Back in 1976 I was dating a rather attractive young lady named Michelle. She was, like every other girl I ever dated, a glasses wearer, and while her glasses were not the strongest pair of glasses I had ever dated, the wearer of these glasses was one of the nicest looking girls I had gone with. Michelle also had a very pleasant personality. She could be serious at times, but she certainly knew how to joke around when that was called for. Even though her glasses were a lot weaker than I would have preferred my wife to need I realized that a perfect pair of glasses would not necessarily mean that the girl would be nearly as wonderful a person as Michelle was. Sometime in 1977 Abba released a record called “Take A Chance on Me”. At the time we had been dating for about a year, and I had already floated the idea of us getting married. I hadn’t formally asked Michelle, but we had a few discussions and although I noticed a bit of reluctance on her part, I was pretty sure I would eventually be able to talk her into marriage eventually. With the release of that Abba song and the constant airplay that it received I was finally able to convince her to “take a chance on me.” We were married in 1979, almost 8 months before our daughter Angelina was born. During the time after our marriage and shortly after Angie was born, I knew I was going to have to either introduce Michelle to what I like to call “my hobby” or I would be forced to forget it forever, and I didn’t want to do that. Because of my interest in glasses, I had studied to become an optician and I had gotten my license just before we were married. Hard contact lenses had become easily available to the general public in the early 60’s, and a lot of people had tried them, but they were expensive and were fairly hard to adapt to. It required a lot of motivation for successful wear of hard contact lenses. When I was licensed as an optician, soft contacts had been on the market since 1971. The first soft lenses were not perfect, but they were much easier to wear than the hard lenses had been so by 1979 the soft contact lens market was really expanding. I had always loved the appearance of minus lensed glasses and early in my training I had put in a pair of +5D soft contacts and then had been able to wear a pair of -7D minus glasses. Theoretically I should have only needed -6D glasses, but I could easily wear the -7D ones, and I had been doing just that at work. Now I had to wear them home so I could explain myself to Michelle and show her how it was possible for me to wear glasses that were almost as strong as hers were. I will never forget the night that I wore my -7D glasses home from work. Michelle was sitting in her chair in the living room breast feeding Angie, and she looked at me with a shocked expression on her face. Before she could ask me any questions, I told her that I was wearing plus contact lenses so that I could wear a pair of minus glasses. I sort of chickened out a little and I told her I was doing this because people felt more comfortable dealing with an optician that wore glasses. I was not prepared for what she said to me. “When we first met, I thought that the only thing that was missing to make you perfect husband material was a pair of glasses. You look very handsome wearing them. But they are prescription so tell me how it is possible that you can wear them?” Michelle asked. I told her about wearing plus contacts so that I could wear glasses with a decent prescription, and I was a little surprised when she asked me if she could wear even stronger glasses if she wore plus contacts under them. Knowing that her present glasses were -7.50D I told her that if she were to wear +5D contacts she could likely wear glasses that were around -14.50D or maybe even -15.00D. “I would like that.” Michelle said. “You would? Most girls now are getting the new soft contact lenses so they can get rid of their glasses.” I replied in shock. “I never told you this because I thought you might think I was crazy. But I am pretty sure I caused myself to become as nearsighted as I am by reading as much and as close to my reading material as I possibly could. Ever since I was a young girl, I wanted to wear glasses and one of the happiest days in my life was when my mom was told by the optometrist that I needed glasses.” Michelle said. “I don’t think that in itself will really cause myopia. But if you seldom went outside in the sunshine to play, and if you read continuously at a distance of around 10” or less without taking breaks every 30 minutes or so it is possible that you could have caused yourself to become a little myopic. And the younger you were when you did this then the more myopia you would be likely to develop.” I replied. “That is exactly what I did. And as you know I grew up in Portland, where there are lots and lots of rainy grey days. I wanted to be even more nearsighted but then my parents moved us here to Phoenix when I was 15 and then I didn’t get any more nearsighted.” Michelle told me. “You are 21 now. The only way that you might be able to become more nearsighted would be to wear glasses that are stronger than you need for a year or so.” I replied. “I think maybe I might need a bit of an increase after my pregnancy anyway. If I had my eyes tested by the eye doctor at your store, could you order me stronger glasses than I actually need?” Michelle asked. “I could likely arrange to do that. And maybe, if you wanted to do it, we could fit you with contacts, so we know what size and diameter of contacts you need. Then we could order you even stronger glasses that you could wear contacts under.” I answered. “Let’s do that then. And could you get yourself even stronger glasses?” Michelle asked. I was in shock. I had not even revealed the fact that I was obsessed by strong minus glasses myself and Michelle had unknowingly told me that she not only had made her eyes myopic but that she wanted even stronger glasses and that she liked men that wore glasses. I wondered then if the fact that I did not wear glasses had been the reason for Michelle