Abbey Costain was 14 and in her second year of junior high when she first realized that she had an obsession towards eyeglasses. Abbey didn’t just like eyeglasses, she wanted to be able to wear them and she really liked glasses that had minus lenses the best. She then read everything she could get her hands on about myopia and myopic progression. Learning that if she wore a pair of myopic glasses all the time it would likely make her shortsighted led to her borrowing a pair of her classmate Sherry’s old glasses, and she tried to wear them every day in school. For the next 2 years Abbey wore Sherry’s glasses as much of the time as she possibly could, but to no avail. When she was 16 and she had her eye test for her beginner’s driver’s license the lady who operated the vision tester told Abbey that her vision was even better than the 20/20 that was considered normal. Abbey finally gave up in disgust, and while she was not happy about the fact that her eyesight was extremely good, she decided that it just wasn’t ever going to be possible for her to wear glasses – at least not until she was older, and she was forced to get glasses for reading like her mom wore. Abby graduated from high school and went into a training program to become a nurse. When she finished the schooling, she was hired by the hospital in her hometown so that she would be able to complete the practical portion of her training. Abbey liked the ophthalmology department the best of all the departments and she hoped that she would get the chance to be posted there once her training was completed. Kristy Bowers was nearsighted – very nearsighted – blind as a bat nearsighted without her contacts as she always told people. Kristy had gotten her first pair of glasses when she was only a year old, and now at age 23 her glasses prescription matched her age. Her last 2 eye appointments had indicated to her eye doctor that her myopic progression had likely stabilized as Kristy had started with a relatively high prescription of -15D and had only increased a further -8 diopters over the next 21 years. Currently Kristy was in quite a funk. She had scratched the cornea of her right eye a few weeks back, and her eye doctor had forbidden her from wearing contacts until her cornea’s had both healed. It was true that she had only scratched one of her corneas, but Kristy had worn contacts since she was 8 years old, and during this 15 year period Kristy had been careless enough with her use of contacts so that both her corneas needed to have a rest from wearing contacts in order for her eyes to heal enough for her to be able to return to once again wearing contact lenses. Even so, her doctor had advised Kristy that her contact lens wear was going to have to be severely curtailed. Fortunately, Kristy’s father was an extremely wealthy man and the almost $2,000.00 dollars that Kristy had just spent for the new glasses that she was going to have to wear until she was given the all clear to go back to wearing contact lenses was well worth it. To a casual observer Kristy’s glasses looked to be no stronger than a regular pair of glasses that were around -10D. Yes, the fronts were flat, which indicated a higher power, but there was virtually no visible edge sticking out past the frame. An observer who knew something about glasses might be able to guess that these were lenses with quite a lot of power in them, especially when they saw the amount of cut in that showed at the edges of the lenses. At least, most of the world would not look at Kristy and know that her glasses were right up there near the top on the myopia correction totem pole. And the frames that held the lenses were very stylish. They were a top name brand frame, in a subtle brown tortoiseshell color, and they looked like a cross between a cat’s eye and an aviator shape. Kristy looked stunning wearing her glasses even though she hated them and the huge cut in that could not be disguised. Kristy’s boyfriend Brad had completed medical school and was working in the ophthalmology department of the same hospital that Abbey Costain was working at. Abbey had met Brad in the cafeteria and had casually spoken to him once or twice. Abbey was a very attractive girl, but Brad had not paid any attention to her nor had he expressed any interest in her other than as a coworker. Unbeknown to anyone other than Bradley Williams III he had become an eye doctor because of his hidden interests in vision defects. Brad had always dated nearsighted girls, and when he saw that Kristy Bowers had a prescription of -23D he had quickly gotten to know her and had started dating her. When Kristy was forced to give up wearing contact lenses Brad was overjoyed. Finally, he had found a girl that was not only very beautiful, but she had a prescription that was right in the prescription range that he really liked. With contact lenses Kristy had very good vision, and while her vision wearing glasses was still quite acceptable it wasn’t quite as sharp as it was with contacts. Brad had not been able to convince Kristy to move in with him, but they had been spending a lot of time together. The only thing that prevented Brad from asking Kristy to marry him was that now that she was wearing glasses full time, she had been talking a lot about having her eyes fixed. Brad knew that if Kristy ever did that, he would no longer want to marry her, but he was pretty sure that it would be a few years before any well-respected ophthalmologist would ever consider operating on Kristy’s eyes. She was just too young and there were far too many potential problems with the current procedures that were available. Implantable contact lenses were the most logical choice, but a high number of patients that had received this early procedure had been diagnosed with premature cataracts and then had to have the implantable contacts removed along with the removal of their natural lenses. The eventual outcome, after cataract and replacement lens surgery had always been successful, but Kristy had been strongly advised against having that procedure done until she was a few years older. Brad had been working with Dr. David Osborn for a few months now. Dr. Osborn was undoubtedly the best-known retina specialist in the