I got my first glasses when I was 13 years old and was just going into grade 8. I had noticed the previous school year that I could no longer see things clearly that were very far away, but fortunately school was dismissed for the summer holidays before anyone noticed my predicament. I had been a little worried about saying anything to my mom because she had been telling me for years to get “get your nose out of that book or you will ruin your eyes”, and now it had been proven to me that she had been correct. I knew I read too much, and this summer had been a time when I read more books than usual, mostly because I couldn’t quite see clearly enough to do outside things like playing badminton or baseball. Even going to the pool was difficult because I could no longer pick out my friends until I got pretty close to them and it was getting a little scary to ride my bike. When the girl at the glasses store put my new glasses on my face it was wonderful. I could see everything oh so clearly again. Mom asked her if I needed to wear my glasses all the time, and the girl told her that with my prescription it would be best if I did, but I could make that choice myself after I wore them for at least a couple of weeks to allow my eyes to adjusted to the better eyesight I would have with glasses. Apparently, according to the optician, my prescription was a little bit stronger than most first-time glasses wearers needed. I don’t remember what the numbers were, but I think the first numbers were something like -2.25 and then there were a couple of other numbers. Now I was one of the glasses wearers in my class. There were enough of us that no one even teased us about wearing glasses and before long a couple of other girls joined us so that our class was now about half and half. As we continued on in school getting new glasses seemed to be just a normal occurrence and every so often, I needed to have my prescription increased. A couple of the other girls that wore glasses had to have their prescriptions increased a lot more times than I did, and by the time I graduated my glasses were just normal looking, but these other two girls needed rather thick looking lenses. It didn’t seem to matter once you started wearing glasses how thick your lenses needed to be, as long as they made your eyesight better, but I remember thinking sometimes that I wouldn’t mind if my glasses needed to be a bit stronger because I sort of liked the looks of the stronger lenses. I went on and studied to become a registered nurse. By the time I started working in the local hospital I remember that my most recent glasses prescription was -7.50D for each eye and I was 21 years old. My eye doctor told me then that I had likely reached my highest prescription, and that my eyes should remain stable from then on. I was a little disappointed because a couple of the girls I worked with had flat fronts on the lenses in their glasses and I rather liked the looks of them. I asked the girl at the optical store if I could have flat fronts on my new lenses also but she told me that, while it could be done, it would be a special request and would cost me $50.00 more so I ended up taking whatever they normally used. My new glasses looked to be pretty flat on the front of the lenses and I was happy enough. I also got myself contact lenses to wear at a girlfriend’s wedding as I was in the wedding party and I wanted to try contacts. Contacts were easy for me to wear, and I found I was wearing them more often than I thought I would. My main duties were in the orthopedic ward, and I was often the first nurse requested to assist with Dr. Haven’s operations. I didn’t always wear my contacts, but would, depending on the day and how I felt, switch between glasses and contacts. I was surprised one day when Dr. Haven told me he liked my appearance when I was wearing my glasses. That shocked me a little, because while Dr. Haven was unmarried, I had no idea that he would be interested in me. He was only about 3 years older than me and was a pretty good-looking guy, so I was very flattered, and I started making sure I wore my glasses on the days when I was working in the operating room with him. I wasn’t sure if he would ever ask me out for a date, and I didn’t really know if that would even be a good idea for me to date him, as we had a pretty hectic working relationship. A couple more months went by before Rich and I had a chance to meet in the cafeteria and have a serious chat. He didn’t seem to feel that our personal relationship would be that difficult to separate from our work relationship, so I agreed to go to dinner with him the following weekend. I enjoyed my time with Rich, and although I had heard that some of the younger doctors were quite adapt at bedding the more attractive looking nurses, I had never heard anything like that about Rich. We dated for around 6 months and he had not made an inappropriate remark, nor had he suggested that we go back to his apartment to look at his etchings. I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me, so I straight out asked him what his intentions were. His answer really surprised me. He told me that he really liked me and that he