Hello! My name is Sam and I wanted to share my story… Feel free to comment and please excuse me if the grammar is not perfect, English isn´t my first language so I may have some mistakes Lol… Hope you enjoy it!
Being a 19 year old girl with very low visión isn’t easy. I remember when I was 6 years old, everybody wonder why I wasn’t like every other normal kid who played every evening softball, football, soccer or any game that involved a ball and to be honest I never found it interesting. I coudn’t understand the games, in fact I couldn’t understand what they were trying to do.
When I was 7 my uncle said that I should do some work out and he sugested I took swiming lessons.
My dad agreed and we went to the local pool to ask the things I needed to sign in. The requirements were swim suit, a swim cap, googles, ear plugs, a medical certificate and 10 bucks.
My mom took me and my sister to buy everything, my swimsuit, my swim cap, my towell and my googles, they were red and my flipflops were grey. Now it was time to get the medical certificate. I was a bit nervous, to be honest, but not because I thought something was wrong, I was nervous about seeing a doctor. You know the whole cliché of the guy in the white coat that takes your soul or pinches you with a huge sharp needle…
We went to the local hospital and a lady asked my mom my age, my name, my date of birth, my blood type, if I had diceases and all that sort of stuff. Then we had to wait around 20 minutes and I Heard my name
–Samantha Schmith? My mom and I steped up and went in.
-So, who’s Sam? -That would be me, I said dying of fear of the voice tone the doctor had, he seemed pretty grumpy. -Oh hi beautiful, I’m doctor Ryan Harvey but just call me Ryan. How are you feeling? (By this time his voice tone was soft and sweet) -Good, I hesitated. -Uhmmm you sure? What can I do for you? -I want to take swimming lessons and they said I have to have a medical certificate so they know I’m gonna be ok -Oh I get it. Please sit down here (And he pointed a funny looking chair) I sited there and I began to worry, why would he want me to sit there? Was I in trouble? Every other doctor signed the papers and I was off so why was he actually checking me? To make a long story short he checked me as good as previous doctors should have done. And then the bad part was about to start, he asked me if I had trouble seeing things at any distance or if I had worn glasses and I told him I didn’t. He looked at my mom and said: Well she is squinting a lot Mrs. Schmith, have you ever seen an eye doctor? And my mom told him the truth, I haven’t and she never notice I did such thing as squinting she did mention that I seemed to be a clumsy girl sometimes bumping into things or pretending I couldn’t see something but she thought I was playing the fool. He handed me a piece of paper and told me to read it but I didn’t know how to read yet, I did know the letters but that was it, I couldn’t put them togheter to make words. So he gave me another one that had figures in it and asked me what they were. I brought the paper close to my face but he stopped me. He placed the paper 30, maybe 40 cms away from me and I thought for a second he was kidding, there was no way someone could read at that distance. And I told him I couldn’t see some shapes (To be honest all I saw were grey big fuzzy dots), he asked me to sit in another funny chair and I did. He turned the light off and turned on a light in front of me and asked me to read something there. Of course I couldn’t! I remember thinking he must have been crazy because there was nothing there, NOTHING. He then puted a strange thing on my face. With a foot lever he got me up a Little and then he said we would do one eye at a time. He opened my right eye and I could see the light out of it but that was it, there was no text or figure… or ANYTHING! Then he switched something on the machine because I Heard a click and I saw the light brighter. -Nothing yet? (He sounded so surprised!) -Nope, what am I supposed to see? I Heard two quick clicks and I saw a big stain in front of me and I told him. Several clicks later we were checking the other eye and I was amazed I was able to se at such long distance. Then he told me: Now we’re going to try both eyes togheter and it was great! I saw a big E and every line till it was the 20/40 one! I did think the image was kinda doublé and mentioned this to him and he tried another ítem on his machine and that was it, 20/20 line!.
His jaw dropped and he asked me and Lindsay (my sister) to wait outside a bit and I was upseat I couldn’t see that chart anymore (I don’t know if you have worn glasses but once you try them, your whole life changes and you don’t feel alright without them).
When we went back in, my mom was crying and he had a really weird looking pair of glasses in his hand and asked me to try to look trhough them and see If I felt confortable. I took them and I swear it was amazing! I could see my sneeckers, I could even see my mom had a necklace and the doctors eyes! I told him so and he said there was something we needed to talk about.
