By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
It’s not easy being cross-eyed and far-sighted with a serious astigmatism.
Most folks are near-sighted. It’s easy to make a contact prescription for them. Those are the folks that can order through something like 800-CONTACTS. Their lenses come right away. Mine, on the other hand have to be custom fit and then custom-made. There’s a lot of handwringing and mumbling that goes on with the optometrist’s staff when I need new lenses.
I began wearing glasses at 18 months old. I was just a tot. My mother noticed when she asked me to pick something up that I’d reach down and put my hand right next to what I was going after, but never right on it. My eyes weren’t crossed every minute. She realized that they must be crossing when I went to focus on something. So off to the specialist. An optometrist was not specialized enough. I had to go to an opthamalogist. You can hear the bills adding up as I type. I was an expensive kid when it came to my eyes.
My first glasses had to be custom made too. My head was so little and my prescription so rare. The glasses ran $160 per pair. This was 1959. That was an astronomical amount of money. Then to make matters worse I kept taking them off. I was 18 months old. I thought they were a toy. I’d hide them.
When I hid my glasses the whole neighborhood got involved. They had to find my glasses. We could not just go buy another pair. I am pretty sure I liked the attention too. Everyone was focused on me when my eyes were completely unfocused without my glasses. I’ve heard the legendary stories.
One time I hid them under the door. They were so small that I could put them on the floor and slide them under the door. Easy to find if you moved the door. Not so easy to find when you had no idea where in the house to even begin looking!
Then there’s that time I hid them under Freckles. Freckles was our neighbor’s dog; a big, fat Hush Puppy dog. We used to ride Freckles. Freckles was so big we could sit on his back and he’d get up to walk away and we’d “ride” him. Freckles probably didn’t think this was all that funny. We were just pestering little kids. But we thought it was hilarious. One morning Freckles decided to take his post-breakfast nap next to a large tree in his yard. I decided to hide my glasses under Freckles’ big belly. Really funny. It took several hours to find my glasses that time. I never seemed to help. I never seemed to remember where they were either.
I’ve seen the pictures. Sometimes I had pink glasses; then baby blue ones, cute little beige, sparkly ones. They always had that pointy sweep to the sides. Very Jackie Kennedy-fashionable in the ‘60’s. Every time I grew a little bit, or my prescription changed, I needed new glasses. I looked like a little owl too. When you are far-sighted your eyes are magnified by the glasses. Huge eyes and a cute smile. Call me precocious. I was it.
I went off to school looking like that little owl. I was a smart little school child. The glasses made me look extra smart.
At 15 years old I saved enough babysitting money to be able to buy contacts. My dating years started right then. I was no longer just the smart girl with the ridiculously large eyes. Boys took notice.
I’ve worn contact lenses ever since. It’s really hard to fit me in glasses and I continue to loathe the way I look in glasses so I’ve never pushed to get new ones.
In my current status I’m dealing with all that comes with age. Add bifocals to my prescription now and everyone goes into a tizzy! I’ve been wearing reading glasses for years now but the technology has advanced once again and my new doctor thinks he can fit me for lenses that cover my cross-eyed challenge, my far sightedness, my horrible astigmatism (that apparently is the worst part) and now the addition of bifocals.
I’d been waiting almost a month for the contact lenses I picked up last Friday.
He explained to me that he ordered one for my long distance vision. The other one is for short distance reading. My eyes were going to have to get used to them though. I was going to have to go without my reading glasses to force my brain to make the adjustment. I walked out of the store feeling like I just got introduced to my first set of lenses and that they guy who gave them to me was a complete whack job. I could hardly see! My husband had to read the menu to me that night at a restaurant. The next day I could only read the headlines in the paper. Thank goodness it was the weekend! I’d never have been able to function in the office.
The body sure is resilient and adaptable though! By Sunday afternoon in my office I could read everything on my computer. My eyes were no longer tempted to cross in an effort to focus on the words. I could see without reading glasses and I can read type down to about 5 point! That’s pretty teeny! He tells me I probably will never be able to read the miniscule type on the back of some bottles without reading glasses for an assist but that I should be able to work without them.
Sure enough. He’s right.
And this guy thinks HE can fit me for glasses; just in case I want a back up pair. That’ll be the day, but he might just be right about that too.
For recipes today I'm offering My Mom’s Meatloaf recipe. On the Plan Z Diet by Zola all of the dieters are so looking forward to cooking healthy meals this year and serving them to their families. Healthy meals, they now know don’t have to be boring. This Plan Z Diet recipe is one of my favorites an perfect for the whole family.
So enjoy!
Cheers,
To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/
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