hesitating when I first started talking about marriage. Now I wondered just how far she wanted this to go. When Michelle had her eye examination her new prescription was going to be -8.75D. She was fitted for contact lenses, and they were going to be an 8.7 curve with a 14.2 diameter in a -8D prescription. She picked a frame that we both liked, and I went ahead and had the frame fitted with -12D lenses. Michelle had a little trouble adapting to the -3.25D stronger lenses in her new glasses for the first month or so, but soon she was able to bring everything she read as close to the face as she had when she wore her old glasses. This was in 1980, and the frame Michelle had chosen was a little larger eye size than I personally would have recommended for her new, higher prescription. They had used every bit of the lens blank, and her new glasses were close to 12mm thick at the outer edge. Any stronger prescription would have seen them giving her a -3D front curve to help reduce the thickness. But I had specified a plano front base, and we had selected a frame that had the temple hinges set back enough to allow the thick lens to close. Any other girl would have hated how these glasses looked and would have rushed out to get contact lenses, but Michelle loved everything about them. And I must admit that I loved the way she looked wearing her new glasses so much that I ordered myself +10D contacts so I could wear a pair of men’s -12D glasses also. I think we made a nice looking, very nearsighted, couple walking around town on a Sunday afternoon pushing Angie in her baby carriage. When Michelle got pregnant again in 1981 and she had given birth to our son Adam, I asked her if she had noticed her glasses being weaker than she needed, but she felt that they were just perfect for her eyes. I asked her what she wanted to do, as her existing glasses were now about 2 years old. She suggested that I should just order her a new pair of glasses that were another -2D stronger, but I hesitated to do this because I wanted to know exactly what the base numbers were to order stronger glasses. We couldn’t really go back to the optometrist at my store without him wondering what had gone on. But the more I thought about it I realized that we could probably tell him that Michelle had already noticed that her eyesight had gotten worse before she was pregnant and that now, after giving birth, it was impossible for her to see anything that was any more than a few inches beyond her nose. However, we did not have any glasses that were -8.75, so the next day at work I rummaged through the glasses collection box, and I managed to find a pair that were pretty awful looking but had a prescription of -10.50D. Michelle was not happy with the thought of having to wear these ugly looking glasses. But I assured her that it would only be for a couple of hours on the day when she had her exam appointment. I took part of the afternoon off and went home to bring Michelle back to see the eye doctor. Her real prescription was just slightly over -12.00D and the doctor kept switching her between -12.25 and -12.50D. Finally, he settled on -12.50D as being the best choice for her. The doctor, as well as the other 2 opticians already knew that Michelle had been wearing the glasses that I had taken from the collection box, so no more explanations were needed. We chose a frame that Michelle liked but I did not complete the order. I wanted to have a chat with Michelle to see what she wanted to do. If she wanted to wear stronger glasses in the hopes of making her eyes worse then she could likely wear a prescription of -15.00D in her new frames. But it would probably be better if we just figured out the power of contacts that she would need to wear a pair of stronger glasses over them. However, this was going to have to be her decision. We talked about what was best for her long into the night. By the time we went to bed Michelle had convinced me to order her -15.00D lenses for the new frames, and in a way, I agreed with her logic. With me wearing contacts under my glasses I could take off my glasses, remove my contacts and go around with no correction. Everyone who saw me would then think I was wearing contact lenses, because by now I had worn GOC for long enough that people thought I really needed the glasses I wore. But with Michelle, she would still need to wear contact lenses when she wasn’t wearing glasses over contacts. It would be better, and cheaper if she just wore glasses that over corrected her vision and hopefully, she would adapt as easily as she did with her last pair. It seemed to have been a lot easier for Michell to have worn the original -3.25D over correction than it was this time for her to wear the -2.50D over correction. She was having trouble adapting to the -15.00D glasses, but she was so determined to get used to them she really persevered. I loved looking at her, wearing the rather thick biconcave lenses in the big plastic Dior frame that was the popular choice of the time. But I realized that it might be the -3.00D front curve that was causing some of her problems as there were some people that had trouble adapting to the concave front base. I really liked the concave front bases on glasses. They actually cut down on the edge thickness, and when you looked at a person wearing a lens as strong as a -18D which had a -6D front curvature the reflections looked weird and often made things look upside down, especially in a sunglass tinted lens. It was a pretty big stretch to imagine my wife ever wearing a pair of -18D glasses, but there were always plus contact lenses that she could wear under a pair of glasses as strong as -20D. She really didn’t mind her appearance wearing her rather thick -15.00D glasses and I suspected that she would be willing to go for an even stronger prescription, but first we had to get her comfortable wearing her -15.00D’s. Day by day, and then week by week Michelle gradually adapted to the stronger glasses. Three months went by, and then 6 months after she started wearing them, she announced that