11:38 AM | Comment (3)

November 23, 2006

I passed yet another age-related milestone this week. Had my annual eye exam and walked out with a new line on my prescription. An add. If you haven't become familiar with the nuances of all things optometric, it means I'm officially old.

All the experts point out that everyone starts having trouble with presbyopia around 40. My optometrist gently brought it up at the past couple of appointments. Sure enough, this fall I've found reading while wearing glasses or contacts more and more annoying.

I suppose that's one advantage of mild myopia. Without the distance correction, I can read just fine. However with it in place, I struggle in anything less than bright light. I found it particularly annoying while teaching because I need to read frequently. But only a paragraph or two. So if I took the glasses off to read, I'd have to immediately pop them on again when I look up at the class.

When I sat in that big black chair on Friday and the doctor asked how I was seeing, I had to admit that it was time. Though he managed to get another ego stroke in by looking surprised and saying it might be too soon. Then he flipped open my chart and presumably saw my birth date.

"Maybe not," he concluded. We ran through the standard distance charts and better one or two routine. Then it came time for the near chart. If there had been any doubt in my mind, a couple of clicks obliterated it.

The add itself is +1, the lowest typically given and where most people start. I'm having progressive lenses fitted to the glasses. Should have them back in a week or so. He also set me up with progressive contacts after I rejected the monovision approach using trial lenses. The contacts came in yesterday and I've got to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. They're not perfect. I have to concentrate on focus a bit or things will blur. But it's surprisingly easy to see both near and far again even in dim light.

I thought I would dread taking this step. Last month it seemed like a major transition. But it's not so bad really. Certainly less traumatic than coming to the realization that I needed glasses in the first place nearly 30 years ago.