New Glasses

A couple of weeks ago, I tried out a new optometrist at the recommendation of my Uncle Mike. My Uncle Mike is an optometrist in Niles, MI, and he had worked with a fellow that had moved to the Indianapolis area to start a practice. On his advice, I payed Dr. Hopkins a call at Progressive Vision Group. It had been over a year since my last checkup, I was out of contacts, and I was thinking about getting a new pair of glasses and frames.

I was really impressed with the practice. Dr. Hopkins practices with three other doctors at their location. They had some very interesting technology in place to test my eyes. Gone was the little puff of gas, and the fluid to dilate my eyes. Instead, they had a machine that could do the equivalent of both. They measured my current prescription, and also performed a scan of my retina. This was really cool. I had never seen what the backside of my eyeball looked like. The images looked like some deep space photo from the Hubble. They noticed that there was a bit of seperation of the inside wall of my eye on one eye, but that it was probably nothing to worry about. The doctor said that it could have been like that for quite some time and I just never knew about it.

After my exam, Jenn helped me to pick out a set of frames. The current style is for very small frames. I have a large skull. Small glasses just make my head look even bigger. It was really hard to find a pair that set well on my face, but we found a pretty cool pair of Nike / Flexon frames in an old gold color that we liked. They were bigger than some of the ultra tiny frames, but still smaller than my current pair. My current pair are a dark brown or black color, and the frames are pretty big. They didn't really flatter me anymore. My eyebrows are out of control, but I'm a man, and refuse to pluck or wax them. The frames kind of blended that all together to give me that sexy uni-brow effect. I was hoping that new frames would eliminate that. Also, my prescription is so thick that I end up with a lot of internal reflections, and it really bugs me. Anti-reflective coating on a new set of lenses would likely help that out a lot.

Once I had settled on the frames, the assistant who was helping us asked if I would like to try some clip on tinted lenses as well. I hadn't even considered this, and had already said no when Jenn convinced me to try them. I don't usually wear sunglasses, largely because I don't have a prescription pair, and I wear my glasses more often than my contacts. I've been accustomed to just squinting in the sun. Jenn brought up a good point though, that all that squinting would eventually lead to wrinkles and droopy skin, so I tried on a set. They were really convenient, and definitely helped out in the sun. The polarized lenses helped to take care of the glare as well. So I decided to go ahead and order a set of vermilion colored clip ons.

My glasses arrived today, a full week earlier than I was expecting to get them, and I'm really happy with them. They do a great job of eliminating my uni-brow, and the reflections are all but gone. They are also much lighter than my previous pair, and I don't feel them as much on my ears or on my nose. The ear piece goes straight back, rather than curving around, which is very comfortable. I'm still getting used to using the clip ons, but they do a good job of making it easier to see in the sun. I suppose that was the point. Overall, I'm very happy with my new set of glasses!