High myope with her white cane

 

Logan’s Obsession - Part 3

by Dieter

(part 2 is here)

Being scolded by Stephanie was the most embarrassing moment I had ever experienced. She was absolutely correct to suggest that I needed glasses. I had stressed the relationship of a newfound friend simply because I couldn’t see without them. After that exchange, our conversations became cold and cordial. My false sense of pride had obviously pushed her too far. I had inferred that I was not as broken as she was which, of course, simply wasn’t true. 
Stephanie had been mature enough to correct her vision. I wasn’t. Few conditions can be remedied by solutions that are so simple, quick, inexpensive, and yes, even fashionable. I had been irresponsible, childish, and stupid, all caused by my vanity; an immature fear of wearing glasses which was something that I had secretly wished to do for years.

That was my turning point. It marked the end of the person formerly know as Logan. Maybe it doesn’t seem like much, but it was important to me. The moment she finished with me, I passed through a black hole. The Logan that stepped from of the other side had been altered. Thank you, Stephanie. After that weekend, I never saw you again. But you changed my life.

Serenity

by Hikari 

Story One : The Eyes of Amy

Hi! My name is Amy Reed and I am twelve years old now! Today is a big day for me. I'm about to enter Serenity college. It is a private college for girls everybody in town talks about nowadays. My big sister Mia has been going to that school for two years now and I can’t wait to be able to see her all the time again! See, Serenity is a boarding school, so my sister would only visit us for the holidays. I used to cry whenever she’d go back to that distant school, but I'm a big girl now. I never visited my sister here, so I don’t really know how is it to live on a school campus all year so I'm a little bit scared. I can’t wait to see how big my room will be. My bag feels heavy in my hands, and I'm waiting in line so they can give me my room’s number and pair me with my future roommate. I can’t wait to see her. I hope we’ll get along fine!

My turn finally comes. In front of me, a pretty blonde woman with dark framed glasses smiles at me and asks me for my name. I answer, smiling back and she hands me an envelope filled with documents. It sounds easy so far, but I wish my sister was around so she could help me. However, the older students aren't here today, I'm only surrounded by first graders, and I'm pretty proud to say I look a lot more comfortable with this new life than most of them. The nice lady then tells me to go see the nurse in the other room. I don’t feel sick so I wonder why I should see a nurse… But I obey, without really giving it much thought. After all, it must be a formality.

I enter the room as soon as the nurse is finished with the previous girl. She looks okay, so I guess the nurse didn't gave her a shot. I am relieved. The nurse is pretty and is wearing large white framed glasses. I had never seen white framed glasses before, but they look good on her. 

Susan’s story - part 4

by Susan

Whether to have a child or not was a difficult decision for Susan. On the one hand, she was conscious of the dangers involved, particularly the potential worsening of her eyesight.

On the other, she (and Charles) had long planned to have three children. This was an ideal that had sustained them both throughout their marriage and Susan's previous experience of childbirth was so positive that, deep down, she knew she wanted another baby.

Nevertheless, before she committed herself, she decided to seek further expert advice. Susan spoke to her local doctor and through him obtained an appointment with a consultant at London's major eye hospital.

In many ways, the tests proved as inconclusive as before. Yes, the specialist said, there appeared to be some connection between pregnancy, its immediate aftermath and the worsening in Susan's eyesight. The information received from her optician suggested this worsening lay in the range of about minus 5 dioptres over each three-year period during and after childbirth.

Susan’s story - part 3

Susan’s story - part 3

by Susan

To read the previous part click here.

Susan entered into her 30s with an extraordinary sense of optimism. She was the mother of a beautiful daughter, Emma.

She and Charles were happy together and loved each other, or at least that's how it seemed to her. Susan felt fit and healthy. Thanks to near-daily exercise with a personal trainer, plus her own gym workouts, her figure was svelte and trim.

Gradually, since she and Charles moved into the family home a few years earlier, she started making a few friends in the surrounding area. Her circle of friends was expanding and she was invited round for morning teas, took part as a volunteer in various toddler and then nursery groups. Everyone said that she was extremely good with children, and not just her own.

