>Ok, getting older, um, middle aged, is a drag – especially vision-wise.

It’s not so easy on the eyes, in so many ways.

Yup, I’m talking about that whole middle aged myopia thing. I’m talking about trying to stretch your arms muuuchh further than they want to go, just to read the mail. I’m talking about the toddler discovering one of his favorite games is “grab the glasses.” I’m talking about loving to read in bed and finding the glasses kind of bent out of shape when reading in bed always makes you fall asleep with your glasses on. Sigh.

So, now I’m talking about trying out contacts, again. They say they are new and gee whiz wow improved. More comfortable, more effective, and even for bifocals or multifocal vision (read: nice way to say those of you in your forties).

Now, in my late twenties I tried contacts. Same problem really, just one of my first babies and my vision issues were different and not as irritating. But at the time I thought contacts would be the answer. And so I made the big effort. Way back when it took a week almost of coal/grit in your eyes (ok, just the contact, but- felt like) to get used to the contacts themselves, forget about figuring out if they helped or not. But I did it. I got used to them and thought they were the bees knees. We spoke like that back then. Really. That is, they were spiffy until I ended up trying the sleep in them versions (what new fangled contraption is this? By jiminy this is a swell idea!). Well, soon enough I ended up really w/ coal and grit in my eye in the form of a nasty corneal ulcer. Not fun. Not pretty. I won’t forget that circle of hell anytime soon. I had to put acid drops in my eye (ok, meds) every hour for a few days {yes, waking up to do it: torture} and it left a small scar to be seen to this day. Put me off contacts for life.

Or so I thought.

Now I have a very busy, very fast toddler boy in the house again and my vision has worsened. I really DO need those darn glasses. My memory seems to be going too, however, as I put them down and then lose them. Most days. Sounds like I should give contacts a try again, eh? I thought so too.

So, I called up my trusty gal pal optholmologist and she assured me that contacts are light years beyond what I suffered before.

And she brought me a sample.

I put it in. One eye. Yes, she brought me ONE. Because apparently how they do multifocal contacts is to have one eye do the close stuff and one eye do the far stuff. And somehow your brain scrambles it all together into a coherent image, sharp and clear and comfy.

Hmmm.

Well, it’s comfy, they’ve got that right. I mean, wow what a difference! That’s cool.

But for the split screen concept? Split eye, split scrip? Not so sure. I’ve been wearing it all morning. And I am darn near dizzy. I can’t tell you how many typos I’ve even made just typing this. She warned me against driving w/ the ONE contact in. Gee, ya think? Cause my brain isn’t melding it together. I look up, it’s a blur (my kids are thrilled though because I can’t really tell what they’ve got in the other room; no doubt an entire box of cookies or open popsicles and I’m too lazy to go get up and see, so they are off the hook, for the moment – but I digress). But that’s the distance part, and granted she just gave me the reading lens. The computer is no picnic…all blurry in spots and blanking in spots. And really, I’ve been trying to do heavy reading this morning. And I can’t decide – sometimes I think, no my mind is melding, it’s melding! Cool I can read! And then I think, no, this is much like when a migraine is coming on and I’ve got blind spots. Sigh.

So, anyone use contacts for multifocal? How long did it take to scramble it? Meld it? See?

I think I might be calling my gal pal doc. Right after I find my glasses.