really thick large framed myodiscs that must have weighed heavily on her nose, and another 4 pairs of glasses that were dress up glasses along with a pair of wire framed ones that she wore mostly when she was teaching as they were made of high index plastic and were fairly light and easy to wear. That added up to 9 pairs of glasses while I only had 3 pairs.
Her schooling had ended. Helen had spent the requisite time practice teaching in an actual classroom and she was ready to graduate with her teacher’s certificate. She had been hired by a school in the city and was going to start in September. But for the summer she was going to go to the family lake house with her mom and 2 of her 3 sisters. Helen had 2 older sisters, and one younger – an all-girl family much to her father’s chagrin. I had discussed marriage with Helen, and she had accepted but she did not want to go through the trappings of a large wedding. Her plan was to invite everyone up to the cottage for a big gathering, and get married there. I agreed with this, and I got the marriage license so I could be prepared for whenever Helen could get it all set up.
During the previous 6 months I had gotten to know Helen a lot better. She had 2 older sisters and a younger sister. Both of her older sisters were nearsighted and wore glasses, so no one was terribly surprised when Helen went to one of her older sisters and asked her if she could try an old pair of her glasses when she was around 9 years old. Helen told me that she found one pair of glasses that she could see perfectly through, and from that date on she wore them all the time. Helen also told me that she was a huge reader when she was younger, and that she read almost all the time. She also told me that both of her older sisters had their myopic progression stop around the -6D range, and that her younger sister did not wear glasses. Neither of her parents had worn glasses either, although they both wore them now for reading.
I had lots of questions for Helen, but I thought it advisable to wait until after we were married. At one time I had asked her if she would mind if our children turned out to be myopic, and with that question she turned to me and said: “With both of us being highly myopic I would be more surprised if they didn’t need glasses.”
Finally Helen had everything set up for the wedding. It was going to be the first weekend in August and we invited my immediate family. Helen invited her immediate family along with a few cousins that she felt very close to. Accommodations were going to be a bit of a problem, but my dad had recently retired and he had purchased a decent sized camper trailer. My parent’s, along with my sister and her husband and 2 kids, were going to stay in the trailer. Most of the family that Helen had invited also had summer homes in the area. And Helen and I decided that we would slip away after the wedding and spend the night back in the city at our apartment. We also managed to find a neighbor who was willing to rent out their cottage for the weekend, so Gavin and Diane would have a place to stay. Gavin was going to be my best man, and since he was also my best friend I needed him there. Helen had gotten to know my sister Sarah quite well, and she surprised me by asking Sarah to be her maid of honor.
The wedding was perfect and the sun shone on us all day. We had a caterer in the area come in to do a pig roast that evening and a little more liquor flowed into my veins than should have. Gavin and Diane insisted that instead of driving back into the city that we had to spend the night in their cabin, so we did.
That was a great idea, because the next morning everyone was up and into the water for an early morning swim. Gavin had at some time in the past purchased a pair of prescription swim goggles for Diane, and upon his recommendation I had also gotten a pair for myself and Helen. Even my sister Sarah had at some time in the past purchased herself a pair, as she now no longer wore contacts. I had tried to tell her that wearing contacts while swimming was a bad idea, but she had not listened to me and had worn regular swim goggles over her contacts. This worked for a few years, but then she became complacent and one time she was thrown in by a group of friends. She lost both her contacts, and had to be driven home so that she could get another pair. That was shortly before she was told by Gavin that she had better stop wearing her contacts all the time or else he would have to hold off in prescribing any more contact lenses for her. That is when she started wearing glasses again and she also got swim goggles in her prescription.
Once the wedding was over Helen and I settled into a life together. One day I decided to ask her why, if she could easily wear contacts like she had told me, she never found the need to go without her glasses. Her answer surprised me a lot.
“Why would I wear contacts? I struggled for years to get my prescription up to a decent level.” Helen stated.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, a little bit shocked.