was considering asking me to marry him. I was floored, but I found enough nerve to tell him that I would not be averse to saying yes. Rich wanted a simple wedding in front of a justice of the peace, and I agreed so we were married with only a couple of friends in attendance. Rich had a great apartment that was much nicer than mine, so we moved into his and set up housekeeping. He really liked me wearing glasses and he wanted me to keep them on when we were having sex. This was such a minor request and it seemed to please him so much that I went along with it and didn’t even give it a second thought. I did still keep wearing my contacts from time to time though and one day when I had gotten a new shipment of lenses in the mail I noticed that there were 6 bottles of my - 7D contacts and there were 2 bottles of + 7D contacts. I knew they had made a mistake and was going to send them back to get them replaced with the proper ones. I told Rich that evening about the mistake the contact lens company had made. We had talked about him having a preference for girls that wear glasses, and I had told him that I would not have minded if I had needed to wear glasses that had stronger lenses than my newest pair. I had never gotten my glasses with the thinner lenses, and when I ordered my most recent pair, he had suggested that I should order them with safety lenses, which would make them look a little thicker. I had done that, and I really liked the appearance. What Rich suggested now was that I should keep the wrong contacts and then I could order glasses that I could wear over them. I had never heard of something like that, but Rich told me it was called glasses over contacts. Apparently this was first done when contact lenses originally came out, and people who needed stronger prescriptions than what the early contacts could correct would buy the strongest possible contacts and would then wear the balance of their prescription, including any astigmatism they needed, in much thinner glasses. Now contacts were made in almost all but the very extreme prescriptions, but people who wanted to experience what it was like to wear very strong glasses could now wear contacts of the opposite power and could then get very strong glasses to wear over them. I thought this was a bit weird, but after Rich and I discussed it for a while I decided I would try this GOC thing. Rich helped me figure that we should double my glasses prescription because adding the power of -7D contacts to the prescription in my glasses would equal about -15.00D. He also suggested that I should order the same amount of astigmatism in my -15D glasses that I had in my -7.50D glasses. He had explained to me that +7.00D contacts, because of the distance between my eyes and the glasses, would be equal to my -7.50D glasses prescription. He was correct. When the -15.00D glasses arrived and I put the +7.00D contacts in my eyes, my vision with the glasses on over the contacts was excellent. It took me almost no time at all to get used to the stronger glasses, and I really liked my appearance wearing the new glasses. Rich liked my looks with the new glasses on as well, and he proved it to me by making love to me very frequently. Rich had suggested that it would be a good idea to order the highest index lenses in my new glasses that I could get. He had figured that the thickness of my normal -7.50D glasses with the safety lenses should be so close to the thickness of the thinnest -15.00D lenses that no one would really notice that I was wearing glasses that were double the strength of my proper glasses. He was correct and when I went to work the next day wearing the -15.00D glasses no one commented on them at all. Since I had chosen a frame that was so similar to my own glasses, unless you held them side by side you could not tell the difference. Soon I had gotten into the habit of wearing the much stronger GOC glasses every day. I no longer bothered to put in my regular contacts and I really liked wearing the more powerful glasses. My vision was extremely good with them on and I felt that I was able to see just as well as I could with my own prescription glasses. Rich and I had been married for over a year and by then I had been wearing the -15D glasses for at least 6 months. We had not been practicing any sort of birth control, and I was actually wishing I might get pregnant. I had been told that nearsighted women often experienced an increase in their prescription when they got pregnant and I was hoping beyond hope that I would be one of them. When I went to the hospital to have our baby, I was wearing my old -7.50D safety lensed glasses and I could tell I was not seeing very well through them. When I was released from the hospital and Rich brought Lisa and me home, I knew I was going to have to have my eyes examined. The blur was not quite as bad with my GOC combination on, but with me having to get up every time Lisa cried, I could not do the GOC trick. My first order of business was to have my eyes tested and then to get new glasses – and contacts. My glasses prescription had jumped by -1.50D, which was apparently a pretty big jump for a pregnant person. I ordered my new -8.00D contacts and my new -9.00D glasses, again with their safety lenses. When I told Rich that I needed to get myself some +8.00D contacts so that I could wear -16.00D glasses he got a blank form from the ophthalmology department and he filled it out for me – for a +10D pair of contacts. Then he helped me order a new pair of -20D glasses. I didn’t complain that he was making my prescription so strong because I loved the idea of wearing much thicker glasses, but I did wonder how I was going to wear glasses that strong and I asked Rich about it. He told me that since the lenses in my glasses were -9.00D and the new +10D contacts he ordered were equivalent to between -11.00 and -11.50D of myopia then my glasses should be just about right at -20D. I had no reason to doubt his expertise, and when I had the new contacts in and the new glasses on, I actually thought the glasses could have been just a teensy bit stronger. When I told Rich that he asked if I wanted to get contacts that were a little weaker, or glasses that were a bit stronger. Of course, I chose the stronger glasses. I had worn the -20D glasses when I was around a number of people. I had not gone back to work yet, but I had been to the hospital several times and I had seen a lot of my coworkers. This time it was not possible to hide the fact that my glasses were a lot stronger but the simple explanation that my eyes had gotten a lot worse during my pregnancy seemed to satisfy everyone. When I got my new -21.00D glasses no one said a thing, and now everyone was used to seeing me wearing extremely strong glasses. A few months later we ordered a pair of +12D contact lenses. Using the same table of calculations we had used before Rich and I determined that my new glasses should be around -23.00D, but I wanted Rich to order -24.00D glasses because I was sure I could accommodate the little bit of extra power. I was correct because when the new glasses came in, they were very easy to wear with the +12D contacts. I suspected that my own prescription had increased a little because my -9.00D glasses really seemed to be too weak. I was now actually able to wear the -15.00D glasses we had originally ordered without any contacts under them, although I knew the glasses were still a bit too strong. The -24.00D glasses I had ordered were the highest index plastic available. They were in a black Ray ban style frame that had a lens size of 50 x 18 with a bridge width of 18mm. The full field lenses were pretty thick looking, and they measured 14mm at the outer edge. When I looked at myself in a mirror my eyes were set well back and looked very tiny in the center of a whole bunch of rings. I liked them, but what I liked even more was the response I got from Rich whenever he looked at me wearing them. He loved them, and the more I wore them I became more accustomed to being stared at. I found that I liked the fact that men gave me a second and sometimes a third look. I got pregnant again while I was wearing the -24.00D glasses. Rich just couldn’t keep his hands off me and as a result our son Michael was conceived. Once I was back home with Mike I had to wear my old glasses around the house, especially during the night feedings and it was very evident that I now needed a prescription much closer to my original GOC - 15.00D glasses. The - 9.00D ones that I had last been prescribed were next to useless, and while I was able to focus through the -15.00D ones I thought that they might still be a little strong for me. I even had to drop back to wearing the +7D contacts under my -24D glasses so I knew my eyesight must have gotten quite a bit worse. Once again it was the perfect time to increase the power of my glasses. Everybody we knew had gotten used to seeing me wearing the -24D glasses and no one would be terribly surprised if my eyesight had again gotten worse during my pregnancy with Michael. Rich asked me if I wanted to stop, but I liked the feeling of looking through the very powerful minus lenses so much I told him I wanted to go on for at least a few more diopters. I really needed to have my eyes examined properly again though and we knew that it was not a good idea to return to my old eye doctor. I felt that my -15.00D glasses were close enough to my real prescription now that the worst thing the eye doctor could tell me was that my glasses were a little too strong. There was just no way that I could wear my prescribed -9.00D glasses as they just were not strong enough. And, as it turned out, my decision to wear the -15.00D glasses lead to me being prescribed that prescription without any questions, so that was the best outcome I could have hoped for. I was in a real quandary as to what I should choose as a new prescription for my new GOC glasses though. The strongest prescription I could order glasses online without a written prescription was -25.00D and I knew I wanted stronger glasses than that. Rich didn’t seem to care if I increased my prescription to the -30D I wanted, but he was willing to go along with my wishes, so he again got me a blank prescription from the hospitals optical department for me to use at a local optical store. When I had my eyes checked and was