I can see! It's a miracle!

I finally went to the eye doctor today. First, my appointment started a half hour late. I wasn't happy about that, but finally we got started. The doctor (optician/optometrist/whatever) was pretty cool, but I have to say that I find eye exams vexing. They're doing all these tests and making notes, and machines are printing out little bits of tape, but no one tells me anything.

Then, as we're playing the "number one or number two?" game, the doc says "wow" in a sort of matter of fact tone. When he finishes up flipping the little lenses around he shows me what my old prescription was versus what I now need. I was not surprised by the difference. I knew that I was badly in need of a new prescription, that's why I was there. Then he tells me, "You've picked up a truckload of astigmatism since the last time you were here." I've never had them mention any astigmatism to me before, I've never had a problem with it. This does explain why I was having trouble seeing everything, near, far, you name it. So I say, "Oh, crap." And the doc says "Double crap." You know what? I that guy is alright. I appreciate his candor and not trying to bullshit me, which is what I always get from doctors.

The doc tells me that my contacts are going to go up from about $17 a box to $29 because I need astigmatism contacts, which is not too bad. Then he goes to get me a trial pair, and they don't even have one strong enough at the power I need for my left eye (which is always been the worst of the two). He gave me one that's the next step down, and it's pretty damn good anyway. I have to go in for a follow up after my full strength trial pair come in because my prescription changed so much. I'll order new glasses then since my old ones are from about four prescriptions ago. I'll probably throw some pictures up on flickr when I get them too.

I'm wearing my new contacts now, they've given me a bit of a headache and felt really weird at first. Everything is so crisp and clear though, it was kind of freaking me out. You go from everything being a bit fuzzy for so long and then have everything sharp and crystal and it can kind of overwhelm you. Or make you feel a little crazy what with the instantaneous improved vision. You look out at trees and grass and can see the individual leaves and blades as opposed to just green. At first if I moved my eyes too quickly I couldn't focus and would get dizzy, but I'm getting used to it. It's nice to be able to read or play video games or drive without having to squint at everything.