When I was 7 years old I decided that I wanted to wear glasses. I don’t really know for sure what made me decide that, but I suspect that it was because my new grade 2 teacher wore fairly thick and strong glasses and I thought she looked really fabulous wearing her glasses. I then started on a campaign to get myself a pair of glasses. I told my teacher that I couldn’t really see the board very well from my seat in the middle of the room, so she moved me up closer to the front. Then I told my mom that the teacher had moved me closer to the board because I couldn’t see it well enough from where I sat. Finally mom made an appointment with a doctor in the mall right next to a one hour optical store.
If this had been the world of today, then the outcome would have been a lot different. Now when I go to see my eye doctor the nurse receptionist takes me into a room and has me look into a machine that checks my prescription, and then sends the data to the doctor’s phoropter so that when I am seated in front of the phoropter my prescription is already dialed in. I only have to advise the doctor which is clearer - 1 or 2 as he fine tunes my prescription. But back in the mid 80’s when the one hour optical stores started to appear in most of the malls the doctors that had their practices connected with the store were mainly interested in selling glasses to their patients. When my mother was asked the reason for my visit she told the doctor that my teacher had said that I couldn’t see the chalkboard. The doctor already had his mind made up that I was nearsighted, and the only question in his mind was how strong a prescription would I require.
And even if I hadn’t lied to the doctor, I am sure that I would not have left his office without glasses, because his job was to sell glasses for the store . When the doctor asked me to read the chart that he projected on the wall I pretended that I couldn’t even see it. I know he increased the power of the lenses because a point was reached where I couldn’t make my eyes focus through the stronger lenses, and he had to go back a couple of numbers. But then I told him that I could see the letters perfectly. I was happy that he didn’t spend any more time with me than absolutely necessary, because I don’t know if I could have kept up my focus through the lenses for very long.
The doctor gave my mom a piece of paper with some numbers written on it, and he told my mom that I was quite nearsighted for my age. When she asked if I needed to wear my glasses all the time the doctor said that my prescription was strong enough that I probably would want to always wear them.
Mom and I went into the optical store, and a lady helped me select a nice frame for my new glasses. Then mom and I went shopping for an hour while my glasses were being made. When we came back to the store the same lady that helped me choose the frame fitted my new glasses to my face. Finally I had my glasses, but it was pretty hard to make my eyes focus through them. However I told mom and the lady that everything looked great, and mom and I went home.
Later that evening I overheard mom and dad talking about my poor eyesight. I had not known what prescription was in my glasses, but mom told dad that my eyes were already at -3.50D and the doctor said that was quite a strong prescription for my age. I had heard the doctor tell mom that my eyes would likely get worse, and I was determined that I would do my best to make that happen.
Of course, at age 7 I didn’t really know what I could do to make my eyes get worse. I did wear my new glasses every waking minute, and I did read a lot. At first I found it easier to wear my glasses pulled slightly down from the bridge of my nose, but as soon as I could I pushed them up tight. It probably took me about 3 months before I reached a point where I could take my glasses off and see that everything was really blurry without them. I knew then that I had made my eyes bad enough so they really needed glasses and I was very happy. But all I could do to attempt to make my eyes worse was to read with my books held as close to my eyes as I possibly could. And I wore my glasses to read a lot at night with a flashlight under the covers after I was supposed to be in bed sleeping.
Whatever I was doing seemed to be working. It had been about 8 months since I got my glasses, and now at school what the teacher was writing on the chalkboard was nothing but a blur, and I was still sitting fairly close to the front. It was almost the end of the school year, so I didn’t want to tell my mom that I needed new glasses yet, and I decided that I would wait until before I went back to school after the summer holidays to say anything to her.
But I didn’t have to say anything. I squinted my way through most of the 2 months of summer holidays, and Mom had noticed that, so in August she brought me back to the same optometrist that we had gone to before. He wasn’t surprised when mom told him that my eyes appeared to have gotten a lot worse since I got my glasses the past fall. Again I waited until the lenses made the letters clear, and then I waited until they started to become blurry enough so I could barely make them out before I told him that everything was really clear. I had to force my eyes to focus on the letters to make them clear enough for me to read them to him, and I was able to pull my head a little bit back from the machine. Finally he swung the machine away from my face and told me that I had needed a sizable increase. This time I asked him what my new prescription was going to be, and he told me that my prescription had doubled and I now required a prescription of -7D for my new glasses.
This time my new glasses looked pretty thick. But I was happy, because this is what I wanted. Again I had to force my eyes to see through the strong lenses, but this time I knew that all I had to do was persevere, and my eyes would adapt to the strong lenses. It took a couple of months before I felt that my eyes weren’t being pulled from my head, and after that it was really easy to wear these glasses.
I probably should have left it at that. But something inside of me wouldn’t let me. After about 3 months everything was nice and clear through my glasses, and although I felt that the lenses were still possibly a little strong it was time to try another trick. Now when I was reading in bed at night I wore my old glasses under my new glasses. At first I could only make my eyes focus on what I was reading for a few minutes, but the more I did this the easier it became, and I went for the next 6 months reading with both pairs of glasses in front of my eyes as much as possible. Now my newest glasses were noticeably too weak for me and I knew I was going to need another good increase.
My tricks had worked for me in the past, and they worked again this time. When I left the doctor’s office I had a prescription for a pair of glasses that was going to be -11D. The doctor told my mom that I had the worst eyesight he had ever seen in a 9 year old girl and I know that worried mom a lot. Then we went to the optical store to get me my new glasses. But this time I could only pick out a frame, because my prescription was too strong for their one hour service. I was going to have to come back in a couple of days to get my glasses.
