Much to my shock today, I walked out of my eye exam with my crappy glasses in my purse and brand new (one would hope) disposable contact lenses pressed firmly against my eyeballs. I was fully expecting to wait a week, what a surprise that they would have my insane prescription available right there in the office!

I ended up waiting almost ten minutes in the doctor’s office while he finished up with another person and I realized how I have changed. A long time ago I would have been annoyed at sitting around waiting. Today I just thought, “wow. I’m all alone and it’s quiet. This is frickin’ awesome!” And then I snapped a few pictures of the eye equipment. When you become a parent sometimes you’ll take your peace and quiet anywhere you can get it. If the exam didn’t cost $70 I’d book one every second day.

Anyway, we went through the exam and the questions, and he ended up giving me a trial pair of contact lenses that are meant to be tossed away after a month. I’m supposed to wear them for about a week and if there are no problems then I go back in to order a supply for either six months or a year. I can likely make each pair last longer than one month if I don’t use them every single day.

I’ve gotten new contacts several times since the first time when I was 17 but I always forget what it’s like to first put in a brand new pair. I’ve been looking through glasses that are so old the anti-reflect coating is wearing off (he said that and the overall age of the lenses are likely what was causing my dizziness and nausea and not the prescription itself since it didn’t change that much; he said my eyes were overworking themselves trying to see through deteriorated lenses), so when I stuck those lenses in my eyes, everything was so bright and so crisp. The doctor was amazed at how quickly I ran through his eye charts and how much better I could see immediately considering most people need a bit of time to adapt.

My very first eye doctor as a child (I was three when I got glasses) told my parents to try contacts for me when I got to be about 15 or so, and said that my vision would be even better because of a lack of space between my eyes and the correctional lens. I guess he was right!

All the way home I marveled at how well I could see the definition in the branches of the trees, how I had peripheral vision again, and when I looked at Breanna up close (she wanted to try to see my lenses in my eyes), I was amazed at how her eyelashes – they stood out so much now.

I’m not anticipating any trouble, I’ve never had an issue with any contacts before, so hopefully I’ll be placing an order before a month passes by and I won’t have to wear my glasses at all anymore other than first thing in the morning and shortly before bed. I’m wearing the glasses now because I’m going to sleep as soon as I post this, but I can already see the difference between typing here with the glasses and the contacts. My head is starting to hurt a bit – I don’t think I’ll be without contacts very often.

I am so happy I can see properly again!