This week I took Darcy back for an evaluation with her new prescription. Dr. Davies was pleased with how well her eyes are now working together and with how the contacts fit. I was relieved to know that she doesn’t need vision therapy! I am wondering: how many of us are stuck with prescriptions that just aren’t right? This issue was further brought home for us this week when I went with my 21-year-old daughter for a checkup. She has been wearing her glasses (instead of contacts) for a few months because she didn’t want to deal with going to the eye doctor while at college. Turns out that one of her eyes was overcorrected and she also doesn’t need the correction for astigmatism. The same thing happened last year: she was overcorrected in one eye. When Dr. Davies had her wear the new trial contacts, she was amazed at the improvement in her depth perception! It was a dramatic difference for her. I am thrilled that she is seeing so much better.
From what I’ve been studying over the course of the past couple of years, our eyes fluctuate greatly during the day. What we eat and drink affects our vision immediately, and other factors such as general health, exercise, fatigue, and sun exposure also have an effect. The glasses or contact lens prescription is a snapshot of what we are seeing in the distance at that moment and we are frozen into that focus by the lenses that we wear. I have been amazed at how much fluctuation I experience now that I have been under-corrected for more than a year. Sometimes I see really well and other times not so much. Processed sugar has an immediate detrimental effect for me, a fact that has been supported in my study of the issue. The problem with such claims is that they are not supported by scientific study. Who would study the effect of regular food on our eyesight? There’s no money in that! For me at least, a healthy diet, exercise, adequate sleep and sunlight have been very beneficial. My research continues!