My mom is taking me to the eye doctor tomorrow. I probably will have to have gla!


Question:

My mom is taking me to the eye doctor tomorrow. I probably will have to have glasses. What are glasses like?

Any experince, pros and cons.
Thanks in advance.

Additional Details

1 month ago
Thanks for all your answers, the were all so helpful. I am going in less then 2 hours and feel a lot better.
It was so hard to pick a best answer. AutmnLily and Paul B were nearly tied. I liked AutmnLily's answer because it described (in detail) what glasses were like. I also liked Paul B's answer because it told of a glasses sucess story that didn't make me feel as bad and it described glasses as well. Great job to Paul B and AutmnLily!
Thanks to all and wish me luck!


Answers:

Once, a fairly long time ago, an eye doctor flew into the San Blas Islands north of Panama. He went to do a little clinic and look for and treat, if possible, any eye disease.

A young lady, about 9 years of age, was brought into the little hut/room. She sat down and was too shy to speak. The uncle told the doctor that she had had difficulty seeing ever since she was born. He was also told that she'd never seen an eye doctor, but the regular doctor had told them that she'd never be able to see as she had something wrong with the back of her eyes.

The eye doctor looked into the eyes of the little lady, and finding nothing really all that 'wrong', tried to refract, or determine the power of the glasses he suspected she might need.

The uncle held up the lens holder (called a PHOROPTER) which is the funny large machine like thing with all the lenses that optometrists and ophthalmologists use to refine one's prescription. The doctor had hoped that there'd be a stand to hang it on, but there wasn't anything that would work. As he didn't have lenses such as in a trial lens kit, which is the little suitcase with lots and lots of lenses of lots and lots of different powers, both +lenses and -lenses and cylindrical lenses for astigmatism, someone or someones needed to hold this machine like thing up. It's the thing that he uses, says "which is better...one... or two, or A or B, or A or C?" as he flips the lens from one power to another.

The doctor used a small flashlight like instrument called a RETINOSCOPE, which shines a light into the eye. As the light comes back out, he looks at how it is focused and changes the lenses in the phoropter till the refraction of the eye, or the prescription of the eye is determined. Then he does the A or B thing to get it right or more precise according to the patient.

As the uncle held up the phoropter, the doctor found that the girl had a prescription of -18.00 or close to -18.00 as there wasn't a lot of time. Found the same in both eyes. This means that the little lady could see anything that was 1/18 of a meter in front of her eye. 1/10 of a meter would be -10.00 which would be about 4 inches or so. It takes 2.525 cm to make an inch so she was seeing or focused at about 2 inches, and beyond that, EVERYTHING was a big blurr.

They had a box of glasses that was filled with lots of different glasses and frames of various powers that had been donated, and he looked through the box and actually found one that had a prescription of -18.00. They were cat-like looking glasses they used to wear in the 50's.

He put them on the little girl.

Her eyes opened. Opened about as big as they could be opened.

She looked at her mother, and saw her for the first time.

She looked at her uncle, and saw him for the first time.

She looked out of the door and saw a palm tree,
a dog,
the ocean,
the beach...
all of it..
for the first time.

As tears rolled down her face, she looked at the doctor. She couldn't speak. The uncle couldn't speak. The mother just cried. No one could speak.

The doctor looked through the box of glasses again, and found a smaller pair, one made for someone about her age. As he reached to change the glasses for the one's that might fit better, the little girl held onto the ones she was wearing with both hands on the sides, and ran out of the door.

The doctor gave the smaller glasses to the mother and explained that these would be better.

You may or may not need glasses. It'll depend on whether or not you are near sighted (can see close ok, but not far very well). Or you'll be far sighted, meaning your eyes are 'weaker' than normal and you have to focus them just to see far away. That takes work, and the eyes do get tired. If you have to read on top of that, your eyes will work even harder to see up close. They'll have to work to see far away, and then more to see closer. People like this get headaches, get tired when reading and get sleepy, or just don't "like" to read, cuz it's hard to.
You may have astigmatism which the doctor will find and that'll be 'fixed' with the prescription for the glasses he recommends for you.

If you do need glasses, to see better with, it'll most likely not be as serious as that of the little girl. Get frames you like, for YOU. Not your friends. Get ones that are comfortable and allow you to see clearly. Just wear them so you can see better. Use them to read. Read a lot.

The story about the little girl? It's true.




The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories