The next day was Saturday and so Suzy had a bit of a lie in, but she could hear her mum on the phone to the opticians booking an appointment. She heard her mum put the phone down and then she knocked on her door – “Suzy, are you awake?”. Suzy drearily affirmed that she was “Good, the opticians have had a cancellation at 11.30 this morning so you need to get up and I’ll take you into town”. It was going to be a much earlier start than she wanted on a Saturday, but she was intrigued by the prospect of having her first eye test and potentially getting a pair of glasses of her own. After showering and getting dressed, Suzy had a quick slice of toast for breakfast and her mum drove her towards the town centre. On the way her mum explained that she had some new glasses on order and although they weren’t due for collection for a couple of days she was hopeful that they might be in early so she could collect them at the same time. Suzy took the opportunity to ask her mum about her eyesight and how long she had been wearing glasses. “Well, I got my first pair when I was at university. I started getting headaches when I was reading or writing essays and after visiting my doctor he suggested that I went for an eye test. It turned out that I was long-sighted and I got some glasses which I was told to wear all the time, but they didn’t make a lot of difference for distance so I only wore them for reading and other close work and that’s what I’ve worn them for ever since, although that will change when I pick my new specs up” Suzy was intrigued and asked her mum why that was. “I’ve started to notice that things in the distance were a bit blurry, so I went for an eye test and I now need to wear glasses full time and my new glasses will be varifocals. I’m not too sure about these as my friend Pam got some earlier this year and really couldn’t get on with them at all – apparently you look through different parts of the lens depending on which distance you need to focus on. Pam found it all a bit confusing.” Soon they were in the town centre and parked up and walked towards the opticians which was in the High Street. After booking in with a receptionist who also confirmed that Suzy’s mum’s glasses were indeed ready for collection, they took a seat waiting to be served. Suzy looked around the shop at all the glasses displayed on racks on the wall – so many different shapes and colours – she was quite excited to be able to try on some different styles. Soon a lady came across and said: “Janette Jones?” and Suzy’s mum confirmed that was her “I’ve got your new glasses ready for fitting – do you want to come over here?”. Suzy’s mum checked that Suzy was OK to go in for the eye test without her, which she was and then disappeared to a little booth on the other side of the shop with the lady. Only a few moments later, an elderly man with a clipboard came over and said “Susan Jones?” – Suzy confirmed that was her and the man asked her to follow him towards the back of the shop. He led her down a corridor and into a dark room where he invited her to sit in the big consulting chair. Suzy was a bit nervous and didn’t really know what to expect next, but the man seemed kind and friendly and soon had her at ease. He asked her what prompted her to book an eye test today and Suzy told him about her headaches, rubbing her eyes, difficulty focussing and how much easier things were when she borrowed a pair of her mum’s old reading glasses. The man nodded and then asked Suzy if she could read the letters on the chart on the opposite wall. Suzy could read the chart pretty well but could feel her eyes straining a bit as she struggled to read the bottom two lines and had a bit of a guess at a couple of letters. The optician then put a funny pair of glasses onto Suzy’s face and started swapping lenses in and out of it one eye at a time and then instead of looking at the letters she had to decide whether some concentric circles were clearer on a red or a green background. He looked into her eyes with some kind of microscope thing and also asked her to read a handheld chart with progressively smaller writing on it whilst wearing these funny glasses. They must have had prescription lenses in them because she could read even the smallest writing without straining at all. She then had to look back up at the main eye chart to see if she could read the bottom line of the chart, she couldn’t clearly so he swapped some lenses in and out and then she could see it just fine. After that he removed the funny glasses and told her to relax. “Well Susan”, said the optician, “I can see why you might have found reading easier with your mum’s old reading glasses. You are what we call hyperopic, or long sighted, this means that instead of being able to focus on things in the distance when your eyes are relaxed, you need to use your eye muscles to bring things into focus. To bring things into focus for close up you need to work your eye muscles even harder which is why you are getting headaches and blurry vision. It’s quite easily fixed, you’ll be pleased to know, we can get you a pair of glasses – or rather, I’m going to suggest two pairs of glasses. You see, if I gave you the full prescription now, your eye muscles wouldn’t relax enough immediately and you’d find the glasses too strong for distance. I’m therefore going to suggest that you wear a weaker prescription to start with, but we’ll get you another pair with the full prescription in that you can wear when reading or studying.” Suzy was a bit surprised “so do I need to wear glasses all the time? I thought I needed them for reading only?” The optician smiled and said “You would really benefit from wearing them the whole time, your eyes are having to work quite hard to bring things into focus in the distance. Once your eyes relax a bit, you’ll notice the benefit. You also have a small amount of astigmatism – slightly more in your left eye than your right. Wearing glasses will therefore make things clearer at all distances.” So that was it, Suzy was going to be a full-time glasses wearer and now had to go and choose some frames to wear – not just one pair, but two. The Optician handed Suzy a blue folded card which said “Your Prescription” on the front, in which he had written her name and date of birth and ticked the box which said “New Prescription”. Under this were a whole load of numbers that Suzy did not understand but resolved to do some research on next time she went to the library. He led her out to the front of the shop where her mum was waiting