the new glasses were great. She could easily see to read, and her distance vision was very good. By the time Adam had his second birthday in 1983 Michelle was very happy with her glasses and she even started talking about the possibility of getting even stronger glasses. I suggested that we should wait until Angela was 5 and was going to be starting school so they could both have their eyes examined at the same time in the fall. Michelle accepted that premise, so I made appointments for both of them near the end of August. Michelle went to her eye exam wearing her old -12.00D glasses. She had been wearing the -15.00D biconcave glasses for almost 3 years now, and I felt that her eyes would test somewhere around -14.50D as often a person who is wearing an over correction will not reach the full power of the lenses. Angelina had perfect 20/20 vision. She was still +0.50D farsighted, which is good for her age. The little bit of plus in a child usually turns to emmetropia by the time they are 7 or 8, and after that they can develop a bit of myopia. If myopia develops as early as 5 or 6 the child often becomes highly nearsighted by the time they finish high school. Michelle was pleased that Angelina’s vision was good. She was also very pleased that she had eaten up every bit of over correction and her real prescription, after telling the doctor that she was having trouble seeing at night as I had suggested, ended up at -15.50D. She chose a new frame and left me with the frame to order her new lenses. Again, I had to talk to her first before I ordered any lenses, so I didn’t order them that day. That night after supper we had a serious discussion. I knew that Michelle wore a soft contact lens prescription a few years back that had a diameter of 14.2 and a base curve of 8.7. I had brought home some soft contact lenses that had recently date expired in a -2.00D, a -2.50D and also -3.00D power. I suggested that if she wanted even stronger glasses, she should try wearing the strongest contacts, which were -3.00D under her -15.00D glasses for at least a day to see if she could manage to adapt to wearing what would be -18.00D of power. She agreed to try that before I ordered her glasses. The following day when she got up, she put the contacts in and then put her glasses on over them. When I arrived home that evening, she told me that she thought she could do it. The combination of -3.00D contacts and -15.00D glasses made for a -18.00D prescription, and while I really wanted her to try that I realized that it had to be her own decision. I suggested trying it for another day, and if she wanted me to order the lenses, she should call me at work around 3:00 pm so I could place the order that day. She called and told me to go ahead a little before that, so I placed the order. The optical lab had a specialty lens department, and I had to talk to the man in charge. He agreed to put a rush on the order and told me that this was the 5th order he had gotten for lenses in that range in the same day. I sent off the frame that Michelle had chosen, and 3 days later the finished glasses were in our shipment. I was thrilled with their appearance. They were so thick I knew that there was no way a pair of glasses could be made any thicker. The frame that Michelle had chosen had the temple hinges set well back from the face of the frame, but even with about a ¾” setback the front of the lens had to be set forward a good 3/16th of an inch. In the middle of the top of the lens the lens was flush with the frame, and the front curve of the lens was at least a -6D. The overall thickness of the lenses had to be almost 1” at the thickest point, and even then, the inner lens curvature didn’t quite reach the sides of the frame, leaving about 1/8” of the lens blank as a bit of a circle. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that these were an extremely strong pair of glasses, and the wearer would be extremely disadvantaged if she were to lose them or break them. Michelle had mixed emotions when she saw them. She went to the bathroom carrying them as she had to remove her -3.00D contact lenses first. When she came out wearing her new glasses, she didn’t say anything. I knew she was wondering if we had gone too far, because they did look terribly thick and strong. However, she did tell me that she felt she could see even better with just the new glasses on rather than with her old glasses and the -3D contact lenses under them. I made sure I told her that she looked extremely nice wearing the new frame we had picked out and when she asked me if I thought that they made her look visually impaired I told her that I thought that this was what she wanted. Before she could answer this, I told her that I actually loved the thickness of her new lenses. Michelle wore her new glasses for about a week before we had any further discussions about the new glasses. By now she had been out shopping with a couple of her girlfriends and people had seen her wearing them. She liked her vision through the strong minus lenses and while she realized that these lenses were the thickest lenses she could get without going to a myodisc lens she realized that she did not want to wear lenses that were myodiscs. After all, no one can tell the power of a myodisc lens and there was no sense for Michell to increase her prescription just for the sake of wearing myodiscs. Not that it happened often, but Michelle loved it when people commented on how strong her glasses looked. I sometimes wore a GOC combination allowing me to wear -25D myodiscs whenever Michell and I went out together, but my vision had never deteriorated and was still 20/20. Neither Angelina nor her brother Adam needed glasses, so I now believed what Michelle had told me about forcing her eyes to become nearsighted when she was younger was true. If she had been genetically myopic the possibility that one, or both of our kids would have inherited her genes. But Michelle had gotten what she had wanted, and life had turned out well for both of us when she took a chance on me. Specs4ever Feb2020