My eyes are dim, I cannot see…

...properly as it turns out I have stigmatism I can no longer adequately compensate for without help. This is what I've learnt today after taking advantage of the scheme where by the University will pay for you to have an eye test if you frequently use a VDU and even give you money off glasses if you need them. (Yes, VDU. That's what it says on the web page and on the voucher. It is a perfectly accurate term, but I can't help thinking it was last commonly used in the 1970s to refer to something akin to the side of a fishbowl that's only capable of displaying one colour which would be green, or possibly amber. I remember it being used in material for my GCSE Computer Studies course circa 1991 as part of such taxing questions as "Which of these is an output device? Light pen, Keyboard, VDU, Magnetic tape"  and thinking it sounded old fashioned even then. Pong was probably developed by people who used VDUs.)

So apparently one is supposed to be able to actually discern most of the letters on one of those eye test charts as opposed to still being several lines from the bottom and saying 'Um... H? N? M? It's one of those isn't it? And the next one is one of the round ones, like an O or a Q, or maybe a C, right?' I can still see perfectly well for the most part and I don't actually need glasses. It's just that an optician has suggested that I might find wearing glasses beneficial for activities where I use my eyes a lot. Like typing this, or reading, or watching TV, or looking at things. That sort of stuff. And I now have a prescription. Which is really very mild as such things go. The numbers on my housemate's prescription are much higher in every area and he manages to live an independent lifestyle with the aid of his spectacles so I guess I'll be OK for the foreseeable future. (Which I should be able to see much clearer once I pick up my glasses on Friday.)

Joking aside, it has come as a rather unpleasant surprise. Still, there are much worse things to be diagnosed with than mildly misshapen eyeballs.

Mike Willis : 15 Jul 2009 20:35 |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem