When I married it was no surprise that my wife Alicia was a nearsighted woman. Her myopia was not as high as I would have liked it to be, as I rather preferred the girls who wore thicker glasses. But I was smart enough to realize that Alicia stroked the fires in other ways, and as long as she wore her glasses once in a while, I knew this would satisfy me. Before we had any children, I always made sure that Alicia had yearly eye exams, and her new glasses were as stylish and as thin lensed as we could afford. After 5 years, when Alicia took a year off teaching to have our first child, Annalee, her prescription was a respectable -7.25D, a slight, but not remarkable, increase from the -5.75D she had when we were married. The year she was home, after she finished breast feeding Annalee, brought about another slight increase, and now her latest glasses were right at -8.00D while her new contact lenses were -7.50D. This was in 2001, and the most cost-effective plastic lenses were what was called 1.67 index. Her new glasses looked to be about the same thickness as the lenses that were in her old -5.75D glasses that she wore when we were first married. Because her glasses were no thicker, and because she wore contact lenses on about 90% of her exposure to people beyond the confines of our own house and property Alicia really never expressed any dislike for her dependence on glasses or contact lenses. They were just a nuisance that she had to deal with to see much of anything past the end of her nose. But with the birth of our son Robbie, her vision had deteriorated to the point where her new glasses were almost -10D and her new contacts were -9.00D. Laser surgery was all the vogue at the time and Alicia expressed her desire to have this surgery performed on her eyes. Fortunately, with this latest increase, her eyes had not been stable for the two years without any change that the eye doctor required, and while she waited for her eye doctor to announce that her eyes had stabilized one of her close friends had the surgery done. I felt very badly that Marcie had a very poor outcome as her vision was less than 20/20 and she saw double images along with halos around things, but at least because of this I had managed to avoid losing my nearsighted wife to this surgery. By the time Annalee had reached the age of 8 it was very evident that she was a reader. It seemed that a book was a natural extension of her nose, as she always had her nose buried in a book. I was pretty sure that this proclivity for reading, along with her mom’s myopic genetics, that Annalee would end up shortsighted. But she could still see anything that was pointed out to her at a distance, and she never seemed to squint at things. As Annalee approached the age of 9, her newest BFF (best friend forever) was a young lady named Sheila who was the same age, within a couple of weeks, of Annalee. Sheila was a little taller than Annalee and was a thin young lady with long blond hair that was often tied back in a ponytail. She wore glasses, but it wasn’t until I took a really close look at Sheila that I was able to determine that Sheila’s glasses had a pretty decent script in them. The lenses were round, and her frames were a tortoiseshell color that went well with her blond hair. From observing the cut in and the power rings that only showed themselves when viewed from the side I surmised that Sheila had a prescription that was at least as strong as my wife’s present prescription. Alicia had started off with a pretty low prescription when she was around 9, and now at age 36, after 27 years of wearing glasses, had just recently attained her now -10D prescription. I had to wonder how strong Sheila’s prescription would be after she had worn glasses for that long. Annalee spent as much time at Sheila’s house as Sheila spent at ours. And when Annalee was at home by herself she spent most of her time reading – still with her book as an extension of her nose. It wasn’t long after her 9th birthday that my wife and I began to notice that Annalee no longer seemed to be able to see well at a distance. When we asked her if she was having trouble at school, she mentioned that her teacher had moved her to the front row of seats. I was interested in seeing just how poor her eyesight was so I took Annalee into the kitchen, determined where I could read the numbers on the wall calendar and then asked Annalee what she could see. She could not read anything on the calendar. Knowing that children generally had quite a bit of accommodation in their eyes, I asked Alicia if she could get out the weakest pair of old glasses that she still had. She brought me the pair of -5.75D glasses and although I wished she still had a pair with a lower prescription I had Annalee put them on and then I asked her what she could read with them on. She surprised me by reading everything I pointed out on the calendar. This completely shocked Alicia, as she had told me that there was no way Analee’s eyes were bad enough to wear an old pair of her glasses. I had suspected that she was correct, but I knew that even if Analee only needed as low as a -2D she would still likely be able to focus through glasses with a stronger prescription. It was at that point that Annalee admitted that when she first noticed that she could no longer see things in the distance that Sheila had told her that she was probably a little nearsighted and that she needed glasses. Annalee had tried on a few pairs of Sheila’s old glasses, and she had been able to see so much better that Sheila had loaned her the pair she seemed to be able to see the best with. I did not translate that to my wife, but what I gleaned from that conversation was that Annalee had been wearing Sheila’s old glasses as much and as often as she had been able to. I suspected that she had been wearing Sheila’s old glasses all of the time that she had been upstairs reading in her bedroom. I did not pressure Annalee, but I did ask her to go up to her room and bring the old glasses of Sheila’s that she had been wearing back down so that we could see just how much better she could see while she was wearing them. Alicia had not suspected that Annalee had been wearing Sheila’s glasses as much as I thought she likely had been. Nor had she thought that Sheila’s current glasses were anywhere close to the strength of the prescription in her own glasses. And when Annalee came down wearing the old pair of glasses of Sheila’s that she had been wearing I suspected that those glasses were even stronger than Alicia’s old -5.75D glasses. They were in an attractive child sized frame that was more appropriate for Annalee’s face, and I knew that they were at least as strong, or stronger than the -5.75D pair. Annalee could see the calendar quite well with them on, and I managed to convince Alicia that it should not be a problem for Annalee to wear them until we were able to get Annalee an appointment with the same eye doctor that Alicia had used and trusted all of her life. I really don’t know if Annalee had wanted to wear glasses or if her eyesight had actually started to deteriorate on its own. Her poor habit of bringing her reading materials quite close to her face had likely jump started her myopia, and this would also likely accelerate her myopic progression. She seemed to really enjoy having better vision while wearing Sheila’s old glasses and we did not hear a word of complaint from her. Even when Alicia discovered that Dr. Jacobs, her preferred eye doctor, was in Europe on holidays for 4 weeks and that he was booked solid for the first 2 weeks of his return Annalee didn’t seem to mind continuing to wear Sheila’s old glasses. When the day of her eye exam came Annalee was sick. She could not go to school, nor did she want to go to see the eye doctor. The next date she could get for an eye exam was another 2 weeks away, and by the time she had her eyesight properly examined she had been wearing what turned out to be -7D glasses for a full 2 months. Alicia had not guessed that Sheila’s old glasses were that strong, but I had suspected that there was a fairly substantial prescription in them. And, from the way Annalee had been squinting for the past couple of weeks I had a feeling that her own prescription would end up being a lot stronger. I was not totally surprised to find out that Annalee saw quite well now with a prescription of -9D for both eyes, but I was a little surprised to find out that Alicia had experienced another -0.75D increase. She could no longer buy her contact lenses in 0.75D steps as they now went up by -0.50D and Dr. Jacobs prescribed -10D contacts so now her new glasses were going to be -11.50D to match her contacts. Knowing that there was a 100% certainty that Annalee was going to need her own glasses I had been doing some research online. I had asked Alicia to get a price on the glasses from Dr. Jacob’s optical dispensary, and once she brought home the details, I looked at possibly ordering glasses online. She had already ordered her new contacts from the doctor though. The online prices for glasses were quite a bit cheaper. Dr. Jacobs had been rather shocked that Annalee required such a strong prescription at her age, and he had warned Alicia that it was quite likely that Annalee would need another eye exam and possibly stronger glasses within the next 6 months. Alicia didn’t like the sounds of that, but it was easy for me to talk her into allowing me to order Annalee’s new glasses with regular plastic lenses. Alicia wanted her own new glasses to have hi index lenses and I ordered them with the 1.74 hi index plastic option for the same price as Dr. Jacobs wanted for the 1.67 index lenses. I didn’t tell anyone that I had also ordered a second pair for Annalee in the exact same frame but with 1.67 index lenses with a -12.50D prescription. I still wasn’t sure if Annalee really wanted to wear strong glasses, but I did know that a girl of her age could easily overcome -3.50D of extra power if she wanted to. And if I waited until I noticed her squinting, I felt it would be easier to talk her into wearing the stronger glasses if she wanted to. I don’t know what would have happened if Annalee had not been home when the package containing the glasses arrived. I may never have told her about the second pair of glasses, but she had already opened the 3 glasses cases and had found the 2 pairs of young girls’ glasses with the identical frame. Fortunately, I had arrived home before my wife that evening and I told Annalee the truth. I told her that I had ordered the second pair of glasses with high index lenses that were a little bit stronger than she currently needed and if she started having trouble seeing things in the distance again, I planned to give them to her to wear without telling her mom as her mom would worry, and likely make a big fuss over the fact that Annalee’s vision was deteriorating so rapidly. Annalee agreed not to say anything to her mom, and I hid the second pair of glasses away. It was around 5 months later when Annalee came to me and told me that she could not see very well at school. She was now close to her 10th birthday and I told her that I would give her the new glasses on her birthday. I thought that 5 months was a very rapid deterioration if her eyesight had jumped enough that her -9.00D glasses were no longer strong enough for her, However I also had a feeling that Annalee wanted her new glasses to be stronger, even though I had told her that being very nearsighted could cause serious problems later on in life. I sort of suspected that Annalee wanted stronger glasses because her friend Sheila had recently gotten new glasses, and Annalee had told me when she said she wanted to wear the other glasses that she had tried Sheila’s new glasses and she could see really well when she wore them. Alicia did not notice that the new glasses looked any different than Annalee’s old glasses, which was what I had hoped, and with her wearing the -12.50D glasses Annalee ended up not having another eye exam until she reached her 11th birthday. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. As a father, even though I loved seeing people wearing strong glasses, I really didn’t want my little girl to end up with an extremely strong prescription. The ages of 9 through 13 are the years where children often develop their myopia, especially females, because the female hormones cause soft tissue to grow, and eyeballs are soft tissue. By wearing strong glasses and doing a lot of close work, such as schoolwork and reading some children are susceptible to becoming very myopic. Both Sheila and Annalee were much higher myopes than other children their age, and this would likely lead to them having rather high prescriptions by the time they both reached their mid-20’s and their myopic progression slowed naturally. Just prior to Annalee’s eye doctor appointment we found out that Sheila was having a treatment for her eyes that would supposedly slow down her myopic advances. The treatment called for daily use of low dosage atropine drops. These 0.1% atropine drops had to be used in Sheila’s eyes every day, and after 3 months her eye doctor wanted to see her again before continuing. It was not anticipated that the atropine drops would completely stop the progression of Sheila’s high myopia, but the doctor was hoping that it would slow it down to as little as -0.50D a year. Sheila had recently had her prescription climb to -14.00D, and having this strong a prescription at her age was worrisome enough for her parents to ask the doctor to try the atropine. Alicia and I talked about trying this for Annalee, but since the use of Atropine was not really mainstream and wasn’t approved or paid for by most health care plans, we decided we would wait to see how Sheila’s trial came out before we paid out of pocket for Annalee. Annalee did not want to wear her original -9.00D glasses to her eye doctor visit. She told me that she couldn’t see a thing, and while I knew that she was going around -3.50D short of what she normally wore, I also realized that the doctor’s office would know what prescription was in the lenses of the glasses that Annalee wore there. And her new prescription was going to be so much higher than her old -9.00D glasses were that I prepared Annalee for some of the questions that the doctor was going to ask. She was going to say that her glasses had been all right for her until a couple of months ago and she asked her mommy to make her an appointment to have her eyes checked. Annalee had not said much about not being able to see fairly well wearing the -12.50D glasses, so it was a little bit of a surprise to me when the doctor told me that Annalee had needed a sizeable jump. The lowest prescription he could give her was –13.50D, but he suggested adding another -0.50D, which would make her new glasses the same prescription as Sheila’s were going to be. I spoke to Annalee’s doctor about the atropine treatment that Sheila was having, and he said he knew about it, but had not treated any patients with it yet. He suggested that he would call Sheila’s eye doctor to see if he could find out more about it and would call me. I told him that if there was anything that would prevent my little girl from becoming more myopic, I was willing to try it. I also mentioned that since Annalee was now 11, the sooner the treatment started the better, because apparently the Atropine was only effective if the treatment started before the age of 15. After that it was too late. I sort of regretted allowing my attraction to strong glasses to bypass my intelligent thinking when I ordered the -12.50D glasses for Annalee. Part of me would have liked to see her end up wearing glasses in the -22D to -25D range, but I knew that this could, and would, cause problems for her later in life. And when her new -14D glasses with the 1.67 index lenses came in I was extremely satisfied with her appearance. These glasses were just perfect for me to look at. Annalee’s eye doctor called, and we agreed to start Annalee on a treatment of once daily atropine drops in a 0.1% solution. These eye drops cost us $70.00 out of pocket for a 3-month supply and we were to use them daily for 3 months before bringing Annalee back in for another eye exam. I also did my best to try to have Annalee stretch the distance that she read at a little, so now she seemed to be reading at a much better distance. She still brought her reading material to within about 10” from her face at times, but for a lot of the time she read at around 13”. We reduced the screen time she spent with a tablet, and we tried to get her to spend more time outdoors. It helped that Sheila’s parents were doing the same things with her, so it made it a lot easier with the 2 girls supporting each other. At the 3-month visit our doctor told us that Annalee’s prescription had increased by another -0.50D. He suggested that we should not order new glasses for her, as this amount of increase was considered insignificant and that he would like to follow up in another 3 months. We were relieved. At the end of 6 month’s Annalee still tested at -14.50D. The doctor did suggest that now we should bring her prescription in her glasses to what she tested at. We did that, and we continued the Atropine drops. A year after starting the Atropine Annalee still tested at -14.50, which was an excellent result. We had also taken Robbie in to have his eyes tested as well. The poor guy had sort of been forgotten about with all the vision troubles Annalee had been having. Fortunately, Robbie, who was 10 at this time had very good vision and did not need glasses. Sheila had been using the Atropine drops for about 3 months longer than Annalee. It had not worked as well for her as it had for Analee, as her prescription had increased twice during the year and her latest exam showed that she now needed -15.00D. No one could tell how much of an increase she might have had without the Atropine, so her parents were quite willing to leave Sheila on the drops until she turned 15, which is what the doctor had suggested. We were quite pleased when 3 months later Annalee had her 6-month checkup, and her prescription was still stable at -14.50D. And at her 2-year checkup when she was 13 her prescription still remained the same. When Annalee had her next checkup just after she turned 14 her prescription had climbed by -0.50D. We celebrated the low increase with a nice new pair of -15.00D glasses and both Alicia and I were pleased at such a minor increase, as we had been warned that she would likely see an increase of about -0.50D a year and she had gone 2 years. The low dose Atropine experiment was going to last for another year and then she would go off it and be monitored during the following year. Any increase over -0.50D would have her back on the atropine until she turned 18 though. By the time the girls turned 15 Sheila had been using the Atropine drops for about 3 months longer than Annalee. Both girls still had the identical -15.00D prescriptions, so it appeared that their myopic progression had come to a halt. Unfortunately, when Sheila had her 6-month checkup after stopping the Atropine she had gone up another -1.00D so her doctor recommended that Sheila should go back to using the Atropine drops. When Annalee had her 6-month exam after stopping her atropine treatment, she had also increased her prescription by the same amount as Sheila had. Both girls had gotten new -16D glasses with different frames so they could trade glasses whenever they felt like it. Both girls were back on the Atropine drops until they turned 18. The Atropine seemed to have worked because their prescriptions stayed right at -16D. And this time, even after they went off the Atropine drops neither girl had any increase well into their 20’s and the chance of an increase diminished. Since our son Robbie has never needed glasses, I have to wonder if Annalee created her own myopia by wearing Sheila’s old glasses. And I certainly did not help the matter when I ordered her a pair of stronger glasses. Alicia could possibly have passed on the myopia gene to Annalee, as I have often read that more females wear glasses than males. I guess I will never know for sure. However, I do feel it was fortunate that the Atropine treatment slowed down both Annalee and Sheila’s progression before their myopia got into or above the -20D range. Specs4ever Feb 2020