For some time now, my eyes have been feeling weaker and giving me a bit of trouble.  I have never worn glasses or had a professional eye exam.  Considering I’m 31, I felt I had waited too long and needed to have my eyes checked.  Yesterday was that day. 

My mom had cataract surgery in her early 60’s and I have Rheumatoid Arthritis so I chose to have the dilating drops used for a more thorough exam.  I was nervous about it.  I’d heard that it makes your eyes sensitive to light while in effect and vision can be blurry.  Thinking back, I don’t know why I was nervous.  Maybe just fear of the unknown.

Almost as soon as I arrived, I was called back.  This is maybe a good thing.  You know, no time to change my mind and run away.  Once I was in the exam room, and had spoken with the optometrist, he was getting the drops.  My heart raced!  I felt dizzy.  My voice got a little shaky.  I’m not sure if he noticed or not.  I tried hard to hide it.  Before I knew it, the drops were in and I was still alive!  Feeling a little foolish, but just fine.

He then proceeded with the eye exam.  I kept waiting for this light sensitivity to kick in or something to happen, but I got through the whole first part of the exam without a hitch.  Then he left me in the room for about five minutes so to give the drops some more time to start working.  By the time he came back in, I did notice my eyes were feeling more sensitive to light.  He did a few more tests and that was it.

We talked about what he found.  My eyes are actually doing pretty good.  A astigmatism in my right eye, some farsightedness, dry eyes (I’m to use drops everyday), but nothing majorly scary.  What a relief.  I will be wearing glasses for reading, driving, and using the computer.  Which isn’t too bad.  I know two-year-olds that wear glasses all the time.

Finally, I was done and he said to take a look at some glasses while I wait for someone to help me finish up.  I saw some, picked them up, and tried them on.  When I looked in the mirror I laughed so hard and loud, I embarrassed myself.  No, the glasses weren’t that horrible.  It wasn’t because I felt silly for worrying so much.  It was because MY PUPILS WERE HUGE!!!  The image of a cartoon kitten being super cute popped in my mind.  Or a cartoon in love.  They were ridiculous!

It’s funny how you’re supposed to pick out glasses when your eyes are in this state, but I did make it through.  I hope they look as ok as I thought when I actually get them in a couple of weeks.  I really couldn’t tell because I kept fixating on these HUGE PUPILS!

My eyes were still sensitive to light and I forgot my sunglasses, so the employee (which happens to be a friend) said she could give me some.  She then warned me they weren’t cute.  I laughed and said that would be ok.  She was right.  Wow!  My husband came to pick me up and immediately picked on my new shades.  My two-year-old daughter was in the back seat laughing at “silly mommy”.  We all laughed and then I said, “ok let’s go to Wal-Mart!”  My husband quickly came up with many reasons we couldn’t go right then.  Of course, we all know the real reason.  He didn’t want to be found on People of Walmart because he was with me and these silly sunglasses.  Maybe not that extreme, but he was definitely thinking along those lines.  When I asked him, he told me I was right.  So we laughed some more.  The thing is, I didn’t care.  I was on a mission.

After borrowing his sunglasses, because that was the deal and he wouldn’t go in with me otherwise, we went to Wal-Mart.  My mission was to figure out the right size flat screen for our family room.  Yes, I wanted to buy a tv and my eyes were all whacked out.  Still wearing sunglasses on a gloomy day inside the store, we headed to the electronics department.  When we started talking to the associate about what they had in stock, he was looking at me…a lot.  I mean who shops for tv’s with sunglasses on?  I explained what was going on and showed him my eyes and he jumped.  It was so funny!

Long story short, we left with a tv.  I can see clearly now and am pretty proud of our purchase considering.  It looks great and it’s something I’m sure I’ll always remember.  The day I bought a tv wearing sunglasses!