entire state and patients came from all over the country to have him repair torn and detached retinas. For the past couple of years Dr. Osborn had been working on complete cadaver eyeball transplants in patients that had been blind, and his success rate for reattaching the retinas, the muscles and the veins for the small amount of blood the eyeball required had been extremely high. One day, after they had transplanted an eyeball from a recently deceased organ donor one of the nurses assisting in the procedure had asked the doctor a strange question. She had asked him that if an eyeball from a very nearsighted donor was transplanted would the recipient then become as nearsighted as the original donor had been. Since this had never been really addressed Dr. Osborn replied that since myopia is generally due to an eyeball that is longer than a normal eyeball there was a high likelihood that the recipient would be at least as myopic as the donor was. Brad soon realized that he and Dr. Osborn were frequently working with the same nurse that had asked the question about a nearsighted eye being just as nearsighted if it were transplanted into another patient. Sometimes after the morning operations were finished and the patients were in recovery Brad would get a glimpse of this nurse, who he had seen around the hospital a few times, in the cafeteria and one day Brad asked Abbey if he could sit with her. All the nurses have quite a network between themselves, so Abbey already knew that Brad was quite wealthy in his own accord and that he was dating the daughter of one of the richest men in the city. John Bowers had endowed a wing in the hospital and was on the board of directors, so Abbey knew that she didn’t stand a hope in the world to interest Brad in her. As they chatted Abbey realized that Brad was more than just wondering why she had asked the question about eyes remaining nearsighted if they were transplanted. Abbey was going to lie and just tell Brad that she was merely interested, but for some reason she decided that she would tell Brad the truth. She told him that she had always been fascinated with glasses and she had even tried to wear a friend’s glasses when she was a teenager to see if she could make her eyes become nearsighted. But unfortunately, while her eyes would focus perfectly through her girlfriend’s glasses, they never became the least little bit myopic so after a couple of years she gave up on trying to wear glasses. With all the complete eye transplants that they were now doing she had just wondered if a nearsighted eye was transplanted, would the eye still be just as nearsighted in another patient. Brad thought long and hard about this. His girlfriend Kristy had -23D of myopia and she hated the fact that she was so nearsighted. She would be willing to do almost anything to rid herself of glasses or contact lenses. She had been wearing glasses now for about 6 months and her most recent checkup had led to her eye doctor telling her that she needed to go for at least another 6 months with her wearing her glasses before he would even consider letting her return to limited wear of contacts. And Brad knew that if Kristy ever found a doctor who was willing to operate on her nearsighted eyes, she would have her eyes fixed in a New York minute – even if the doctor was a quack. The more Brad though about it he realized 2 things. If Kristy had her eyes fixed, he would lose interest in her very quickly. And, if he lost interest in Kristy, as a doctor himself he would be in a high enough income bracket that he would never miss having any of John Bower’s money. The perfect solution would be for him to find a very nearsighted girl who actually wanted to and liked wearing her glasses. Brad also realized that Dr. Osborn would never consent to operating on a patient who did not need the operation. So far all they had ever done was to transplant cadaver eyeballs into blind patients. But a lot of experimental operations were done in the name of science. It would be a real feather in Dr. Osborn’s cap if he could remove an eye from a living patient and place it into the eye socket of another living patient. However, publishing this in a medical journal would likely end up being very problematic for both Brad and the doctor. There had to be a way around this problem. The next time Brad saw Abbey in the cafeteria he sat with her and in conversation he asked her if she would be willing to undergo an eye transplant operation if she could end up with a prescription of around -23D. She answered that she would do that immediately, however she did not have the necessary funds to pay for the operation and she knew that her insurance company would never pay for any sort of operation like that. Brad had already figured that he could not only easily convince Kristy to undergo any type of operation if the projected outcome would lead to her having good eyesight without glasses, but he could also likely get her father to pay for the operation. He didn’t even discuss his idea in depth with her, but he did have a long and fruitful discussion with her father. Brad told John Bowers that he had found a young lady who would be willing to give her perfect eyes to Kristy in return for Abbey getting Kristy’s very nearsighted eyes. Knowing that it is illegal to buy or sell body parts Brad had to be very careful how he brought up the subject of any sort of payment for Abbey, but he was fortunate in that Mr. Bowers suggested that payment himself and had suggested that it could be made under the table. Now all Brad had to do was to convince Abbey to undergo a very dangerous and untested eyeball exchange with Kristy before he dared talk to Dr. Osborn. John Bowers had suggested a million-dollar payment for Abbey, as well as another million for Dr. Osborn so with that as his starting point Brad talked to David Osborn. Dr. Osborn was intrigued by the thought but rejected the idea of doing the operation since he was sure it would be highly illegal to make a patient very nearsighted. This was exactly the outcome that Brad had thought would happen, but at least he had given the doctor some food for thought. About a month went by before Dr. Osborn asked Brad a few questions about who the