My Eyes...

My eyes... what a topic. I first got glasses when I was in third grade. I loved reading by that point, and was reading all the time. I had started to say things about not seeing and my parents noticed me squinting. I remember coming back from the doctor with my glasses on, and pointing out the window to say, "Look, mom, there's trees over there." My eyes were so bad I was missing some major things! Before the glasses, I just saw rough outlines of shapes.

My eyes kept getting worse, and the glasses got thicker. I got picked on a little. Kids at school would say, "The answers reflect off your glasses!" because I was always looking down at my papers and because I earned good grades. It made me wants contacts really bad. But I wasn't old enough yet. Meanwhile, I had upgraded to bifocals to try to slow down the progression of my eyes getting worse.

Finally, 8th grade came and I was allowed to ditch the bifocals that I had and get contacts. Oh glorious day! I remember working really hard to get used to putting them in. Now, a dozen years later, I've done it thousands of times and I don't even have to look. About high school my eyes seemed to even out and stop regressing. That was a big relief.

In the back of my mind, I have always worried that I would lose my eyesight. I have these recurring nightmares a couple of times a year  that someone is chasing me in this creepy, deserted old warehouse, and I can't see where I am going, and they are getting closer to finding me... It's horrible. I've even had the teacher nightmares where I couldn't see my classroom. Needless to say, I worry about my eyes and I guess my dreams are a result of that.

That brings me up to today, where I am home from school because of my eyes. At the end of last week, my eyes were feeling a little irritated, but I attributed it to change of season, stress, etc. Then on Sunday, I was barely able to keep  my contact in because my left eye was so sensitive. Monday morning, I got up and tried to put my left contact in, and it felt like something was scraping my eye. It hurt really, really bad, and I started freaking out. I never wear my glasses, but somehow I did enough makeup to feel comfortable and put my glasses on to go to work. As a teacher, it's hard for me to miss a day, so I went in. I have a break after my first few classes that I hoped I would be able to get into the doctor.

First period, my eye was dying... watering, red, and I was worried. As soon as the bell rang to end class, I had a chance to call the eye doctor. Just moving back into town, I didn't have one set up yet, so I called my mom's doctor. Luckily, they were able to squeeze me into the hour and a half that I have between my prep and lunch. When I got to the office, I was in to see the doctor pretty quickly. He took a look at my eyes. I have a form of chronic conjunctivitis, which he prescribed medicine for, and should be treated within a week. The infection came, he thinks, from the air quality around here- the pollen in the air and from getting used to a new place. Also, he said it looks like I have some wear on my eye from using my contacts so much. (I can believe that- I know I wear them too much- but they are so much more comfortable!)

As a result, I stayed home from school today to give the eye drops a day to work, and hopefully things are better tomorrow. I also have to wear my glasses for the next week, until I am done with the medicine. This is really weird for me because the perspective with my glasses on is definitely different than when I have my contacts in. Driving is a little different too, but I think most of that is from sensitivity to light. When Justin and I went to pick up my medicine yesterday, I bought clip-on sunglasses. Ugh.... I was hoping to never see those again after 8th grade. Anyways, I just want to get my eyes better, so I will do whatever it takes. They are still sore today, and feel scratchy on the inside, but hopefully being able to rest will get me where I need to be soon!