for her wearing a new pair of glasses, plastic frames again but rounder and larger than before in a dusky pink colour. The optician spoke to the lady who had served her mum and said – could you help Miss Jones pick out some frames please. I am suggesting that she gets two pairs – one for regular daily use in a reduced prescription and then her full prescription in a second pair which she can wear for reading and studying only. I’d like to see her again in 6 months so we can see how she’s getting on.” Her mum smiled at Suzy and said, well let’s get choosing some frames for you then. Suzy didn’t really know where to start but the lady in the shop was really helpful and patient and they tried on all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours, styles until they had narrowed it down to about 4 pairs. The first pair were Dolland and Aitchison’s own brand frames, they were oval in shape with a mottled blue and clear plastic design with gold arms. The lady in the shop said they were a really good fit with Suzy’s face and she quite liked them but thought they might be a bit boring. The second pair were also D&A’s own brand and also plastic, but these were a larger lens size and rounder in shape. They were a burgundy colour at the outer edges but clear plastic in the middle and on the nose. The arms were gold again but where the hinges joined the frame was interesting as it kind of split in two and hinged at both the top and bottom of the front part of the frame. The third pair were gold metal and a kind of squared off oval shape, also quite large. They had a thick tortoise shell arm The fourth pair were made by Silhouette, were clear plastic but with navy blue on the edges and had a dip in the arm so they hinged at the bottom of the frame. The lady said the design was called a “drop temple” and was very fashionable. Suzy tried them all on repeatedly, one after the other, looked at herself sideways on with hair up and hair down. After multiple try on sessions she decided she liked the second pair and the fourth pair the most and both her mum and the shop assistant agreed that she had made a good choice. She then just had to decide which ones she would wear most of the time and which ones just for prolonged close work. She decided that the Silhouette pair could be for reading as they might look a bit flash to wear every day at school – although she had seen a very glamourous looking girl from the year below wearing a similar pair in the library the other day. The lady took some measurements from her and then said she’d call the lab to see when they could get the glasses ready for her. Whilst she went to use the phone, Suzy looked again at the numbers on the prescription card: OS +1.25 -0.75 045 OD +1.25 -0.50 050 Add: +1.25 Note – patient’s full distance prescription includes the add but only half spherical power recommended for daily use until 6-month retest. This was all gobbledygook to her, but it confirmed what the optician had said about not giving her the full prescription for distance just yet. The lady came back to say they could have the glasses back by Friday afternoon and it was agreed if her mum paid now that Suzy could collect them on her way home from school. Suzy’s mum handed over her Access credit card and that was everything sorted. They walked back to the car and Suzy complemented her mum on her new glasses and asked how she could see out of them. Her mum said they were a bit weird when she looked down at the ground through the bottom part of the lens but the distance vision was great through the top and she seemed to be able to read well through the bottom too. She explained that she also had a new pair of single vision glasses just for reading. “How does your vision compared to mine now mum? I could see pretty well through your old glasses and wondered if I could borrow them again until mine came in – they really did help me.” “Oh, I don’t know about that darling. I’m sure my eyes are much worse than yours so I’m not sure you should” “I’ve got my official prescription now though, so maybe we could compare numbers and if they’re similar maybe it wouldn’t hurt too much” said Suzy. “Well I suppose we could look and if necessary I’ll give the opticians a ring to check. My prescription is in my purse if you want to compare the two”. Suzy opened her mum’s purse and found the prescription folded up in there. She took it out and examined it: OS +1.25 -0.50 040 OD +1.25 -0.50 060 Add: +1.00 “Mum, the numbers are really similar – some of them are identical. I think my eyesight is almost the same as yours!” “OK, well let me give the opticians a call when we get home and see what they say”. When they got home Janette rang the opticians and explained that they had just been in for Suzy’s eye test and that Suzy was asking about wearing her mum’s glasses for reading until she picked up her own next week. The person answering the phone explained that they would need to consult the optician and that they would call back when he had finished his next appointment. About 20 minutes later the phone rang and Janette answered it. When she put the phone down she explained to Suzy that the optician had said that as long as it was for reading only then it would not hurt at all for Suzy to wear her mum’s previous pair of glasses which were slightly weaker than both Suzy’s and her mum’s new prescriptions but close enough to help Suzy. Janette dug into her bag and took out the flowery case and handed it to Suzy saying: “only for reading the optician said, I guess I won’t be needing these any more now I’ve got my new varifocals and reading glasses anyway”. Suzy opened the case and took out the pink plastic frames. Now that everything was out in the open regarding her eyesight she had no embarrassment in trying the glasses on in front of her mum. They were a nice frame and when she picked up the newspaper on the kitchen table she could see even the smallest print really well. “These will be great for now, mum, I can read really clearly with them on” “That’s good darling, I’m glad our eyesight is so similar”. Suzy used her mum’s pink glasses all week to read at home, but was still longing for Friday when she could pick up her own glasses from the opticians. She told her friend Liz all about the eye test and the fact that she would be getting two pairs of glasses. Liz let her try hers on again, but she really couldn’t see that they made much difference at all – she wasn’t keen on the frames either although she didn’t say as much to Liz.
…to be continued