I’ve made mention in the past that I have bad eyes. Really bad eyes. Since I was born so early, this is kind of unavoidable. Also, I’ve heard that it’s attributed to the fact that I spent a lot of time on oxygen after I was born. Necessary, but it still made my eyes worse.
I have what’s called “retinopathy of prematurity”, or ROP. In simple terms ROP “occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread throughout the retina, the tissue that lines the back of the eye. These abnormal blood vessels are fragile and can leak, scarring the retina and pulling it out of position. This causes a retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is the main cause of visual impairment and blindness in ROP” (NEI). I don’t know what stages I have, but they are different in each eye. I would guess that my left eye is probably about stage 4 or 5, and my right eye is about stage 3.
Essentially, my right eye is corrected a significant amount with glasses at a prescription of -18. Oh, wait, what does THAT mean? CNIB says a “nearsighted person who needs a –1.00 diopter lens can see objects at one metre clearly, but anything farther is blurred. Someone with a –2.00 diopter measurement requires a lens that is twice as powerful – so they can only see objects up to a 1/2 metre away clearly. A –3.00 lens would mean the person can only see a distance of up to 1/3 of a metre clearly, and so on. Most nearsighted people are in the range of -1.50 to -7.00 diopters, which is considered mild to moderate.” (source)
See how they stop at –7? I’m way over double that. My left eye prescription is simply written as “balance”. In my left eye, I can see colours, lights and shadows, but not so much in the way of clear shapes, even with correction. During eye exams, they tell me to read the words, and I’m like “blurrrrr”. However, I’ve known nothing different my entire life. So, this doesn’t bother me. I’m also at increased risk for retinal detachment, which is why I regularly see the ophthalmologist (in whose office I sit with all the old people who are most likely seeing the retina specialist for diabetic retinopathy or various other things).
So, basically when I went to get my new glasses made [which are only 1 point stronger than my previous pair from four years ago], the guy said “If your prescription gets one point stronger, we have to send them out of the country to get made”. Do you remember this day? Yeah, that day. He also said a bunch of stuff in regard to the frames I was choosing. As if choosing frames is not hard enough, it is like getting an entirely new face, I had a bunch of constraints in order to make my glasses not look like crap.
So, yesterday, I went to pick them up. And my eyes bulged out of my head pretty much when I saw this:
Yep, that is how thick my lenses are. Scary, huh? And definitely gives you a sense of how bad my eyes actually are. Fortunately, when I wear them, the thickness is hidden by the sides for the most part. Yiiikes. And, even a millimetre difference in frame size totally mattered. These were the pair of frames the special eye guy was trying to sway me away from, and I see why. However, I have all $810 of them on my face now, and that is where they’ll stay for the next two years-ish. It’s not as alarming when I’m actually wearing them, but even to me, who has lived with these eyes all my life, I am shocked. Like, how are my eyes THIS BAD? (Dear Baby Me: why did you make your mothering unit so sick?)
I like ‘em. 
The other E is for English. Because I now understand why I hate the class so much!
I got a paper handed back today. And I got another C+. And, as my friend and I walked down the hall I exclaimed “How can he mark us on our opinion and interpretation on other people’s ideas? Personal reflective interpretation is subjective and cannot be wrong!”. And, I think that basically sums up WHY I hate English class so much. And then I proceeded to be mad about it for the rest of our spare.
Until I went to academic writing and two guys in my class peer edited my “Psychological Effects of Invisible Illness in Adolescence” paper and liked it . AND they had both written about history! (But, I liked their papers also). We are an awesome bunch in my Academic Writing class, I must say. I’ll be kind of sad when that class ends. So, I am still mad about English, but at least the guys in my class liked my paper. [One of them wrote on it “can’t find anything wrong”, because he told me that the content of the paper was interesting and distracting him from editing it ].
Also, on day 4/5 of the pred today [last dose tomorrow!]. I am coughing a lot less, and when I do cough it sounds more like my normal—yay! I did get kind of SOB walking back from Tim Horton’s on my spare, and again after climbing the three flights of stairs to academic writing, but both bouts passed quickly and I was pretty much good to go again. I also had a bit of trouble at my guitar lesson tonight [yiiikes]. My guitar teacher was sick last week when I was there, and he was like “You’ve got the cough, too!”. He doesn’t know the half of it!! So, I was trying to repress my cough (stupid, ya?) and in essence probably sounding worse. Oops.
Peak flows are in the yellow still, so I’m hangin’ in there! Earlier I had this brilliant idea called: “I am going to get a Slurpee”. Except for even though I got one without caffeine, my tummy did not like that much, and it got mad at me for it. And, the rest of the Slurpee is in my freezer, probably to be saved until I am off “the evil candy”, or until it gets thrown out.
I also bought various other candy that is now sitting in my room until further notice. Like a freaking REESE PEANUT BUTTER BAR. Seriously, who even knew those existed?! I didn’t! Once again,not to be eaten until I know it will not make me feel icky .
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