The Expense of Sight

You may notice that I wear eyeglasses. I have since I was 12, being myopic. Every couple of years, I've needed new glasses as my vision has gotten worse. I generally pick my glasses based on my last pair, since I don't want to change my appearance that much. I don't like big obtrusive, dark rimmed glasses. I wanted rimless but my prescription makes the lenses too warped for that. Not that my lenses are thick, they would be in the old days but with polycarbonate plastic, they are slim.

Those lenses. The most expensive part of my glasses.

An example from when I went to the eye doctor today.

$60 for the lenses.
$120 for the High-Index plastic they are made of.
$149 for Crizal Alize UV, which is an antiglare coating.

$129 for the frame.

I know it could be cheaper but cheap is not a good idea in something so vital.

$373.60 was the total cost but that was with a 20% discount. I mean, that would have been over $500 and that is frighteningly expensive for glasses.

It is always an expensive undertaking, getting new glasses. I don't do this often like I should. My last eye exam before yesterday was in 2010.

The optometrist said my vision has improved slightly. I can't see how. I am blind without my glasses, always will be. She put some drops in my eyes to dilate them and man, I could barely see, still can't clearly. I hope whatever study she did to them mattered. My eyes are blue but at the worst of it, you couldn't see my irises at all, just solid black.

She also told me to get a new pillow because allergens build up in old ones. My pillow was getting old anyway, I got it when I worked at wm, and that ended over three years ago. I did get a new pillow. I also got a bigger pc screen, as maybe I can see that better.

It seems like an expense foisted on people with awful vision like me. Be glad that you don't wear glasses.

Oh? Contacts.... forget it. I don't like poking myself in the eye and I look funny without my glasses. It's part of my self-image.

The optometrist also said that I have astigmatism and slight glaucoma. That's just great.

When I drove to the eye clinic today, it was through an intense rainstorm and that really ruffled my anxiety feathers. They took my blood pressure and it was up, sorta way up, as I get that when I panic.

Should have took my medicine but that has issues I do not want to deal with.

Be glad that you don't have glasses if you don't need them. It is an expense, a vital one.