prescribed the -15.00 glasses, I had ordered a new pair of -12.50D contact lenses in my correct size. I knew that if I went to an optician wearing contact lenses and giving them a prescription for -30D glasses there was no way the optician could find out that my contacts were only -12.50D. And since -12.50D cancelled -15.00D of myopic correction in my glasses then if I ordered contacts that were +12.50D that should add up to +25D of plus which should cancel out -30D of glasses correction. Fortunately, before I ordered my new combination, I found an online calculator that converted glasses prescriptions to contact lens prescriptions. To wear -30D in your glasses meant that you needed 22.00D for your contact lenses according to this chart. The chart that was handed out to most opticians only went as high as -20D contacts, which supposedly required -26.50D glasses. And then I found a third chart that told me that I would need -21.50D for contact lenses. I was really uncertain as to what I should order for contacts so I decided that I would just order the -30D glasses and then I would try to wear my old +10D contact lenses with the new glasses and would then see what I needed to do to give me the best possible vision. My calculations figured that with my now -12.50D contact lens eyesight prescription and the +10D contacts should give me the equivalent of around -22.50D contacts and that would at least allow me to wear the -30D glasses long enough to reconfigure my calculations if necessary. My new -30D glasses came in but instead of wearing my old -24D glasses and my +10 contacts to the optician’s to pick them up I just wore my regular minus contacts and let the optician fit the glasses while I was in a blur. Once I got home, I tried to wear the +10D contacts under the glasses but I knew immediately that I needed a little more plus. I then tried my old +12D contacts that I had worn under my -24D glasses. I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong with my calculations, but now I was seeing fairly well wearing the new -30D glasses using what added up to the equivalent of +24.50 contacts. But this only lasted for about a month before I had to drop back to using the +10D contacts. I thought about this for a few minutes. Here I was wearing the same +10D contacts under my -30D glasses that I was originally wearing under my old -24D glasses and I felt that I was seeing very well. Either something was not quite right in the calculations department, or my natural vision had deteriorated again. My new glasses had come with 1.9 index glass lenses and they were very nicely done. Even in the very high index, the circle of the lens where the power was did not reach the edges of the frame and these glasses were really myodiscs with a fairly large circle of 35mm. I liked the appearance a lot, and so did Rich, but the weight of them on my nose was more than I could stand for a full day’s wear. Rich then convinced me to order another pair of glasses with plastic lenses and a smaller myodisc bowl. When I went to the optical store to place the order for the new glasses the girl there knew a bit more than the average optician about strong minus lenses and was able to suggest that to save weight, I should have the myodisc bowl no larger than 30mm, and that I should also specify that the front and the rear base should be plano – or flat instead of the normal plus rear base which was technically called a lenticular lens. I followed her advice and ended up with my new glasses having a plano front and a plano rear base with a 25mm myodisc bowl in the rear containing all of my -30D prescription. This time, when my new plastic lensed myodiscs arrived I went to the store to pick them up wearing my glass lensed ones. The optician was quite interested in examining them as we had purchased them at a different store, and she had never had a customer with as strong a prescription as mine. She fit the glasses to my face and let me wander around for a few minutes wearing the new glasses. The 25mm bowl was definitely giving me a narrower range of vision, but it was something I could get used to in time. The optician checked the fit again, and when I had no pressure points that she needed to take care of she took my money for the balance and gave me a receipt. I was pleased that she had not noticed the contact lenses in my eyes though. Rich really liked my appearance when I was wearing the new plastic lensed myodiscs. I thought that it was a good thing that I had my tubes tied after Michael’s birth because we had sexual relations every day for at least the first week I wore them. I did find it a bit hard to get used to the small bowl of these myodiscs though, so I found I was wearing the 1.9 index glass myodiscs a little more when I went out. It was especially noticeable when I was driving as I found the slightly larger 35mm bowl to be a lot better for me then. Things were going very well. I wished I could have gone back to work, but Rich was earning a decent salary as a partner in a general practice now. For me to go back to nursing I would have had to do some night shifts, and it is very expensive to put children in daycare, so my salary would not have done us much good considering all the extra cost of daycare and sitters. Still, I loved wearing my GOC combination and I liked being out in the workforce where I could see people staring at my glasses. I had never thought much about wearing glasses before I met Rich. Unlike some of my friends at school I liked wearing them a lot. Back then I wouldn’t have minded needing thicker lenses than the ones in my old -7.50D prescription, but I certainly would never have believed anyone if they told me that in the future I would be wearing contact lenses so that I could wear much stronger glasses than I actually needed. That would have seemed crazy at the time, however now I absolutely love to wear my -30D glasses. By this time Lisa was 5 years old and Michael was 3 ½. Rich and I had married when I was almost 22, and Lisa was born a little more than a year later, soon after I had turned 23. Now I was having my 28th birthday and it had been 4 years since I had seen an eye doctor. Over the past year I had found that my vision was starting to be rather blurry through my -30D glasses so I had switched my +10D contacts to the lower powered +7D ones I had first used under the -15D glasses. What was a little shocking to me was that when I tried on my old -24D GOC glasses with no plus contacts under them I could almost see well enough to function. But my old -21 D glasses were just about perfect for me so I decided that I would wear them to an eye doctor and have a proper examination of my eyes and my vision like I did when I was wearing the -15D glasses. Once I had my vision exam, I was really surprised to see that my tested prescription was right at -22D. In only 6 years I had gone from a -7.50D prescription up to a prescription of -22D. This was quite a remarkable progression, especially when most of it occurred between the ages of 22 and 28. From everything I had read on myopia and myopic progression my eyes should have stabilized around the age of 25 or maybe even 26. But here I was at 28 still having my vision become more myopic. I decided that I would not buy myself new glasses but would instead wear my old -24D glasses whenever I went around without contact lenses. I had been wearing +7D contacts with my -30D glasses but I knew that they were now too strong, so I ordered myself a pair of +5D contacts. This would be the equivalent of -22D + -5.50D and would be supposedly equal to -27.50D. That should leave me having to make up the balance with my own eyes to see through the -30D myo’s that I so badly wanted to wear permanently. Rich surprised me when, after hearing that my eyes had reached a natural-22D prescription, he suggested that I should just wear a pair of glasses with my real prescription. When I told him I didn’t want to stop yet he reluctantly told me I could do whatever I wanted to do, but if I hadn’t reached my goal by the time I was 32 I should just go on wearing whatever prescription I had reached. I agreed that this was what I would do as I was convinced I could reach a final prescription of at least -30D in 4 more years. A year later I knew I had increased my myopia past the -24D glasses. They were still fine for me to wear, but I could notice that things in the distance were a bit blurred when I wore them. And when I had my -30D glasses on with the +5D contact lenses I knew that I could use weaker plus contacts. I thought that maybe +3 would be better as that would still give me some over correction and I knew that the high overcorrection had been what had increased my myopia. But I didn’t want to wait for a new pair of contacts, so I started to wear the -30D glasses without any contacts. At first it was a little hard. The difference between my own eyes and the -30D glasses had to be somewhere around 4 diopters so I had quite a bit of over correcting to do by using my own focusing mechanisms. I struggled along and it took about 3 months before I felt that I was able to see fairly well with the -30D glasses and no contacts. It was going to take a while longer – maybe a year or more before my eyes adapted to the full -30D prescription, but I had the time, and the desire. The year went by quickly and I knew after about 10 months that I would likely test at the -30D prescription that I had in my glasses. I had Rich make an appointment for me with a recently graduated ophthalmologist who had recently joined Rich and his partners in their practice. The day I showed up to have my eyes examined I was extremely happy, because I knew I was now really a permanent -30D myope. The doctor gave my eyes an extremely thorough going over and he pronounced my retina’s healthy. He gave me a number of lens choices in his phoropter and I finally settled on what I thought was the best option. Then he announced to me that I could use a new pair of glasses – with lenses that were -31.00D. When I told Rich that evening that I had really reached -31D he took me up to our bed and we made love like we were teenagers again. Thank goodness I had gotten fixed or I am sure I would have been pregnant again. Rich and I were both true glasses lovers and I had been extremely fortunate to have found the perfect man. Specs4ever Sept 2019