The only minor cloud on the horizon was Charles' totally unreasonable refusal to accept that his wife was severely short-sighted. Her last prescription, when she turned 30, was R-11.25, L-11.75, which meant she could not function effectively without either glasses or contact lenses.
But when she tried to talk to Charles about it, Susan felt as if she had hit a brick wall. He would point-blank ignore any remark she made about her eyesight. If he caught her wearing her glasses for any reason, Charles would either walk out of the room or throw a temper tantrum - and then sulk for the rest of the day.

Susan’s story - part 2

This is my next instalment. After packing the older kids off to school and my young one to nursery, I had a few hours of free time on my hands. Somehow, I felt an intense urge to write. It's almost as if by telling this story, part of me is becoming liberated.
Readers of this instalment can judge its merits. I'm off to pick up the youngest. Take care.

To read the first part: click here

Susan’s story - part 2

by Susan

The alarm went off at 7 am, but Susan had been awake for hours already. This was the most important day of her life and she'd had a restless night, waking and then falling back into a restless slumber. 
But the clock's buzzing did mean she had to get up. Susan was getting married today and there were still lots of things to do before the church ceremony started.
Wearily, she reached out to the bedside table and picked up her glasses. Slipping them on, she slid out of bed and reached for her dressing gown.
The gown didn't fit her very well any more - and it was one of those now-thoroughly unfashionable bobbly things, in faded pink. That was one of the drawbacks of sleeping at home on the night before the wedding: the clothes left behind after years of living away were unlikely to win many catwalk awards. But it would do for today and in any event, within a few hours Susan would be dressed up to the nines.

Susan’s story - part 1

By Susan
(saved and sent by Jules)

She was 15 when Susan first noticed her eyesight was becoming a little weak. At first it was fairly minor: a slight blurriness when she looked at things a little distance away, like a blackboard, or at the cinema, or watching television.
It was easy to compensate for. You just screw your eyes up a little, or move a bit closer to the screen, or sit nearer to the TV.
When it started, Susan just thought it was a bit of a nuisance. Few people at school noticed anyway.
And her mum only made a few comments: "Susan, what's the matter with you, get your head away from the telly, other people are trying to watch it."

But then things became worse. Susan noticed that if she was waiting for a bus she couldn't see the number until it came quite close. If she arranged to meet someone in town on Saturday, she wouldn't see them until they called out to her. Going into a café on her own became a bit of a problem, especially when lights were dim, making it hard to recognise people.

The Cadet

by Specs4ever

Lacey had been a patient of mine for a number of years. Her first prescription was around –1.25D when she was 14, and now at age 22 she was presently wearing contacts with a –3.50D power. Lacey was a very pretty young lady, tall and slim, with very attractive features, and nice short brown hair and medium brown eyes. She had called last week for an appointment, and I escorted her into the examination room.

“Well Lacey, do you need a new prescription?” I asked.

“I don’t think so Doc, but you do this Oker - okertherapudic stuff don’t you?” she asked.

“You mean okertherapy?” I replied.

Life After Contacts

by Specs4ever

Madison sat at her seat at her classroom desk, and squinted at what the teacher was writing on the chalkboard. No matter how much she screwed her eyes up she couldn’t make out a thing. She had chosen a seat only 3 rows from the front, because last spring, in her old classroom, she had noticed that she couldn’t see anything from where she was, closer to the back. But now, after the summer holidays, she couldn’t even see from almost the front of the classroom. She sighed, as she knew what this meant. Her friend Katie had the same problem last year, and at age 12 she had to get glasses. There were a lot of older kids at the school who wore glasses, so Madison knew it wouldn’t be terrible or anything to have to wear glasses, but she still didn’t like the idea.

Hard To Find One

by Specs4ever

It was a bright sunny afternoon in the late 80’s, and I was walking through a park near the campus of a popular college in the city. I spotted a group of 5 girls, all carrying backpacks obviously loaded with books, and whatever they needed for their college course coming my way on the paved path. I always like to look at pretty girls, so I started to give them the once over. The third girl back was wearing glasses, and as I drew even closer I noticed that she was by far the prettiest of the group. It might have been the glasses that made me think this way, because I have a fatal attraction towards females who wear glasses. Unfortunately in the years since contact lenses became affordable to the general public, the chances of me spotting a girl wearing glasses became slim to none. So, this young lady was of definite interest to me.

