I was sitting in the communal seating area at our local mall eating area waiting for my current boyfriend to show up, and as I often did, I had removed my strong glasses and was making an effort to clean the lenses. My name is Kiran and I am 22 years old. I have graduated from college and am currently employed as a graphic designer, a job that I really enjoy. My glasses were not really dirty enough to require cleaning, but when I am in a public place with nothing particular to do, I have found that it is a good way to draw attention to myself. I noticed that people tend to stare at me when I have my glasses off, because they think I can’t tell that they are looking. They are correct. At one time I could tell that people were staring, but after years of wearing my strong minus glasses, I can no longer see much more than a blur of colors without them. My years of wearing glasses goes back to when I was 13 and in grade 8. Three of my closest friends wore glasses because they were myopic, and sometimes I would try their glasses on just for the fun of it. I had no trouble making my vision adapt to the glasses that Cristine wore, and Anita’s glasses were really easy to wear. Even Carla’s glasses, which were the strongest of the three girls were no problem for me to adapt to. I would often tell Carla that I could see just fine wearing her glasses and she would tell me that that was impossible because her glasses were really strong. Both Cris and Anita confirmed that Carla’s glasses were extremely strong and that there was no way I could possibly function wearing them. They had asked me a number of times if I could read different signs and see stuff in the distance and since I could, along with having no trouble seeing the chalkboard from the rear of the classroom, it indicated to them that I had far better eyesight that any of them did. Sometimes I had to read the menu board at one of the fast-food places we went to so they just knew I couldn’t possibly see through the strong lenses that Carla needed. I remember the day that Carla came back to school from a morning appointment at the eye doctor. She was really upset, because her myopia had increased significantly and her glasses were going to have to now be -9.00D. Apparently her old glasses were no longer strong enough, and she had jumped from -7.50D up to requiring -9.00D and her new glasses were going to be really thick. I do not really remember the way it transpired, but the end result was that I said that her eyes could not be that bad because I could easily wear her old glasses. That is how I ended up betting the three of them that I could wear Carla’s old glasses in class for a whole week as soon as Carla got her new ones. It was a stupid bet. If I lost, I had to buy each of them a soda, and if I won, they each had to buy me a soda. It was no trouble at all for me to wear Carla’s old glasses for a week in class, and I actually wore them every day from the time I left my house until the time I returned home so I won the bet. But at the beginning of the following week my teacher noticed that I was not wearing glasses and when she asked me if I was wearing contacts, when I told her that I wasn’t she told me that if I didn’t wear my glasses, she would send a note home to my mother. I could hardly tell my teacher that I had been wearing Carla’s old glasses as a bet and that I didn’t need glasses at all. She likely would have sent a note home to my parents anyway. That would have been just as much of a disaster as if she had sent a note home telling my parents I needed glasses, as my parents had no idea that I had been wearing Carla’s old glasses. I was trapped. Now I had to wear glasses when I was at school. A month or so went by and I kept wearing Carla’s glasses to school. By now I actually enjoyed wearing glasses and when I had to take them off a block away from home, I hated being without them, I liked having my eyes protected behind 2 pieces of plastic, and I loved the way that these 2 pieces of plastic made everything smaller and so much clearer. I could still see perfectly without them, but I wanted to wear them all of the time. After a couple more weeks of me wearing Carla’s glasses I told mom I had been having trouble seeing things clearly at school and I got permission to make an appointment to have my eyes tested after school. I made the earliest after class appointment I could, and the following Thursday after school I showed up at the eye doctor’s office. I wore Carla’s glasses into the reception area and wore them when I was filling out all of the paperwork. The one lady asked me how long I had worn glasses and I told her that I had first gotten them when I was around 8. She took my glasses, and she checked the prescription, then she took me into a little room and had me look at a machine with both eyes. She tried me with my glasses off, then she tried me with my glasses on. She did the test a number of times, but finally she stopped and took me into the doctor’s examination room. When the eye doctor came in, I am pretty sure that he started with the same prescription that was in Carla’s glasses and even though I could see the letters on the wall I told him they were blurry. I could tell he was increasing the strength of the lenses, but I could still see the letters quite clearly. Finally, he reached a point where the letters started to blur a little, so I told him that and then there was a lot of is number one better or is number 2 