With that Helen told me her story. Apparently when she first started wearing her sisters -2.50D glasses at the age of 9 she could see perfectly wearing them, but when she first started this she could see perfectly without them as well. Her parents were not wealthy, and unless Helen complained about her glasses they didn’t feel the need to spend the money for an eye exam and new glasses for her. About a year later Helen felt that she had adapted nicely to wearing her sister’s old glasses and she felt it was time for stronger glasses because she could no longer see without them. Her older sister, Beverly, had just gotten new glasses and Helen told Beverly that she thought that she needed stronger glasses so Beverly let her try her old -4.50D ones. Helen adapted to the -4.50D glasses quite well, and soon she needed a stronger prescription than her sister Lillian, who at age 13 was wearing a -3D prescription. She knew this because she had tried Lillian’s glasses on a few months after starting to wear Beverly’s old glasses and Helen could no longer see clearly with Lillian’s glasses. Beverly, who was now 16 was working as a cashier at a convenience store and had saved up enough of her own money to buy herself contact lenses for her now -5.25D prescription. Bev had been prescribed monthly disposable contacts and when she threw out her old lenses at the end of the first month Helen salvaged them from the waste basket in the bathroom before they dried out. Soon Helen had learned how to put the -5D contacts into her eyes. Helen was smart enough to figure that if she wore these contacts everyone would wonder how she was managing to function without her glasses anymore, so she wore the contacts with her old -2.50D glasses over them. The frames looked similar, and soon Helen had figured out that no one really notices the lens strength as long as the person is wearing glasses.
Helen managed to get a copy of Beverly’s contact lens prescription and using money she had saved she went to a different optical store and purchased a 6 month supply of new 30 day disposable lenses for herself. For 2 years she wore contact lenses under her glasses, first the -2.50D ones, and then the -4.50D ones. By this time she was turning 13, and she felt that she wanted to have a real eye exam and get her own glasses with whatever prescription she really needed. It was quite a surprise to her when it was discovered that Helen actually needed a glasses prescription of -11D at age 13. The fact that she came in wearing -4.50D glasses was explained away by the thought that since she was growing rapidly, and had just had a number of hormonal changes it was most likely that her eyes had gotten much worse because of this.
Helen now wore rather thick glasses. Her father had not wanted to spend the money on high index lenses and had instead purchased regular plastic for her lenses. But Helen loved the look that the new glasses gave to her. She thought about wearing her sisters old contact prescription under her new glasses, but she realized that if she did that she would really have to struggle to see through a -16.50D prescription and she also realized that while she wanted to wear a strong prescription, it would not be good for her to increase her prescription too fast. Helen decided she would just see how fast her prescription would increase on its own. She still held her books as close to her eyes as she could. She had the font set to ariel 9 on her computer, and she loved the fact that she could see this tiny font so well. She also spent most of her time inside, either reading or doing her homework or other near point things. By 14 she went to -12D, and then by 15 she was at -13D. Each year she seemed to need an increase of about -1D and by the time she turned 20 she was right at -18D. She ordered herself a new pair of glasses with a prescription of -19D from one of the online optical stores and she decided that this was it. She would no longer try to increase her prescription.
When we first met at Gavin’s office Helen had just turned 24 and she had realized that her glasses were still slightly stronger than she needed. She didn’t want to go back to her original optometrist because she was afraid he would know what she had done, so by chance she had picked Gavin out of the phone directory.
I then told Helen my story of how Gavin had brought my eyes to a point where they were both nearsighted, and then had helped me increase my prescription. After Helen heard this she looked to be slightly disappointed, and I couldn’t figure out why, so I asked her.
“That means that neither of us have the genetic ability to pass our high myopia on to our children.” Helen said.
“Why not? Both of us are highly myopic.” I replied.
“But we both forced our myopia. My sisters only went as high as -6D and I likely would have had my progression stop there as well – if I had even had to wear glasses at all.” Helen responded.
“Well, high myopia is in my family. Sarah has a prescription of -20.50D for one eye and -20.75D for the other and she is definitely a natural high myope.” I answered.
“Hopefully that will be good enough so that our kids are myopic.” Helen replied.
“How important is that to you? You wouldn’t do anything to make our kids myopic would you?” I asked, a little bit concerned.
“No, I wouldn’t do anything to make our kids myopic. But if they are nearsighted naturally it would not bother me at all. And I might take them in a little sooner than might be considered necessary for eye exams. But I certainly wouldn’t increase the prescription in their glasses so it was stronger than they needed or anything like that.” Helen replied.
With that we stopped talking about the possibility of us having a couple of nearsighted children. I actually figured that with my sister having needed hearing aids all her life, braces when she was smaller, and glasses for most of her life we would be fortunate to just have kids that needed glasses. I had my sister to thank for my interest in myopia and felt I was fortunate to find a girl like Helen to marry.
Specs4ever
Sept 2015
Statistics: Posted by Specs4ever — Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:58 pm