The Girl Next Door

by Specs4ever

My wife, who was 2 years younger than me, had retired at 55, and we had moved from our home of many years to a more temperate climate.  The house next door to our new home was owned by a younger couple in their early 30’s that, at the time we moved in, had a 4 year old daughter.  We had moved far enough from our own children and grandchildren that I was afraid that we would end up regretting the move.  But my wife felt that our own families were so busy with their lives that we would have more quality time with them when they came to visit, and we knew they would just to get away from the snow and the cold.

Mike, our neighbor, was a carpenter, and at the time he was quite busy, as there were houses being built on any sliver of vacant land anywhere in the state.  His wife Janet was a nurse at the local hospital, and somehow they managed to work it so that one of them was able to be home with Jessica to take her to daycare, and the other would come back home with her at the end of the day. It certainly must have taken a lot of juggling, but they were able to do it.  And, after we had been there for a month or so I managed to talk with Jim a few times, and found that he was a pretty nice person. Marie and I even invited them over for a barbeque, and I know that Marie fell in love with Jess immediately.

Glasses From The Internet

by Specs4ever

My name is Meghan Anderson, and I have been very nearsighted, probably almost from birth. My parents first noticed that I didn’t seem to be able to see them, or any of the mobiles they had placed near my crib very well when I was about 6 months old, and my mom mentioned it to my doctor.  He suggested that they should wait another 3 months, and if there was no improvement, then he would have my eyes examined by a pediatric ophthalmologist.  Obviously there was no improvement, and when the ophthalmologist examined my eyes at the age of 9 months I was given a prescription of -14D for both eyes.

Of course, I don’t remember any of this.  All I remember as a small child is that first thing in the morning I needed to put my glasses on in order to see anything other than a major blur.  I do know from experience that sometimes the wearing of glasses can be a real nuisance, especially in the northwest where we live.  In the wintertime my glasses fog up the minute I come in from the cold, and I have to stand there until the heat from my eyeball warms the lens in the center, and the lens starts to clear.  I don’t really think it is the heat from my eyeball that does it, but I think it is because my lenses are a lot thinner in the very center, so they warm up there first, and then it clears to the outside, thicker edges. When I asked my mom why this happened when I was a little girl, she told me it was because of the heat from my eyeball, so at first I believed her. And in the summer, my glasses tend to slid down my nose on hot and humid days, so I am constantly pushing them back into place, because with my lousy eyesight everything gets blurry whenever they slip even a little bit.

A Big Doubt

This is rather unusual story, as it is translated from Portuguese. The translation has some mistakes and strange spots, but I decided not to correct them leaving the special flavour of the translated text. It kind of send me to that faraway country where the stroy takes place. 
I wonder if there are more glasses stories in Portuguese. The original Portuguese version follows after the end of the English translation.

By Francisco

Translated from Portuguese by Francisco

My name is Emile, I am a lady 55 years of age, with my husband, who is agriculturist, as I manage a farm inherited from my father, and that turned into a major producer of vegetables. I have 2 daughters, 30 and 32 years, and believe that God was kind to me, because at this age I still look for men of reason, but I have something that is not well seen by many people, my high myopia.

The Girl With The Myodisc Eyes

by Specs4ever

I won’t, no I can’t, deny it. My attraction to, and my love of myopia have lead me to some strange circumstances. I have had people from all over the world write me, and compliment me on the stories I have written over the years. A film student even wrote me to ask me if he could make a movie of one of my stories, but I guess nothing ever happened, as I never heard anything more from him. Some of the people who have communicated with me have been out and out fakes, telling me a tall tale from their own imagination. But for the most part I have enjoyed every minute that this weird hobby has taken of my time.

A few years ago a young lady from London England wrote to me. She told me that she was about a –3.50D myope when she was 15 years old, and she wanted to increase her prescription substantially. So I spent some time writing her, and she did increase her prescription to around –14.00D by the time she was 20 years old. If she had taken my advice completely, I suspect that she would have been able to go even higher, but still, a –14.00D prescription is a pretty strong prescription.