people were that were considering the eyeball swap. Brad told him that the one girl was the nurse named Abbey who had once asked him if a nearsighted eye would still be nearsighted if it were transplanted. The other girl was his own girlfriend who had a prescription of -23.00D and really hated being extremely nearsighted. It was at this point that Brad suggested that Kristy’s father would be willing to pay him a million dollars as well as pay all costs for the operation. The amount of money likely did the trick, but Brad had seen Dr. Osborn in the cafeteria talking with Abbey a few days after Brad had told him about the money he could earn. Finally, the first operation, which would switch the girl’s left eyes was set for the following Wednesday. Then the girls would have to go for at least 2 weeks of bed rest, with them lying on their stomach to allow the retina’s to firmly re attach. The next 2 to 4 weeks would see the doctor making sure that their vision was as expected in the transplanted eye before he would even consider doing their right eyes. And it would then take another 4 weeks of healing to make sure that there were no complications from the original transplanted eye. Once the bandages were taken off Abbey was very excited to find that her vision in her left eye was virtually nonexistent. Because of the difference in their eyes both Kristy and Abbey were having a great deal of difficulty getting around. In the beginning Brad removed the left lens from a pair of Kristy’s old glasses and Kristy hated it because the difference in the size of everything was hard to adapt to. She still could not wear a contact lens in her damaged right eye, but she could wear a plus contact lens in Abbey’s former left eye. This would then allow her to wear her glasses. Brad then suggested that both Abbey and Kristy should wear plus contact lenses in one eye. Kristy needed to wear a +19D lens in Abby’s former left eye and Abby needed to wear a +19D contact lens in her own right eye. By doing this they could both wear a pair of Kristy’s -23D glasses for the month that they had to wait for the second operation. This solution worked perfectly. Brad was in heaven all day working around Abbey who had gone back to work at the hospital. And on the evenings when he dated Kristy, he was thrilled to have her still wearing glasses when they went out anywhere. As the time drew closer for the operation to switch their right eyes Brad knew that once Kristy no longer needed her glasses, he would likely lose interest in her. However, Abby was a very promising candidate as a replacement for Kristy in his life. Finally, Dr. Osborn was satisfied that both girls had healed well enough to allow him to switch Abby’s right eye with Kristy’s right eye. The operation went as planned, and when it was over both girls were forced to lie on their stomachs for another 2 weeks to allow their retinas to reattach. One of Dr. Osborn’s stipulations had been that there could be no hospital records of the operation, and Kristy’s father had come up with enough additional money to pay for everything so there were no traces of what actually occurred at the hospital and all the nurses that had assisted had been paid in cash. Brad had refused payment and had told Dr. Osborn that he was willing to assist as a volunteer because he was very interested in the outcome. The hospital records simply showed that both girls had been admitted twice, once for retinal surgery on their right eye, and then a few weeks later for retinal surgery on their left eye. Abbey had been wearing an older pair of Kristy’s glasses when they were both doing their one eyed GOC, but now that Kristy had both of Abbey’s eyes and was about to be released from the hospital Kristy sent Brad in to see Abbey to present her with the very expensive pair of glasses with the thinned out lenses that Mr. Bowers had purchased for his daughter. Abbey tried Kristy’s very expensive glasses on, and when she looked at herself in the mirror, she told Brad to thank Kristy very much for the gift, but that she actually liked her appearance wearing Kristy’s older, thicker looking myodiscs better. With that Brad knew that Abbey was the right girl for him. However Brad did convince Abbey to take the gift of the glasses so she could have a spare pair if she needed them. Brad had not given Kristy any indication that he would drop her like a hot potato if she no longer needed glasses. Even though she had a million dollars now Abbey had returned to work in the operating room and Brad just could not keep his eyes off her. They met every day in the cafeteria and Brad told Abbey that he felt that she was the perfect girl for him. Abbey realized that Brad could not just walk out on Kristy, since her father had paid out well over 2 million dollars in order to buy his daughter 2 perfect eyes and he thought that Brad was part of the package his daughter would end up with. Abbey didn’t dare tell Brad, or anyone else that she would have swapped eyes for nothing, as she loved the fact that she was extremely nearsighted now and had to wear her thick myodiscs to see much of anything past the end of her nose. Kristy solved the problem for both Brad and Abbey. Brad thought that maybe Kristy had noticed that he was no longer deeply in love with her, and when a new man came into her life it didn’t take long before Kristy became unavailable whenever Brad called the mansion, and when he tried her cell it went right to the answering message. Brad took the hint and wasted no time in dating Abbey. Within a year from the date of the successful eyeball switch Brad and Abbey announced their engagement. Brad knew that Abbey really was the right girl for him when Abbey had her new eyes examined, and she took Brad along with her so that he could help pick out new frames and lenses. Abbey wanted nothing to do with lenses that were as thin as the optician suggested, but instead wanted lenses that were biconcave lenticular myodiscs done in regular index plastic with anti reflective coating as the only option. Trading eyes had worked out well for both Abbey and Kristy and Brad ended up married to a very nearsighted girl who would never ever want to have her eyes operated on. Specs4ever Dec 2019