When I was about 13 years old, I went to the eye doctor and I was told that my left eye sees at 20/20 or better, but that my right eye was so bad to the extent if it was much worse, they might call it legally blind. At the time, my eye doctor told me that I needed to wear glasses and that if I didn’t, I might be okay for now but that I would likely lose sight by the age of 30.
They prescribed the glasses, at the time, I was on my parents’ insurance, so my parents’ bought the glasses and I tried to wear them for a week or two. It was extremely hard for me. Not only because one eye had an extreme prescription and the other had none at all, so it was hard for my eyes to adjust, but I also felt like I could see fine without the glasses. Why would I wear something that felt the same as not wearing it. Only had the inconvenience of wearing something on my face.
After about a two weeks of trying to wear the glasses, I gave it up. I was tired of wearing something that I didn’t need. I felt guilty for a long time. Here were these things that my parents paid a lot of money for that I wasn’t even using. Was I being wasteful? Was I not being a good steward of my things or being careless about my health?
This past week, I went back to the eye doctor after 4 years or so, but this time I went to a new eye doctor. One whom I know and am closer to. After more in depth discussion he explained not only where my eyes were but also more of the science behind it.
The long and short of it is that my previous eye doctor was correct…in some regards. My left eye is almost perfect, and my right eye is terrible. The way that the brain perceives images from the eyes is that it takes them both, lines them up front and back, and takes a combination of the two images. For my eyes, since the right eye is so bad, my brain sees the image, but then pretty much only uses the image fro eye left eye because it’s so much better.
He said that in some cases, if it’s really bad, that this caneventually lead to what is called lazy eye. Where my brain completely shuts off my right eye because the image is so bad and it doesn’t need this. This would result in my right eye “going blind.” However, he said that my eyes are not super close to that at this point, and that if I don’t have any headaches or trouble focusing right now, that if it were him, it would be almost impossible to get him to wear glasses.
He said that it may get to the point when I’m in my 30s or 40s where my eyes stop focusing and I’ll need some correction, but that it wasn’t necessary at this point.
He explained much more of the science behind my eyes also, and I felt enlightened. It was so comforting not only knowing the state of my eyes, but the reason why. To me, it felt like how a mechanic may feel about his vehicle when there is a problem.
He knows there’s a problem, but if he knows that there’s no long term damage happening because of the problem, it’s not a big deal. He needs to get it fixed, but it’s not a rush. For a layman, they may only know there is a problem, but they don’t know if it’s something they need to fix now or in 3 months. They often will do whatever the mechanic tells them…in which case they have to trust that the mechanic has their best interest in mind.
At the end of the day, I see 20/20 because my left eye corrects for my right. There is no permanent damage being done at this point, because of that, there is no need for me to wear glasses at this point. Could they potentially help? Sure. But that doesn’t mean I should wear them.
I can sleep better at night with this knowledge, and I have far less guilt.