What Do You Like About Your Eyes?

Seeing

What do I like about my own eyes? That is a very interesting question, especially considering my diagnosis of Myopic Macular Degeneration.

The process of finding anything positive may sound like a stretch to most anyone familiar with this malady. Many frustrations abound, the focus is often on what cannot be seen right now and then the fear of losing even more vision in the future. So seeing is subjective at some level.

When I was younger

I have very distinct memories of my eyes as a young child. Of the 4 girls in our family, I was the only one with brown eyes. Big brown eyes, often seeming larger than my face could handle.

It was not long before those eyes of mine were shrouded in glasses, thick, heavy lenses, often distorting the appearance of the eyes themselves. With these rather large brown eyes came the extreme nearsightedness that was the forerunner to my future challenges.

School eye checks

There were early eye checks at elementary school that would make me cringe. I knew I could not see the darn chart well and did not enjoy the yearly reminder of just how bad it really was. Inevitably, a note was sent home suggesting yet again another exam and so it went.

Year after year, these big brown eyes of mine certainly set the tone for extreme myopia.

Those growing up years

As time moved on, the nearsightedness was accompanied by astigmatism, adding to more vision problems. Wearing contacts for years, what we called “hard lens” helped shape the eyes.

This ultimately gave me the much sought after freedom from the clunky, thick lenses of my growing up years. It felt great having the freedom to really see without hiding behind glasses.

Adulthood

Cataract surgery when I turned forty was just another step in this brown-eyed girl’s journey. Again, I reveled in the new found freedom: no glasses, no contacts and relatively good vision. I opted for cataract lenses that gave me great distant vision, needing only cheater-readers for close up work.

As time marched on, I eventually went back to needing glasses for everyday use. I was tickled to see the thin, lightweight lenses, nothing like the glasses of my childhood.

Diagnosis

Two and a half years ago, the world of myopic degeneration became my latest eye challenge. The first year or so, I received injections every 6 weeks to stop the bleeding, the goal being to stop any future damage.

The damage done by the early bleeds cannot be undone, but that’s something that I’ve found a way to live with. Presently I am in a good place, no injections needed for the past 6 months, continually monitoring to ensure that all is in a good holding pattern.

What is good about my eyes?

So I am searching for an answer to the question, What do I like about my eyes? I would have to say that these eyes of mine have been through a lot. I appreciate the vision that I do have, the views I have today are very different than I had some 62 years ago.

I believe I have seen a lot. Even if I have to squint, squeeze, and move ever so close to any given object, I am so thankful to see what I can see, even when it’s wrapped in a blanket of filmy blur.