When mom and I came back to get my glasses I was surprised to see how thick they were. The ear pieces wouldn’t even close over the lenses. But I guess that wasn’t really an issue, because I wouldn’t ever be taking them off to put them in a case. I put them on and was prepared to have to struggle to focus, but I was surprised to find that I really didn’t have to force myself as much as I thought I would to see through these lenses. They felt really good, and I could see quite well through the lenses with just a little bit of strain.
It was probably my imagination, but when I was walking around the mall with mom it seemed that everyone was staring at me – the little girl with the very thick glasses. But I was proud of what I had done, and I really enjoyed looking at my reflections in the mirrors around the mall. A normal 9 year old girl would have been horrified by having to wear such thick strong glasses, but I loved it.
My two older sisters thought my new glasses looked terrible, and they gave me a hard time about my bad eyesight. And now the kids at school were teasing me about my thick glasses as well. But I didn’t let any of this bother me, and I was determined to have even thicker glasses as soon as possible.
Because these glasses were so thick my first glasses wouldn’t fit under them properly. And my original glasses were smaller than the new glasses, so it was a little harder to wear my old glasses along with my new glasses. But I did try to wear them this way as often as I could when I was reading. This time it was easier to notice that my eyesight was getting worse. All I had to do was drop my glasses just a tiny bit away from the bridge of my nose and everything got a lot blurrier. I didn’t even last until the end of the school year before I needed new glasses. I had my next eye exam the day after my 10th birthday in early June.
This time I didn’t really try to make my glasses stronger, but somehow or another they did get stronger by another -1.50D. My new glasses were going to be -13.50D for both eyes. And again we were going to have to wait a few days for them to come in. The optician tried to talk my mom into buying me a new type of lens that was especially designed for people like me who needed very thick glasses. But this new superlenti lens was too expensive, so mom just got me the same old lenses that we had gotten before. If I thought my old -11D glasses were thick my new -13.50D ones were a whole lot thicker. Not only would the sides not fold closed, but the lenses were almost an inch thick. When I had them on it looked like I was wearing safety glasses with those little side shields on them. But there were no side shields, that was my lenses sticking out behind the frame. My eyes were trapped behind two chunks of plastic, and the way the lenses wrapped around didn’t allow for much air to circulate, so during the summer my eyes always seemed hotter than the rest of my body, and I often had to take the glasses off to wipe away the sweat.
Now I appeared to be handicapped with my very thick glasses on my face. My parents were extremely worried about my eyesight being so bad, and the optometrist that we had used didn’t want to see me again. He suggested that it would be in my best interests if in the future we went to see a pediatric ophthalmologist at the hospital. So I knew that my glasses wouldn’t get any thicker, because I was sure I couldn’t fool a pediatric ophthalmologist.
But it turned out that that didn’t really change things. I was still reading with my eyes as close to my books as ever, and over the next year I managed to make my eyesight even worse. So this time I went to see the specialist, who pronounced my eyes healthy, but very nearsighted. And I left there with another increase of -1.50D. Now the optician couldn’t get me any other types of lenses than either the superlenti, or a straight myodisc lens. The myodisc lens was cheaper, so that is what mom got me, and I was happy with the looks of them.
Over the next few years I completed school, and went on to university. When I was 18 I had a prescription of -22.50, and by the time I graduated from teacher’s college and started teaching I was wearing -30D myodisc lenses in my glasses. I was quite happy with my minified, nearsighted view of the world.
My first job was that of a kindergarten teacher. I enjoyed working with the small kids, and I got a thrill out of watching them discover the world. I don’t know what caused me to do it, but during my first year I wondered if there were possibly any other children out there who were like me and who possibly wanted to wear glasses but didn’t know how to go about getting them. Then I came up with an idea. I bought 2 pairs of children’s unisex glasses with -5D lenses, and I placed them in with the toys. It was interesting to watch. The same 3 or 4 kids would try to get the prescription glasses first thing in the morning, and the two who managed to get them would then wear them all day. So, I bought 2 more pairs, and then there were 4 kids who wore the glasses the full day. I made sure they took them off every night when they went home, and just in case any of them said anything I had a few more pairs of glasses around with fake lenses. But these 4 kids were not interested in the glasses with fake lenses and they wanted the real glasses to wear.
Sure enough, by the beginning of the following year when these 4 kids were in grade 1, I noticed that they had all gotten glasses over the summer. All 4 of the kids were wearing real glasses with fairly strong prescriptions. None of them were -5D, but I am sure one of the girls was at least around a -4D.
I have kept this going for the past 5 years. And every year there are some kids who want to wear the glasses with real lenses. Then by the following year they are in grade 1 wearing real glasses. The one girl who had the strongest prescription in grade 1 now is in grade 5 and is wearing a prescription in the range of around -8D. The other 3 from my first class who are also in grade 5 are wearing around -5 or -6D as well.
I never suggest that any of the children try on the real glasses. I let them decide for themselves if they want to wear glasses with fake lenses or real lenses, and it still surprises me that at least 3 or 4 kids want the real lenses, even though -5D is a fairly strong prescription and it takes a fair amount of focusing power to see through a lens of that strength. But children are resilient, and the ones who want to wear glasses manage to make their eyes focus through them.
I have never placed a pair of glasses on a child’s face. All I have done is to make the glasses accessible and to give them the chance to wear them if they wish. Still, I suppose that some will condemn me for doing this, and they are probably right to do so.
Specs4ever July 2012