Eyesight

 I have been short sighted ever since I was a child.  I think I had probably been short sighted for quite some time before anyone noticed.  It was picked up when someone realised that I couldn't read the board at school.

I don't remember now whether that was at the end of primary school or towards the beginning of secondary, although I think it might have been the latter.  What I do remember, quite vividly, is the surprise I felt when I put my first pair of glasses on. Not just that I could see, but that the world wasn't meant to be fuzzy, the stars twinkled brightly in the night sky and weren't just a blurry blob, the moon had markings that you could see without a telescope.  It was all quite startling but it was the stars that stunned me.

Anyway, I've worn glasses ever since then, although not so much for reading. I have had multifocal glasses for more than a decade but I often didn't bother wearing them for reading.

You may remember that Jim lost one of the lenses from his glasses a little while ago and I made an appointment for him to see the optometrist that I use. While I was about it I made an appointment for me too, partly because I didn't see her last year, for obvious reasons. I like to get my eyes checked fairly regularly because my father had glaucoma and my mother has macular degeneration. Not a good genetic mix! But also, I have noticed recently that my eyesight is not as good as it might be.  The world has once again become fuzzy.

It turns out that my eyesight, which for distance has slowly been improving, has now changed so that I am slightly long sighted in one eye. No wonder I can't see properly. My new glasses will be for reading and computer work and not for distance. And I do find that it is easier now to read with my glasses than without. My optometrist has written a form for VicRoads to remove the requirement that I use prescription glasses when driving. And I think I might have to get a new pair of distance glasses.  I actually can't see properly through my old pair and there are some occasions when it is useful to have a pair of distance glasses, especially when I am tired.

We don't know if Jim's vision has changed much. This is the first eye check that he's had since before we left the UK. It is true that in the UK they give you a copy of your prescription but if we brought it with us it is long misplaced. He has another appointment in 6 months so the optometrist can have a quick look to see how his eyes are going.