I am a bad mother. I know I am, but I just can’t seem to help myself. Back in 2002, when I turned 16, I learned how to order my glasses from an online supplier and ever since then I have been giving myself a little boost in my prescription. Every year, when I would g0 online to order my new glasses, I would increase my prescription by at least -1.00D over what my eye doctor prescribed. By the time I turned 21 in 2007 my -7.50D prescription had become -13.50D, but because of the high index lenses that I was paying a lot extra for my glasses didn’t seem to be any thicker than they were at aged 16 when I was only -7.50D. Just after New Year’s in 2007 I made the mistake of having sex with a guy that I really liked and I ended up giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. My relationship with the father only lasted another 3 years before he and I split, and fortunately he was a decent enough father that he has continued paying his support payments. My pregnancy back in 2007 added another -3.50D to my already strong prescription and the cost of my lenses increased substantially if I wanted to purchase the thinnest possible ones for my prescription. That was the year that I ordered the 1.67 index lenses instead of the expensive 1.74 index ones and even though my glasses were quite a bit thicker I found I didn’t mind my appearance with the thicker glasses at all.
About a year ago I started to notice that Faith, who was now 7 years old and in grade 2, was occasionally scrunching up her eyes to look at things that were off in the distance. Even though I had over corrected myself for years I could still remember the signs that a person needed a stronger prescription and since I could easily see the things that Faith was attempting to focus on I knew she was becoming slightly nearsighted. I had tried to keep increasing my own prescription ever since Faith was born, but I was unable to maintain my increases of -1.00D per year. The first year I had easily been able to wear glasses that had increased by the same -1.00D I had used before Faith was born, but the second year I found that -1.00D was much harder to grow into, and I was about a year and a half before I felt that I could go up by another -1.00D. Then it took almost 2 years before I felt as if I could try for yet another -1.00D. I managed another -1.00D at the 6 year mark, and just recently I had purchased a new pair with a prescription of -22.00D. That was only -5.00D higher in 8 years, so I was convinced that my potential for any further increases had ended.
Last year, shortly after I had noticed that Faith was having trouble seeing things in the distance, I had purchased an app for my smart phone that supposedly would check your vision and would give you the approximate prescription that you needed for your glasses. I thought that it was highly unlikely that this would work, or if it did, how accurate it could be. To my surprise, when I tried it on my own eyes it showed me that my prescription was indeed -20.25D. I had worn -21D glasses for about a year at this time so I decided I would keep checking until I actually reached -21D and then I would try once more to see if I could go a little bit higher, which it has and I was then getting ready to order my now -22D glasses soon.
I could not resist trying the app on my phone on Faith to see what it could tell me about her eyes. On the first morning I tried it the app showed that her eyes both needed -0.75D to bring her to 20/20, but the next morning it showed -0.50D. A few days later I tried the app again in the evening after I got home from work. This time the app showed that Faith now needed -1.25D, and when I checked the following evening it showed that she could use -1.50D. Again, when I checked Faith in the morning she fell into the range between -0.50D and -1.00D. It seemed that on the mornings when I got the -1.00D reading the afternoon reading would easily reach -1.50D. I also figured out that the mornings that showed the stronger prescription were those mornings where she had done a lot of homework and a lot of reading the evening before.
Knowing that Faith’s father would likely question her when she showed up wearing glasses, I decided that a visit to an optometrist was in order. My mom had used an older gentleman for my eye doctor when I was younger and since all of the newer eye doctors now had examination equipment that almost worked by themselves I hoped that my old eye doctor had not bothered to update his equipment. I called, and was fortunate enough to obtain an appointment for Faith at 4:00 the following afternoon. I left work early, picked Faith up at school at 3:30 and made it to the eye doctor’s just a little before 4. The paperwork took only a few minutes and by 4 we were in the doctor’s office. The doctor remembered me and he mentioned that my prescription now looked to be pretty hefty. I told him I was now around -21D, and he then proceeded to check Faith’s eyes. I was glad to see that the equipment he was using appeared to be the same old fashioned equipment that he had used on me.
Faith must have been reading a lot at school that day. I know I had made sure that she sat at the kitchen table and did all her schoolwork the evening before, and I knew that she had her nose buried in a book from then until the time she went to bed. She might even have continued reading with a flashlight and her head under the covers because I was sure I had spotted a light on in her room about 10:00pm, an hour after she was supposed to be asleep. I was not disappointed to find that my old eye doctor had found that Faith required a prescription of -1.75D. A couple of times when he was testing my eyes back then he had told me that he could give me a little stronger prescription than the testing equipment showed that I needed, because, as he then put it, if he gave me only the prescription that the equipment showed I needed I would likely be back in 3 or 4 months for new, slightly stronger glasses. Thinking of this I mentioned to him that I was a single mother and that I wondered if he should do for Faith what he had done for me when I was younger. He looked at me with a quizzical expression.
“Don’t you remember? You gave me a slightly stronger prescription so I wouldn’t need new glasses as quickly. I don’t have much money, and I would hate for Faith to get her new glasses and then have her unable to see properly in 3 or 4 months.” I said.
“Oh, now I remember giving you the maximum prescription I could back then. Do you want me to do the same thing with your daughter?” He asked.
I told him I did, and we left the office with a prescription for Faith that read -2.25D for each eye. When we got home I brought up the website where I had ordered my own glasses from, and I had Faith choose 2 frames that she really liked. I measured her PD at 58, and then I ordered her new glasses with a -3.00D prescription. She might find it a little strong, but I was sure she would adapt easily. I ordered my new glasses as well, with the -22.00D prescription that I thought would finally be my last increase. Both pairs of glasses arrived within 2 weeks, and we both started wearing our new glasses immediately. Faith had no problem adapting to her little bit of overcorrection, and while I could notice that my glasses were a bit stronger than I needed everything looked really clear and sharp again through my -1.00D of overcorrection.
Now, in the fall of 2015, my daughter is in grade three and has just turned 8. I have checked her vision a couple of times using my phone app, and it shows that she actually requires between -3.25D and -3.50D. She has, in less than a year, completely adapted to her slightly stronger prescription, and has even gone up a little. I am thinking I would like to forgo the eye exam, and just order her new glasses with -5.00D lenses. Her dad might notice the new glasses and stronger lenses, but if I can get her just to tell him that she needed stronger glasses everything should be fine. I will just wait until she starts to complain that she can’t see things clearly and then maybe with a bit of luck the eye doctor will really be able to prescribe her stronger lenses rather than do what I would rather do by simply ordering her -5.00D glasses.
I am a terrible mother for wanting to project my desire to be myopic onto my daughter. But if she reaches a real prescription of -5D I will not do anything more than take her to see the eye doctor when she starts squinting and complaining and I will let him adjust her prescription upwards as required.
Specs4ever Oct 2015.