Glasses and Contacts

I decided to try contacts.  I gave up.  The benefit for me just didn't outweigh the fact that I really really really dislike touching my eyeballs.  I can see well enough without glasses (seriously, it's just under 20/20, and one eye sees 20/16).  Why bother?  I mean, I get why Rob would want contacts.  His eyes are TERRIBLE, and sometimes it's just more convenient to not have glasses on your face.  But for me?  I can just take my glasses off and see just fine.  So I bought me some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle glasses and called it a day.  (You can't tell they're TMNT glasses, though.  The turtles - all 4 of them - are on the inside of the frames.  It's like my secret.  So I can be an adult AND  have TMNT glasses.)

Miciah got new glasses, too.  Her eyes have gotten worse and she's happy to be reducing her incidents of headaches.  I can relate.

And then there's Elijah.  His eyes are pretty bad, and if you pay attention, you can see him squinting all the time.  But he doesn't ever wear glasses.  Why?  Because in the last 2 years he has broken or lost 3 pairs of glasses!  Not impressed.  We finally took him back in because he was tired of not being able to see, and he swore he'd do better (he's 2 years older now.  I believe him).  Sure enough, his eyes are worse and he definitely needs glasses.

But here's the crazy part.  The doc said that Elijah's eyes are on track to get MUCH worse during puberty.  I wasn't aware that puberty messes with people's eyes, but I guess it makes sense because puberty messes with everything.  He said Elijah is on track to lose 1 diopter a year (just like Rob's did), and 5 - 8 diopters overall.  That's insane!  Rob's eyes are somewhere around -5 diopters, and his eyesight is debilitating.  He's blind as a bat without his glasses.

Doc says that there are contacts that Elijah can wear that, if he's lucky, will reduce the entire diopter loss to 1 - 2 diopters TOTAL.  What?!  It sounds like witchcraft, but there are studies to back it up.  It doesn't always give best-case scenario results, but even if there's a CHANCE that it'll work, it's worth trying.

So although we walked in with me saying, "My almost-11-year-old does NOT need contacts," we walked away with contacts in Elijah's eyes and me saying to him, "Do you know how much this could bless your life?!"

He's been getting them in and out of his eyes like a champ, and he loves being able to see.  It's funny, too:  Just like Rob, his eyes look different with contacts in because he's actually focusing on stuff.  His eyes look sharper.  Smarter.  Rob says he doesn't notice with Elijah, and I said it's probably because he doesn't look at his own eyes when they're not in focus (because he can't see anything more than 4 inches beyond his face without glasses or contacts - he can't even look in the mirror!), so he doesn't realize there's a difference!

It's crazy how I'm about to spend $400 a year on Elijah's eyes and feel grateful for the opportunity.