better. It didn’t seem to matter to me as both number one and number 2 seemed about the same. Then he made up a pair of glasses in a trial frame and sent me back out into the waiting room wearing the lenses he had chosen. After about half an hour the receptionist took me back into a different exam room, and the doctor tested me by having me read the chart with the trial lenses. Then he made me read a piece of paper with different sized printing on it and he was surprised that I could read the smallest print on it when I held it about 6 inches away from my eyes. That is when the doctor told me that even though I was very nearsighted I had extremely good accommodation. I was pretty happy when I selected my own frame. The girl in the optical department told me I had needed a sizeable increase in my prescription, and that I should really be purchasing the higher index lenses, but when she gave me the price, I said that I would be happy with the thicker lenses. The thinner lenses were going to be over $200.00 extra, so the only option I ordered on the regular lenses was an anti-reflective coating. I paid for my new glasses and headed home to tell my parents that I needed glasses very badly and that they would be ready in 3 days. The next day at school I told my 3 glasses wearing friends that I now needed my own glasses. They all asked what my prescription was, and I got my prescription slip from my wallet in my backpack. Carla looked at my prescription slip, and she gasped when she saw the numbers on it. Apparently -10.50D for both eyes is a really strong prescription – even stronger than hers. I didn’t care. Now I just wanted to wear my own glasses all of the time. I checked with the optical store on the third day, but they had not arrived yet. The following day when I checked they were in, so I went to pick them up. I was a little surprised when I first saw them as they looked quite thick, and I was pretty sure my parents would be upset that I needed such thick glasses. But I had wanted them, and when I put them on, after a few minutes they were as easy to wear as the trial frame lenses had been. The optician checked my reading vision with them on and she was as surprised as the doctor was that I could bring the smallest letters up to within 3 or 4 inches of my glasses and see everything clearly. I had the optician bend my glasses in at the nose area and I had her tighten the earpieces behind my ears so my new glasses would not slide down my nose. I liked it that way. I could not see the lenses at my nose side unless I crossed my eyes, and when I looked through the center of the lenses all I could see was a little bit of the outside edges of the frame. They were just the way I wanted them, and when I left the optician’s, I was happy. As I had expected my parents had a fit when they saw me wearing my glasses. But I could see everything really well when I was wearing them, so they finally accepted that I had very poor uncorrected eyesight and needed the thick glasses I was now wearing. At school the following day my three friends were a bit shocked that my glasses were even thicker than Carla’s were. They really couldn’t believe me when I took them off and told them that after a couple of minutes, I could see just fine without them as well. But I really liked wearing them, and I didn’t even mind that I was now the girl with the thickest glasses in our junior high. After a year of wearing my strong glasses, I could no longer see as clearly when I took them off. I thought I was developing a little bit of myopia, and I didn’t mind that. I liked going to the mall, sitting in the food court and playing with my glasses. I would take them off and clean them, or I would take out a little screwdriver kit and pretend I was tightening up the screws that fastened the temples. When I did this, I would bring my glasses really close to my eyes and make like I couldn’t see more than a few inches without my glasses. This got me a lot of stares, and as I said, back then I could tell that people were staring at me and thinking that I couldn’t see them. One old lady even came up to me and told me that it was too bad that my eyesight was so bad because I was really pretty without my glasses. I don’t know why I did it, but when the card came in the mail telling me that I should have a yearly eye exam I decided I would see if I could get stronger glasses. The fuss people had been making over my poor eyesight seemed to have died down as people gradually accepted my thick glasses. Even my parents had gotten used to my glasses, although when I told them I needed to have another eye test they commented that they hoped I wouldn’t need even stronger glasses. I merely said that if I did, I would just have to accept that. When I showed up at the optometrist for my appointment the girl at the desk looked at my file and she said that there was a notation in my file that said that I wasn’t able to have my eyes checked with the auto refractor. I asked her why and she said that apparently my eyes did not show a proper reading when they used that machine. When I did get in to see the doctor my exam was very similar to my first one. The doctor asked me how my vision was, and I told him things seemed a little blurry. Again, I am pretty sure he started off with the prescription that was in my existing glasses and then went up from there. I didn’t want to go too much stronger, but I didn’t know how to stop so I just went until the letters started to blur slightly and I told the doctor that things were really clear now. He didn’t spend much time with the which one is better, but he did make up another trial frame with my new prescription and had me wear it for about half an hour before he tested me with the trial frame and lenses. Again, he tried me with the reading chart, and I was able to read it as easily with the new lenses as I could before. He wrote me a prescription and this time I looked at it before I went to the optical store. My new prescription was going to be -12.00D this time, an increase of -1.50D. Carla had recently gotten new glasses and her new glasses were -10D so my increase of -1.50D wasn’t much worse than hers was. At the optical store I was again pressured to buy the hi index lenses, but I simply told the lady that they were too expensive for my budget. She told me that if my prescription went any higher I would either have to go for the higher index lenses or they would have to make my lenses a little differently. When I pressed her on this, she said that the next step would likely be to make my lenses in what she called biconcave, which would place some of my prescription in the front of the lens. I thought that would be neat, but this time I was happy with having flat fronts again. I told my parents that I needed stronger glasses so that they would not be too shocked, and when I got my new glasses, I was happy with them. They were definitely thicker and there was a bit of a circle at the outside edge of the frame where the power of the lens stopped. I didn’t mind that because it was really not noticeable from the side I looked through. I could tell that they were stronger but once I had them adjusted so they were tight to my face and didn’t slip down my nose they felt great. Once I had worn my new glasses for a couple of months, I could tell that my natural vision had gotten worse. Now I could barely read a book without my glasses on, and I could not see things around my room clearly. To me this meant that I was actually becoming nearsighted, and I was happy about this. I hoped that by the time I turned 15 and was in grade 10 I would be able to get a pair of glasses with the biconcave lenses the optician had told me about. I had read a bit about biconcave lenses, but I had never seen a pair in real life. One day I tried my friend Anita’s new glasses on. Every other time I had been able to see really clearly through Anita’s glasses, but now I couldn’t, and I knew I needed a stronger prescription than Anita wore. Anita latest increase had brought her up to -5.50D so I knew I had to be around -7.00D or maybe a little more. This aroused me sexually even though I didn’t know why it should. I could barely push my glasses any tighter to my nose and when I tried my eyelashes would brush the lenses. I loved the feeling of my glasses right tight to my face and I was pretty sure that the strong glasses I was wearing were making me more myopic daily. I went a little past my 15th birthday before I complained to my parents that I needed another eye exam and probably stronger glasses again. I had tried wearing my original -10.50D glasses and was happy that now I could see perfectly while wearing them. I hoped that if I pulled my old trick of letting my eye doctor put the strongest lens I could tolerate in front of my eyes that I would then be able to get glasses with biconcave lenses. By now the four of us were in grade 10 at high school and one of our teachers occasionally wore a pair of glasses that looked to be dished in on the front, but they had smaller circles on the back side that she looked through. I liked those glasses a lot and I wondered if it would ever come to the point where I could get a pair like that. This time I managed to bring my prescription up to -14.50D. If I could have gone another little bit my glasses would have been as strong as my age but once again, I stopped as soon as the letters started to blur. This time the doctor just wrote me out a new prescription without even trying me with the trial frame. This was a bigger jump than I had had the last time so the doctor suggested that I should come back in 6 months’ time if I noticed my vision getting worse. He also told me that it looked like I had progressive myopia and that he needed to keep an eye on my retinas to ensure that there was no deterioration. This time there was another optician at the optical store. She told me that they might have a hard time making my prescription in regular plastic, but I told her that my parents didn’t have the money for the more expensive lenses. She never would have understood if I had told her I loved the thick lenses and didn’t want the thin ones, I was a little surprised that she didn’t tell me that my new glasses would have the lenses that were dished in on the front as well, because the other girl certainly had told me that I would need that. I didn’t say anything, but when I picked up my new glasses, I wished I had talked to her about biconcave lenses because my new lenses were still flat on the front. The area around the lens that had no prescription was a little larger, and when I asked the lady about that she told me that they had used as much of the lens blank as was available. I was happy with my glasses, and they didn’t seem as strong as I thought they would, so I left wearing them. Now I had 2 old pairs that were no longer suitable to wear. After I got home, I tried my old -10.50D glasses on again. I was a little surprised that I could no longer see clearly when I wore them, as just a few weeks earlier I had tried them, and they seemed perfect for me. I was not unhappy about this, as I knew I wanted even stronger glasses. My new glasses looked considerably stronger, and now when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was really pleased that they looked so strong. Ms. Rose, the teacher that wore the glasses that were dished in on the front noticed my new glasses and told me that it looked like I also had progressive myopia. She asked how strong my new glasses were and when I told her I was now -14.50D she told me that her glasses were a good -10D stronger. She knew I was 15 years old, and she told me that my prescription would likely keep increasing for another 10 years. I asked her about her glasses, and she told me they were myodiscs with a concave front base and they were right around -25D. She also told me that if I wanted to keep the flat front I was used to wearing, my circle that I looked through would get smaller and smaller as my prescription increased. I felt like telling her I could hardly wait for that to happen, but I suspected that she would not understand and would think I was being sarcastic. Carla had gotten contact lenses when she had her last prescription increase. Her latest glasses were -11.75 and her contact lenses were -10D. Now she hardly ever wore her glasses but one day she had an eye infection and she had to wear her glasses to school. She called me that night in a panic as somehow, she had broken her glasses trying to adjust them, so they felt more comfortable. I brought my old -12D glasses to school for her the next day and she had to wear them for a week before she got her lenses put into new frames and could go back to wearing her contacts. Anita and Christine had also both gotten contact lenses, so I was the only one left still wearing glasses. All three of them tried to talk me into getting contact lenses, but I kept telling them I liked wearing glasses. What was a little surprising to me though was that both Anita and Christine were wearing -9.00D contacts, so that meant that both of them now needed somewhere around -10D for their glasses. I had not been trying, but it seemed that quite a few of the guys around school must have liked girls with glasses because I was getting asked out more than the other three were. We were all fairly attractive girls and we all had nice figures so the only thing different was the fact that I wore my thick glasses instead of contacts. We talked about that a lot and finally Cristine went back to wearing glasses. She found that she had more guys hanging around her when she was wearing her glasses, so she gave up on contacts. Before long both Anita and Carla went back to wearing glasses and we all seemed to have plenty of dates. I still seemed to have the most guys hanging around, but that might have been because I was being pretty selective about who I dated. I could no longer see well enough without glasses to watch the watchers. But I could feel that they were there, looking at me as I played with my glasses. I would take them off and place them on the cafeteria table so I could rub my eyes. Or I would clean them with a cloth and in doing so I would take then on and off a few times, trying to get that last smudge from the lenses. Actually, they were clean enough, but no one knew that if they were watching. Once in a while one of the many guys who were trying to date me would come along and sit down while I was doing this, and he would ask if he could help me to get my glasses clean. Occasionally, if I liked the looks of the guy, I would let him take my glasses and the cleaning cloth and clean them for me. I did go back to my eye doctor at the 6-month mark, but I told him my glasses seemed to be just fine for now. He checked my retina’s and pronounced them healthy, so I was good until after I turned 16. As I approached my 16th birthday, I could tell that for the first time my glasses were no longer strong enough. In 3 years, I had developed over 15 diopters of myopia and I didn’t know how I had managed to do this. I wanted to apply for my learner’s permit like my other 3 friends had done. Anita had failed the eye exam part and had to get new glasses. Carla had gotten new glasses before she applied, and Cristine had gotten new glasses a couple of months earlier. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if I also needed new glasses before I got my permit. I went back to my eye doctor and by doing the same as I had always done, I ended up leaving there with a new prescription for -17D glasses. He also signed a slip for me saying that my corrected vision was better than 20/25 so I could forgo the eye exam at the license office. This time the girl at the optician’s told me I had a choice. I could go with a smaller circle for my lenses, which would make them a true myodisc, or I could try a biconcave lens. I chose the biconcave lens and the front of my lens now had -4D in it while the rear had -13D ground into it. When I picked up my new glasses at first, I regretted having gotten the biconcave lenses. When I swung my head fast, I could get dizzy. When I walked down a hallway it was like walking in a tunnel, and when I came up to a doorway the sides of the doorway seemed to widen in the center and get smaller at the top and the bottom. The only part of the lens I could really see clearly through was the very