On Thursday, I went to the eye doctor. It had been more than a year and I had just begun to notice that I spent an inordinate amount of time squinting, both while reading and while out in the sun. So I bit the bullet and made the appointment.

They did the puff of air in the eye (I HATE that. I can’t explain why, but I hate it on a visceral level), the star wars vision fields test and finally had the exam with the optometrist. I’m farsighted like both of my parents (had glasses/contacts since age 11), and it’s always a struggle to find a way to correct my farsightedness without eliminating my distance vision. And true to form, this visit was no exception.

She decided that I needed two separate pairs of glasses- progressive lenses (hello, I’m 80 years old) for normal wear and some stronger prescriptions for computer and reading stuff. My wallet, it weeps.

And when she looked at my eyes under lights and later after they were dilated, she saw that I have one largish and one small freckle INSIDE my eyes. I’ve known about them for a while, but hey, fun fact, freckles in your eyes are really great at becoming melanoma, so we had to take a picture of it and measure it, so that it can be compared. She said that for now, they’ll check it every year. If it shows signs of growth, we can re-evaluate then.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with a set of progressives (in new frames, which, if I’m being honest look remarkably like the old ones), computer glasses (which will be in the old frames, just new lenses) and prescription sunglasses because there’s some evidence that they can reduce the melanoma risk. And of course, crazy dilated pupils that lasted for hours.

And because new glasses weren’t enough of a change, I decided that it was time for a haircut. I got my hair trimmed in July and December of last year, but prior to that, I can’t remember the last time I had a cut. And while I sort of enjoyed the long hair, it was in a wet bun 99% of the time and on the days I did want to do it, it required SO much time to blow dry and straighten.

So on Saturday I went from this (this is unstraightened, which I never really do):

To this (mind the self-portrait double chin):

I love it. It does still go back into a pony tail (that was a requirement), but it’s lighter, it’s easier and I was able to blow dry and straighten it in less then 25 minutes today, so that’s a win.

And now that I’ve gotten all of the exterior stuff upgraded, I’m hoping and praying that Wednesday’s blood patches (more on that tomorrow, I’m sure) will start some change on the inside too.

One can hope.

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