By Marianne Clyde
Aging has little gifts all along the way.
Yes, there’s the sudden weight gain that I didn’t expect. But there are other things as well. My eyes for example.
I got lasik surgery on my eyes along with my husband for our 10th wedding anniversary. (Yes, I know: romantic right?) That was over 25 years ago. Things were going along just fine until about age 55. We were living as expats in Tokyo, Japan. I had joined the mahjong group at the American Club. All the ladies met at least several times a week to enjoy a game of mahjong and a glass of wine. However, a couple of years into it, I started to notice that it was more difficult to see the tiles clearly on the table. And I started to get headaches.
Long story short, I put up with those headaches and the poor vision until we moved back to the states, and finally went to the eye doctor. I had known the fabulous vision I had from the lasik surgery was losing it’s luster, but REALLY??? I needed tri-focals?!? Geez!
So the doctor prescribed progressive lenses, which are essentially tri-focals with no lines. They were AWFUL! For the life of me, I could not get used to them. For over a year, I just refused to wear the glasses. Then I finally went back and got a better prescription. It was still difficult, getting used to the new depth perception and learning to look out of the correct place in my glasses to get the distance vision that I needed for each task.
Yes, over the years, I got used to it. Got used to wearing glasses again. Got used to the fact that my eyes were aging. And learned not worry about it, just accepting the eye struggles as a part of aging…learning step by step to be comfortable with the changes that come…so for about 14 years I had settled into the new me.
However as luck would have it, my vision started to change again, getting incredibly better and better until it was not. Then it started to look dark and fuzzy. YIKES! Cataracts! As I sit here recovering from the surgery, I am also accepting this new stage of the game. I’ll fill you in on that in another blog. But for now, I’m liking it.
Action Step: Make sure you get your eyes checked and don’t let pride keep you from getting the help you need to keep your eyes healthy!
