Buying glasses.

[rivka]

Yay for the glasses-buying experience: After I filled in psychologist where the medical form asked for my occupation, the optometrist smoothly greeted me as "Dr. Wald." That never happens.

I bet it never-happens to him every bit as often as it never-happens to me, which is why he thinks to do it.

Boo for the glasses-buying experience: "These frames all seem so small," I complained to the saleswoman. "With a prescription as strong as mine, I want as much surface area as possible."

"Oh no," she said earnestly. "With that strong a prescription, small frames are good - the glasses won't be as thick at the edges."

"But I'm more concerned with how well I can see than with how they look," I said.

She blinked at me.

(I eventually found a lovely pair in the men's section.)

Boo for the finances of glasses-buying: My health insurance coverage allows the princely sum of $28.80 for single-vision prescription lenses.

Yay for the finances of glasses-buying: Lenscrafter discounts single-vision prescription lenses an additional $91.20 for customers with my variety of health insurance.

Yay for family support of glasses-buying: Michael came home from work early so that I could make a 6pm appointment for an eye exam.

Boo for family support of glasses-buying: Alex didn't go to sleep for him until 8:45.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm in the odd situation of having a strong prescription get weaker as I approach middle age. (Most nearsighted people just need bifocals when they start to get a little farsighted. My family is weird.) Anyhow, after many years of having my selection of frames very limited because my lenses were heavy, even with high-index plastic, and needed sturdy frames to support them, I could choose flimsy little fashionable frames last time around. They're such flimsy little fashionable things they don't have any frame at all, underneath. I think it's called "half rimless." Most of the glasses in the shop were such tiny little things I had a terrible time finding anything remotely acceptable. I wasn't worried about peripheral vision to the sides so much as correcting up and down. I never used to be able to look over or under my glasses, but now I find myself looking under them whenever I try to look at something close (especially down and close.) The optometrist said it would not be a problem, that when the glasses were the right size and adjusted properly they would give me the same visual field as my old ones, but they don't. It's infuriating that I can't look down and see my hands buttoning my shirt. (Or that the buttons and my fingers are uncorrected, then there's the edge effect and my hands are in focus.) I wear my safety glasses a lot.

I don't want to go back to that optometrist, even though she's the only one covered by my health insurance that's open Saturday and doesn't seem to have a business model based on advocating eye surgery to everyone who comes in for corrective lenses.