Yesterday it was time to visit the optician. I used to go every year after the repeated bouts of optic neuritis but as that hadn't bothered me for some time the frequency of my visits had decreased to every two years. This time I wasn't just going to get my eyes checked but to have a contact lenses assessment. I didn't approach this with much optimism due to a) I'm very squeamish about putting things in my eyes (eye drops are enough hard work) and b) the sensory problems in my fingertips might make it difficult. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
The eye check went off very well. My prescription is unchanged (for the first time ever in the twenty or so years I've been wearing glasses) and all the other health checks got the green light. Time for the contact lenses. The first time the optician puts them in for you... it took a few tries as I kept flinching each time she came near my eye - and then, wow! Amazing! Total clarity for entire field of vision... which with the modern predilection for small thin glasses you just don't get with spectacles. Easy (almost). Time for me to go and be 'trained' by the dispensing optician, who made it look so easy taking the lenses in and out without even the aid of a mirror.
Not so easy for me. The lack of feeling in my finger tips didn't really seem to hinder my efforts... my comfort with sticking things in my eye was the problem. You have to put them in and take them out three times before they let you go! I spent over two hours at the optician in total - but I will be able to start my free trial - as soon as the lenses turn up that is, with a little practice I think I could be a convert!
The eye check went off very well. My prescription is unchanged (for the first time ever in the twenty or so years I've been wearing glasses) and all the other health checks got the green light. Time for the contact lenses. The first time the optician puts them in for you... it took a few tries as I kept flinching each time she came near my eye - and then, wow! Amazing! Total clarity for entire field of vision... which with the modern predilection for small thin glasses you just don't get with spectacles. Easy (almost). Time for me to go and be 'trained' by the dispensing optician, who made it look so easy taking the lenses in and out without even the aid of a mirror.
Not so easy for me. The lack of feeling in my finger tips didn't really seem to hinder my efforts... my comfort with sticking things in my eye was the problem. You have to put them in and take them out three times before they let you go! I spent over two hours at the optician in total - but I will be able to start my free trial - as soon as the lenses turn up that is, with a little practice I think I could be a convert!