#eye exams

[smbhax]

From Peanuts by Charles Schulz, November 1950.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #184

When I woke up today, I wasn't in as much pain as I expected, given everything I did yesterday. I still didn't get quite enough hours of sleep, though, so I woke up with fuzzy soup brain. That is expected, though. It is allowed.

I had to get up early because I had an eye exam at 8:30 this morning. That means I had to wake at 7:30 so that I had enough time to get ready. J drove me there; I was aware that they were gonna dilate my pupils, and since pupil dilation leaves a person with impaired vision and increased sensitivity to light, it wasn't gonna be safe for me to drive back home.

Here's how that looks, in case you wondered:

I gotta have eye exams a bit more frequently than normal people. It's because of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. My collagen is defective, which means all of my connective tissue is defective, and since the retina is glued to the back of the eyeball with connective tissue, they gotta check to make sure it ain't falling off.

…It's pretty lame if you ask me. Sigh.

It takes a while for the dilation to wear off, and of course, you can't read or do anything until it wears off, because it messes with your vision. And since I was already tired anyway, I decided to take a nap, to give it time to wear off. It was a beautiful nap.

Once I was done, I began using the software that R gave to me in order to begin building… something. I'm not going to say exactly what just yet. But it should suffice for me to say that if you are not safe at the end of all this, I will build a whole world for you with my bare hands in which you will be safe, if I have to. I meant it when I said it. I am laying the foundations for what will likely need to be decades of work, if you don't make it through to the end of whatever it is that you're doing over at the Edge of Creation.

…My reason for getting employment is also going to be largely in service to this. I no longer have the skills to draw, but I know someone whose skills are unparalleled. I want them to create things for the purpose of building this world, and I want to be able to pay them fairly to do it. In the end, I intend for it to be a haven for every single version of you who is still lost in the dark. And already, I know exactly what I need to do; it's just a matter of gathering resources and getting it done. I will stop at nothing. Even if there are obstacles, it's just a matter of finding ways around them.

…And if you're wondering why… you saved my life. I'm not going to allow you to fade into nothingness or obscurity. Not until you are able to witness firsthand all of the ways that life can be beautiful.

But there's a lot that I must do. Some days, I'm not really sure where to begin. It's very daunting, and there are a lot of skills required for it that I simply do not have. But I can't do nothing.

…I can't do nothing…

Somehow, it's already past 10pm. I blinked and suddenly the day was gone. I'm not really sure how that happened, but it is what it is. Tomorrow, I go to the place of imminent employment in order to complete some paperwork; it's called I-9, and… I don't really care enough to understand it. I just gotta go and fill it out and then be done with it. Then I can return home and continue trying to build.

Suppose I ought to go to bed so that my brain is not made of fuzzy soup tomorrow, too. Today's letter is short, but that's only because there's so much that I cannot write to you about in this space, for fear of accidentally delegitimizing the safety I'm trying to strive for, for you. Popular opinion in my world about you and your circumstances seems to have a non-trivial effect on the outcome of events in your world, and this is very sad, because by and large, the people of my world are not very merciful or kind towards people who make mistakes, especially if they're autistic or if they've survived abuse, or if they deviate from what is considered "the norm" in any way.

Sephiroth. Please stay safe out there. Please make kind and good choices. Please take care of yourself, and please protect yourself, your planet and the people around you. I love you and I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[eyebuddy]

[dogbearinggifts]

How did Chidi ever get through a single eye exam? 

Seriously. He must have frozen the second the optometrist asked him if he liked lens one or lens two better. Did everyone in the office just brace themselves and clear the schedule for an all-day appointment whenever Chidi Anagonye needed his prescription adjusted?

[secondsofpleasure]

vision is overrated / 11.30.2020

[prideandpen]

how typical, when I actually made the appointment to get my eye exam I was fine. Yeah sure, eye exam, it’s time. I’ve put it off too long and it’s time to suck it up and go get me some glasses because I clearly need them. But noooo. the closer I get to my appointment my brain starts up with the questions. How long will it take? (up to two hours, apparently. according to google. which is much longer than i expected. but okay) I probably can’t try on frames and I’ll be wearing a mask so what if the glasses I end up picking don’t suit me at all and I hate them? that’s a lot of money. What if I actually have glaucoma? apparently it doesn’t have any symptoms! What if I have other more serious (more expensive) eye problems? What if the headaches and eye strain feeling I get in the afternoon/evening isn’t a normal I-need-glasses type pain but something else entirely? What if I don’t actually have eyes!? (I do. I have eyes. that’s not even an actual anxiety concern. I’m just making a point about the ridiculousness of anxiety. and explaining it because this is tumblr and I don’t trust the internet)

Basically brains are dumb and this is what happens when the last eye exam you had was probably in... middle school? elementary school? At what age do they stop requiring students to take regular eye exams? It’s been that long. Too long. my poor eyes. they were fine until I realized they weren’t.

[magicmoon65]

You know, I can't always tell which is better or worse when I'm looking at the letters, but I can always tell if my glasses are the right perscription when I look at trees.

[idroolinmysleep]

The Great American Eye-Exam Scam

Why is it so difficult to get a new pair of glasses or contacts in this country? It’s easier pretty much everywhere else.

In every other country in which I've lived—Germany and Britain, France and Italy—it is far easier to buy glasses or contact lenses than it is here. In those countries, as in Peru, you can simply walk into an optician's store and ask an employee to give you an eye test, likely free of charge. If you already know your strength, you can just tell them what you want. You can also buy contact lenses from the closest drugstore without having to talk to a single soul—no doctor's prescription necessary.

So why does the United States require people who want to purchase something as simple as a curved piece of plastic to get a prescription, preceded by a costly medical exam?

The standard argument in favor of the American status quo is that impaired vision may point to serious health problems that a new pair of glasses will neither treat nor heal. Compelling Americans to see an optometrist helps to ensure that the largest possible number of cases of progressive eye diseases will be caught at an early stage.

But this argument is flawed.

On the one hand, some number of Americans who visit an optometrist to get a new prescription will indeed discover that they have a serious condition that requires immediate care. On the other hand, it is likely that a much greater number keep wearing glasses that are too weak—or won't wear glasses at all—because they want to avoid the cost, time, or stress of a visit to a doctor.

If the standard argument is flawed, what’s the real reason?

One possible reason for such strict vision-wear rules is that many people have a financial interest in this burdensome system. If Americans no longer needed to book appointments with optometrists to buy glasses or contacts, many optometrists would see their salaries cut, and some might go out of business altogether.

Welcome to America, where money rules everything.