The doctor said: –Hey Sam you are a pretty special girl you know? -Am I Doctor Harvey? -Yes, you are. Come here so I can explain a little better… I walked to his desk and he got a huge plastic eyeball and he started talking about it, reflection and light refraction… Things that made no scense to me. And then he asked me to take the trial glasses off and wen I did I realized just how bad things were. And I begged him to give them back to me and he said he couldn’t. -You have something that’s call Myopia Sam and it’s pretty high, I can’t even believe you had no troubles growing up with this kind of sight. -I never realized it was a problem, I thought it was the way things were. -Okay, but now what we’re going to do is get you a pair of glas… -GLASSES? Really???!! -Yes Sam, you need glasses… strong ones -But I don’t want to, everyone is make fun of me even more (everybody thought for some reason a was a good target to bully on) -There’s not much I can do Sammy, that’s just how things are and at you age I don’t think it’s a good idea to give you contacts (I cried so much)
Then he handed me a piece of paper and I swear I could read better before this whole thing, I just coudn’t see it and he told me it was my current prescription and it read:
R.E -7.5sp -1.5cyl ax70 L.E-6.5sp -1.5cyl ax120 (I don’t know if thats the way it’s supposed to be witten but that’s what the paper says lol)
-It’s a pretty high prescription for such a Young girl like you, but I already spoke to your mom about that (and he gave the nastiest look to my mom) Now I’m gonna check your eyes and your sisters as well every 6 months just to check you’re doing good ok?
- Ok, Doctor Ryan thank you. I headed to the door but before I opened it he said: You should get the glasses ASAP Mrs. Schmith, and she needs to wear them all the time Ok? If you have any question or trouble just let me know.
We went to the optical store and I was getting frustrated because now I felt that I couldn’t see a thing, I never knew I was missing that much things. The technician guy was very kind and he helped me and my mom deciding which frame I should pick and he gave us advices basing on the strenght. I had to wait 2 hours till I got my glasses, and when I picked them up I was both horrified and amazed!
They looked too thick to be honest! My eyes looked tiny behind them and they were the kind of glasses that when you see someone wearing them, you know they NEED them, like REALLY NEED THEM. But when I had them lying on my nose and the arms were sitting on my ears, I was speechless. I was able to see things I didn’t know I was supossed to see. The technician guy asked me how I was feeling and I told him I was really good, I could see my own reflection across the room and it was just wonderfull!!!
My mom told him the story and how I was just going for a medical certificate and we ended up getting glasses and he asked why did we need the certificate for?, she’ll take swimming lessons – she said, and he sugested I got prescription googles too because with my kind of prescription I would be pretty unconfortable without them. Maybe later, thank you so much –Said my mom while we got out of the optical store.
That day was the day that my life changed.
To make a long story short, we ended up getting the prescription googles cause without them I felt helpless, like REALLY helpless.
Years went by and diopters went up. Every six months things were fuzzy at a distance, and by the time I was 16 I was sick of geting up not being able to see my alarm clock and I know it was weird but I tried to challenge myself everyday and see what could I do without my glasses, and how many minutes or hours could pass without me wearing them.
It’s very hard to explain what my vision is like to normal sighted people, but I’ll try as hard as I can to explain one day I particulary remember…
I woke up because I Heard my clock beaping and with my eyes closed I tried to shut it off which was kind of easy because of the sound it was making. Next thing I did, I got up and went to the bathroom. I know how the furniture around me is arranged so I navigated just fine, although it always amazes me how blind I am! I remember a few years ago I could see my sisters door across the hall but all I saw now was a blur. Anyway I took a shower and my way to know which bottle was the shampoo one was to see the color of the blob in front of me. I went out and I dressed up and guess what? What was a mundane morning ended up with an earthquake… Dear god was I in trouble! I couldn’t see much so I ran outside and my mom gave me the loudest scream I have heard. When things were back to normal, he asked me why had I been without my glasses? Because he knew how bad I needed them, and I told him I was just trying to figure out what I was able to do without them. He turned red and I could see his eyes filled with wáter, he felt bad for his almost blind daughter…
Now I am 19 years old and my prescription is R.E -20.5sp -3.00cyl ax70 L.E-19sp -4.00cyl ax120
I found this site and I thought GOOD! Finally I know people who go through the same things I’ve been through or at least enjoy to read them lol :3
If you guys want me to share more experiences with you, I’d be more than happy… Just let me know. My visual acuity is 20/60 in my right eye and 20/40 in the left one so I have plenty of memories of things going wrong around me lol!
Thank you for Reading me !