center, and when I complained to the optician who had fitted my glasses about this, she told me that no matter what type of lens I got my vision now would only be clear through the very center of the lens. She was willing to exchange my lenses for myodiscs, but she suggested that I should try wearing my new glasses for a couple of weeks and then see if I adapted. I did that, and I did adapt. I reached the point where I actually liked the biconcave lenses, and I was determined to get the same type of lens if and when I had another increase. When I turned 17 my next increase took me up to -18.50D and my front surface of my new lenses was done on a -6D base. My optician had stopped trying to convince me to get hi index lenses and the only thing she told me was that a -6D base was about the strongest power they could use in the front of the lens. She told me of one customer that she had who had needed -30D lenses and they had tried to put -10D in the front of his lenses but he could not adapt to the higher base power. She seemed to take it as a given that my glasses were going to increase in power before my eyes stabilized, and in fact she told me that there was a possibility that my eyes never would stabilize. I worried a little bit about this, and the following year when I turned 18, I had graduated from high school and was heading off to college to take my graphic arts classes. I went back to my eye doctor for my 6-month appointment, and I did not tell him I needed an increase until I was 19 and was at the end of my first year of college. This increase put me right at -20D and I again went for the -6D front base. This time the back of the lens was -14D and I was approaching myodisc territory for the lens once again. This time my eye doctor told me that I seemed to be losing a bit of my accommodation. I asked him if I should be worried, and he explained to me that this was fairly normal and that I still seemed to have plenty of accommodation for my age. He then went on to tell me that he had noticed that when I first came to him, I had much better accommodation than most people. I didn’t put it all together right then and as he went on to explain to me that most children had up to 10 diopters of accommodation when they were young, but it gradually reduces until the age of 40, when they reach a point where they can no longer read without reading glasses, I started to wonder a bit. I thought about this for a while. His receptionist had told me a few years ago that there was a note in my file that I was not able to have the auto refractor used on me. Was it possible that my accommodation was so good that I was able to easily wear Carla’s old -7.50D glasses? Was my extremely good accommodation the reason why I was able to get my own -10.50D glasses? I was sure that as my accommodation lessened that my myopia had increased and now I likely only could muster about an extra -3D of accommodation. But it didn’t really matter, and I loved wearing my high minus glasses with the biconcave lenses, so I didn’t care if I had over accommodated as a teenager. Even though we had gone our separate ways after we all graduated from high school, we still got together for lunch on weekends at least once a month. Carla had gone through a number of pairs of new glasses throughout high school, and she was now wearing -21D hi index lenses in her glasses. She was almost 21 now, and her prescription was going to match her age. Both Cristine and Anita had gone through a period of myopic progression as well, and while Carla and I wore the strongest glasses, both of them were getting close to the -20D range. Cristine was going through to become an optometrist and Anita was studying to become a lawyer, specializing in corporate law. Carla surprised me as she was going to become a kindergarten teacher. I think all three of them had spent the extra money for hi index lenses in their glasses because my glasses still appeared to be the thickest and strongest, even though Carla’s presently were. One Saturday at one of our lunches I asked Cristine why my doctor never used the auto refractor on me before an eye exam. She told me that usually the auto refractor would give the doctor a good starting point for determining your prescription. But once in a while they would have a younger child come in who would already be wearing glasses and the auto refractor would show that they didn’t need glasses at all. But then when they tested the child with their glasses on the child would show that with their glasses on their eyesight was perfect. And then when the eye doctor himself checked the child’s eyes the doctor would find that the child actually required an even stronger prescription than what was in their current glasses. When this happened, they called this accommodative myopia, and the doctor generally gave the child the best prescription that they could see the chart with. Just like the doctor did with me, they would use trial lenses and let the child go for a while wearing the prescription the doctor had determined was best, and then do a retest to see if the prescription was correct. After hearing Cristine tell me this, I suspected that when I was 13 and went into the doctor office wearing Carla’s old -7.50D glasses the autorefractor had shown that I did not need glasses. Then when I was tested with Carla’s old glasses on the autorefractor had again shown that my vision was perfect. I bet if they had tested me with the trial lenses the doctor made me wear, the auto refractor would have shown that prescription to also be perfect for me. At that time, my own accommodation must have been better than -10D. After hearing this my ability to wear the first pair of -10.50D glasses made perfect sense to me, and now I loved the fact that I needed my -20D biconcave lenses to see the world clearly. My 3 friends could not understand me. When we were at lunch together, they often discussed the thoughts of having an operation to give them perfect eyesight without glasses and all three of them were in favor of having their eyesight fixed. I told them that I would never take a chance on having any sort of operation until I reached the point where I needed cataracts removed. Cristine agreed with me that lens implant surgery was not a cost-effective method, as that often lead to premature cataracts. All 4 of us were far beyond the range of permissible laser eye surgery. Radial keratotomy was not recommended for high prescriptions. Our only options were glasses or contact lenses and while the other 3 had tried, and still wore contacts occasionally I had refused to even try them, I never told them that I loved wearing my thick glasses and would do absolutely nothing to change that. I did say that I thought the next time I needed my prescription increased I would consider trying the same hi index lenses that Carla wore in her glasses though. Anita and Cristine both had boyfriends. They were decent solid guys who really seemed to love their girls. I had 2 or 3 guys I went out with frequently and had a very solid social life. Carla however seemed to have trouble finding boyfriends, so I introduced her to the one I felt I was least likely to marry. Eric was very good looking and had a great job. He was really attentive and was a gentleman. Carla, while very attractive, seemed to have a bit of an insecurity complex. I suspected that this came from having been teased about her glasses at school. She wore glasses almost from the time she went to grade 1, and her -7.50 glasses were pretty strong by the time we were in grade 7. I think that she had worried too much about the fact that she wore thicker glasses than anyone else. I do know that when we were in grade 8, and she needed even stronger glasses she hated the fact that her eyes were so bad, and when I was able to wear her glasses when she got new ones, she became a very close friend. It made her a little less insecure when I ended up that year having to wear even stronger glasses than she did. Eric and Carla hit it off. I thought he might be a good match for her, and it was a relief to find that I had been correct. I was still bouncing back between Carl and Sam, and I was skirting around the subject of marriage with both of them. I was in my final year of a 3-year course, and I was going to graduate that spring. It was time for my annual eye exam, and while I had not had an increase for the past 2 years, I was thinking that I needed to increase my prescription once again, as I expected that my chance to do this was rapidly diminishing. I had been struggling to see things clearly for a month or more when I made my next appointment, and while I kind of liked the feeling of not being able to see clearly without squinting I preferred to have the proper correction. I was a bit surprised when my new prescription ended up being -24D. This was a huge jump from my previous -20D prescription. That increase had been the first time that my prescription was higher than my age, but now my prescription was -3D stronger than my age. I did order new glasses with hi index plastic lenses in a trendy wayfarer type frame and they looked thick but had flat fronts with only a small area at the outer edges that had no prescription. I must admit that they looked better on me than my previous biconcave lenses had looked. Sam seemed to be a little more apprehensive about our future together after my prescription increase, and he asked me if my doctor thought my eyesight would get even worse. I told him that my doctor had suggested that I might have progressive myopia and my prescription could indeed get slightly worse. I didn’t wait to see what would happen between Sam and myself. I took the initiative to drop him and although he called a couple more times, I told him I was busy. Carl loved my appearance wearing my new glasses and he never once asked if my eyesight would deteriorate further. I was a little surprised when Carl suggested that because I was so dependent on my glasses to see anything more than a couple of inches past my nose, he would be willing to buy me a spare pair of glasses. When I asked him what he suggested getting he wanted me to get another pair of the biconcave lenses. That is when I realized that Carl had a bit of an optical obsession and there was no better guy for me that a man who had a glasses fetish. That is why I was sitting in the food court of the mall. I was waiting for Carl, as we were going to do two things. We were going to go to the optical store where his mother always got her glasses and order me a spare pair of glasses. We were also going to go to the jewelry store, where we were going to pick out an engagement ring and our wedding bands. I had said yes to his proposal of marriage and now I was going to become the second very nearsighted Ms. Rose. Carl’s mother had been my extremely nearsighted high school teacher whose glasses I had stared at and envied so often. Specs4ever Dec 2020