Down the Same Road

by Specs4ever

I looked at the glasses I was holding in my hand, and then I looked at the picture I had just scanned into my computer. The glasses were the same, but the face in the picture wearing the glasses, with her eyes minified behind the strong lenses of these glasses no longer resembled the hazel eyed strawberry blonde girl, that I had just left a couple of hours ago. Gone were the strong glasses, replaced by 12 years of contact lens wear. The strawberry blonde hair was now much shorter, and there were no more bangs touching the upper rims of the glasses. She was still about the same general slim build, and the height hadn’t changed, but the smile in the picture was something I hadn’t seen much of for the last few years. How had it happened I wondered? How had we fallen in love, married, had a wonderful daughter and at the same time destroyed all semblances of our former carefree happy selves?

The Ladies Revenge

by Specs4ever 

Julie woke up, and tried to see the numbers on the clock in her motel room. She moved her head closer and closer to the clock, and finally the numbers came into focus. This was a strange feeling for her, as Julie had enjoyed nearly perfect vision for all of her life. She blinked her eyes a few times, but the blur of things in the near distance still persisted. For the last couple of weeks Julie had noticed that her vision had been blurred, and she had been having trouble reading street signs, and other highway markers, but this morning it seemed even worse than the day before, she was having trouble seeing things clearly only a few feet from her.

Memoirs of an optometrist - Brenda

by Tom the Hungarian

This happened many years ago - far more than I care to recall or admit to - in the very first year I started my practice. Patients were still far and few. Brenda was nine years old, tall an well developed for her age when she was brought to my office by her mother for an eye examination. She had a dense forest of long, curly black hair, pale skin with very red cheeks, thick red lips and burning, angry black eyes. And it was not just her eyes that were angry!

After introducing herself and her daughter, Mrs.B. announced that she wanted Brenda's vision tested because she thought she needed glasses. Brenda's response was loud and clear:

"There's nothing wrong with my eyes, I don't want them tested and I don't want glasses!"

A Lifelong Addiction To Myopia

by Specs4ever

Even after 60 years I could still remember her glasses as if it were yesterday. She was a short, slightly overweight lady with grey hair tied up in a bun on the back of her head, and she smelled like apple pie. From the time I was a baby she changed my diapers, and helped my mother raise me for a number of years. But it was always her glasses that fascinated me. The first pair I remember noticing was a rimless pair, with a silver bridge that was fastened with one screw to each lens. The temples were also fastened with a screw at each side of the lens, and they went back over her ears. When she had them off, and I was a little older I could tell that the earpieces coiled around and fitted snugly behind her ears. Later in life I found out that these were called cable temples. But it was the lenses that intrigued me. They were octagonal shaped, with six of the sides appearing to be equal in length. The center side, at the top and the bottom were longer than the others. In the center of these lenses were circles that were between 25 mm, and 30mm in diameter. Behind these lenses her eyes were minified significantly, and appeared to be shrunken back into her head. But when she took her glasses off, her eyes were very large, and were a milky blue in color.

Down the Same Road

by Specs4ever

I looked at the glasses I was holding in my hand, and then I looked at the picture I had just scanned into my computer. The glasses were the same, but the face in the picture wearing the glasses, with her eyes minified behind the strong lenses of these glasses no longer resembled the hazel eyed strawberry blonde girl, that I had just left a couple of hours ago. Gone were the strong glasses, replaced by 12 years of contact lens wear. The strawberry blonde hair was now much shorter, and there were no more bangs touching the upper rims of the glasses. She was still about the same general slim build, and the height hadn’t changed, but the smile in the picture was something I hadn’t seen much of for the last few years. How had it happened I wondered? How had we fallen in love, married, had a wonderful daughter and at the same time destroyed all semblances of our former carefree happy selves?

Because of The Sex

by Specs4ever

I sat at the writing desk with two prescription forms in front of me. One was filled out, and the other was blank. I took a black pen from the desk, and filled in numbers on the blank. The form read, OD –25.50 x +1.00 x 015 and OS – 24.50 x +0.50 x 165. The forms were identical, except for an increase of –1.25D in the spherical correction of both eyes, and I scrawled the signature on the bottom of the new one to closely match the original. When I was finished, tears streamed from my eyes behind my thick glasses, and I muttered to myself, “I am so sorry baby, please forgive me.”