I went to the eye doctor today. My eyesight has really deteriorated and I put it off all last year because I had so many medical expenses (including my daughter's trip to the emergency room with a kidney infection) I had used up my medical allowance. So I was really looking forward to getting new eye glasses and improving my eyesight.
I have always been VERY nearsighted. Like I cannot get up and go to the bathroom without my glasses. And then when I was in my 40s I couldn't see up close either. That seemed really unfair to me. I took having to get bifocals very hard..
It seemed like both the nearsightedness and the up close problems had gotten a LOT worse in the last few months. So I'm expecting a new prescription and everything will be fine.
Instead the doc says about the near sightedness "I'm afraid we can't improve that anymore." WHAT? And the up close was only a tiny improvement. "Oh" she says cheerfully, "You have some cateracts in both your eyes. That's normal with aging. It will cloud your vision a bit. We don't have to do anything about it yet."
That was easy a young and perky doctor with either perfect eyesight or perfectly fixed eyesight to say.
Yes I know I have to put it all in perspective. I can still see. I can drive. I'm in pretty darn good shape for a 52 year old and there are enough people who say "Really you are 52? No you aren't that old" that I think it's not just flattery, I still look young. And I am grateful that when the time comes, I will be able to have surgury to remove the cateracts. But still.
It's just that my arthritis is coming back in my knee and it's not only painful to walk, it's painful to skate which really is worse. And I was so sure they could get my eyesight back to normal. What I fear I am seeing clearly is my future and I don't like it.
I'm there with you, girlfriend! :) I'm afraid I am not aging gracefully at all. I want to believe that I'm still reasonably young, but many of the bits and pieces don't work so well anymore, and that makes me just a tad bit grumpy.
ReplyDeleteJenny
Welcome to Aging Sucks. But now you will be more empathetic to your seniors in the congregation. (ha ha??) My 60th birthday was earlier this month and on my birthday, I woke up with new achy joints in some of my fingers. I'm just recently having trouble opening jars. The arthritis in my right knee has cause my right leg to get shorter, just in the last 8 months.
ReplyDeleteI think that when we are young, we think we "get it" ie, understand that aging causes changes, but we don't really understand till it starts. That arthritis doesn't just cause aching, but causes inability to do certain things.
BTW, I have always been very nearsighted. When I got bifocals, I still had some problems, but when I got tri-focals, I've loved them. I have the kind with lines, specially made that the tri part is wider and usual and the bi part is smaller.
I was talking about ageing this morning to another older skater friend; we agreed that after one's mid-50s (so you aren't quite there yet!) one has to be like the Red Queen, or was it the White Queen, and run twice as fast to stay in the same place.
ReplyDeleteToo awful that you have to ration your medical care so you couldn't have had your eyes tested last year - it's so important to get them done regularly as we age, not least because of the risk of glaucoma.
As I said on Twitter, once they are ripe - and that won't take long - and you have them fixed, it's like magic. My father hasn't worn spectacles since, except for reading & close work. They told him not to drive for 6 weeks, and he said it was such nonsense as he could see better than he had for years! So when he had the 2nd one done, 2 days before my daughter's wedding, he carefully didn't ask....
Yes my husband had cataract surgery (in his 40s!) and he didn't have to use his glasses much afterward. So I'll just wait till my eyes get worse I guess...
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